A man walks through a forest and comes across a woodsman who is visibly struggling to cut down a tree. The man says to him, “Excuse me, but your axe is blunt.” – “I don’t have time to sharpen it. I have to cut down this tree,” the worker replies.
How often do you try to chop the wood of life with a dull axe?
I spent the past week on a retreat. Time for myself, time for introspection, time for rest and recuperation.
Despite thinking some days that I haven’t accomplished much, I’m always amazed at what I have achieved since the beginning of the year: type rating on Boeing Dreamliner, photographed various events, produced the travel film about the Pacific Northwest, progress on my expedition truck, 26 Freedom Letters. Permanently on the move, a house is built brick by brick.
To myself and to the outside world, it often seems as if I have an infinite amount of energy. But therein lies a great danger: I easily take on too much. So many interests, so many projects. The powertrain is already running when I wake up. If I’m not careful, I quickly reach the point where the gas pedal is pushed all the way down, the engine is running at full throttle but no longer delivering any power.
Between phases of action, we need rest. I’m not talking about a steamy evening at the club, not Netflix and Amazon Prime, nor spending a day comatose on the couch. Sitting and reading or listening to music can indeed be restful, as can a relaxing evening with friends in some circumstances.
For me, though, rest is mostly active. Time in nature, the body in motion on the trail, the mind allowed to drift. The best ideas come to me when the landscape is passing by.
The retreat was a little different. I was able to move around on the spacious grounds, but for the first time this year didn’t walk my daily 10,000 steps. We cooked light meals that didn’t stress the body. We drank only tea and lemon water. We spent a lot of time in silence, meeting our shadows, our egos, our wildest dreams in the space opened by the extraordinary setting.
I haven’t been this far “out” in years, if ever.
Since my return, I’ve been experiencing a roller coaster of emotions. My dreams are much more colorful, as if a much overdue sorting is happening in my head. The voice of my intuition has become much louder and clearer, especially in the little things: when I want to sleep, that I no longer feel the desire to drink alcohol, that I want to take more time for myself this weekend.
I’m experiencing a new clarity about the fact that I don’t just need big breaks after long work sprints. Even on a smaller scale, it’s not beneficial to push the pedal to the metal.
On the Tim Ferriss Show, Hugh Jackman describes the 85% rule and how you always see relaxation in the movement of top athletes. A coach had noticed that sprinter Carl Lewis was always the last or second to last runner at the 40-meter mark, only to go on to win the event by a large margin. Close observation brought a significant insight.
While the other runners were clenching their fists between the 50- and 60-meter marks, their faces and body language saying “I’m giving all I’ve got now”, Lewis was doing … nothing. His form, his facial expressions and gestures, they remained identical. In this way, he passed his competitors with ease.
When you’re in over-tension, you waste your energy on holding that tension. Do everything with relaxed ease and you’ll get ahead–in sports or writing, housework or relaxation. Yes, even if your relaxation techniques are too high-strung, you end up achieving the opposite.
#befree
Yours, Ulrich
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