Despite the mild temperatures we are still in winter.
And nature is often much wiser than us
The prevailing feeling in winter is one of stillness and quiet. Picture the feeling stepping outside on the morning after a heavy snowfall. Hardly any sound, trees bare, animals moving slowly, out of necessity, searching for food rather than play, while others are sleeping below the ground.
Waiting
This is also a time of anticipation, tightly closed buds, seeds underground and the odd tiny shoot, bravely breaking the surface. These are all great metaphors for your ideas, plans and dreams for the year ahead: full of potential but delicate and needing to be handled with great care.
We’ve been through and are still going through tough times, individually and collectively. You may have found yourself feeling never more alive than when the pandemic required you to dig deep and find the solution. We should take credit for that and congratulate ourselves because we’ve done well. We have kept services running and businesses alive, we were absolutely the right people for the job. But that doesn’t mean we have to stay in that mode indefinitely. It doesn’t mean we don’t get tired and wonder how long we can keep on going.
Keep on, Keeping on
Our culture, particularly in healthcare wants us to achieve, push and find yet more resolve. The idea of pausing, breathing, and letting things develop might sound great in theory, some of you might even buy into that notion very strongly. But then, how often does your Achiever breeze in and roll up his/her sleeves “That’s all very well, but we need to get stuff done!” and tread on those delicate new shoots?
In this mode you get stuff done, people and inner critics are sated, business as usual, or maybe even more than usual because its new year and we need to hit the ground running! But there’s a danger in this approach. A danger that unless you are prepared to sit and dream, and wait, then all you can do is the same as before. If that’s okay, go ahead, things might be working very well for you and in fact, keeping on is exactly what you need to do. If that’s true, then go for it.
But if there is a part of you thinking, I wonder. I wonder if there is a better way, an easier way, a totally different way, then maybe you’ll need to sit quietly with that for a while.
Don’t worry, spring is just around the corner. That’s when nature really hits the pedal and the part of you that loves to get into action can have an absolute field day.
