Take It To The Limit
Was this bowl of noodles dinner, or was it breakfast? It was that undefined other meal.
And it was 3 AM, so…
An hour before I had stepped off a dance floor at a work meeting where I was celebrating…work? Or at least the camaraderie of being with coworkers after a two-year pandemic hiatus.
And less than four hours later, after a two hour sleep, I caught a flight to Sacramento to attend a 9 am meeting.
I met a former colleague there and recounted the previous 24 hours, along with the 4-day, round-the-clock meeting I had just wrapped up.
“You’re a monster!” she said. “How are you even awake right now?”
I didn’t know how I was, quite honestly.
I think I was running on adrenaline, margaritas, noodles, and the energy of friends.
The following day, I had to get right back to regular life: work, family, routines, working out.
Why do I schedule things the way I do? Why do I double-book and stack the calendar up like that?
Because it’s during those times of pushing my energy limits where I remember what I’m made of. It’s when I remember that I’m a man who powers through. It’s when I’m a train on a track.
Granted, I don’t do those things all the time. I would be dead if I did, but I think we guys need those boundary-pushing episodes so that we can both live and die a little bit.
We need to be reminded of our strengths and weaknesses. We need to confront our angels and our demons. We need to laugh and cry.
Those are the times when I know that I’m powering through. It’s good for my mind, body, and spirit.
But as with all those things that hurt us, we need to balance with recovery and introspection. After we power through, we need to cool the jets, look inward.
And then, look outward onto the horizon for the next thing that will take us to our limits.
◊♦◊
This Post is republished on Medium.
—
Photo credit: Unsplash
