I have a recommendation for you. And it’s not a book. Or a diet. Or even a self-improvement podcast. It’s on Netflix, but it’s not a documentary…. It’s a show called “The Floor is Lava.”
Maybe you recognize the name from the game you played as a kid; you know, when someone yells “the floor is lava” and everyone proceeds to jump on couches, tables, pillows, and cushions, avoiding the floor because, well, it’s lava. Picture that except with adults, and obstacle courses, and epic wipeouts, and actual real (fake) lava. There is no intellectual value to this show, and in fact, the production value in itself is questionable. But I still think you should find a good friend and sit down and watch a few episodes.
And here’s why.
At some point or another, someone has probably told you to achieve anything in this life you have to work really really really hard. And that someone is not wrong, but what they forgot to tell you is that if you work really really really hard all the time you might just start hating the thing that you’re working hard for. You might lose sight of why you started in the first place. You might even throw in the towel and quit.
It happens all the time, and it’s called burnout. So, you tell me, what’s more successful? Putting your head down and working until you can’t see straight, until you don’t have the energy or inspiration to put your whole heart into something OR working in effectively managed bursts of intensity and recovery?
Americans, and horse people in particular, have got the intensity part of the equation down pat. There’s a badge of honor that comes with a high workload- a “look what I can do” phenomenon. And if you know what I’m talking about, you probably also know about that space where your feet seem to heavy to possibly continue to move forward. Sometimes, you will feel like a superhero with all that you can get done in a day but sometimes, you’ll need to hang up your cape.
I want you to know that you have my permission to do so because, for some reason, I still think I need it myself. There’s a voice inside my head constantly telling me all the things I could be doing better, constantly pulling me from the here and now. I realize through personal experience and a whole heck of a lot of research into happiness and life satisfaction that the most important thing that we can do for ourselves is to live fully in the present moment. And yet it’s so much easier said than done.
When Emily (cohost of The Whole Equestrian podcast) and I get together, sometimes we have so much “business” to catch up on that we glaze over the details of our personal lives. We know our friendship is strong and yet we also don’t really see or hear each other because of all the other things cluttering our lives and our friendship. But tonight was different. Tonight I felt connected to this lovely human who shares my goals and aspirations. Tonight I watched “The Floor is Lava” and I didn’t think about the workout I wasn’t doing or the book I wasn’t reading. I just sat and laughed with a good friend and had a good time.
Don’t let me fool you, I still want to do the hard stuff. The books, the workouts, the challenges, the goals. They’re all important. But they won’t be if you don’t have anyone to share them with, and if you can’t take time to simply relax and enjoy life.
So do it, and do it now, because time is the only resource we won’t get back.
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