Step Out Of The Tunnel Vision
Steve and I returned from 70.3 Worlds in Vegas on Setember 15. I jumped right back into coaching and teaching then long workouts two days later. Then four days later I offered to assist the kid's swim club by coaching 4-7pm Monday - Friday...starting that same day...Monday! Life was reeling by!
Mid-week I received the 'offical' Athlete's Guide for Kona and when I opened up the link I saw the counter..."17 Days" (and blankety blank minutes and seconds) to race start in Kona. Now I was 'officially' nervous. Not about the event itself, per se, but the gazillion things I had to wrap up and put in place before even heading to the airport. I hadn't even made it to the grocery store since returning from Vegas!
By fulfilling the coaching needs for youth swim I had now committed my coaching/teaching/client schedule to over 30 hours per week and that didn't include being a wife, mom, homeschool coach, OR getting my own training in! (Thank goodness that was tapering down!)
Simultaneously Steve was also rocking with his schedule, trying to solidify funding for an amazing nonprofit opportunity, 'managing management' at TSR, helping with kids, driving carpool, running back and forth to the bike shop for me, breaking my bike down, putting it back together, reminding me where I last sat my gear down, and popping into HEB daily for 'emergency food' to get us through the night. Apparently, our pace was visible, as a dear friend brought meals on wheels to us for dinner one day when she came to spin class. Bless her. It never even made it to the fridge. Straight to the stove and chomp...consumed by all!
Our train has been moving fast. Is that pace out of the ordinary for us? No, quite honestly not. We live fast. Intentional, with purpose and passion, but fast. However, what I realized during the first week of taking a little more on and then noticing that there was a 'counter' clicking off the days, minutes and $&@/$?! seconds to the close of a chapter, was that when a train is in a tunnel, it feels like it is moving much faster than when it is in the wide open. Even if you haven't been on a fast moving train lately (a real train...not the one we are all 'living' on!) you can imagine the power and speed when it moves from open land into the tunnel, you can hear the roar, feel shaking, the squeeze of the smaller space, hear the intensity of the cars on the tracks, the speed of travel, the echo of noises, see the light define the walls and how the space seems to narrow, confine and control us.
Then, when the train breaks out of the tunnel on its journey, there is immediate relief, a sense of calming, less aggravating noise and ruckus, more space to breathe, less tension to feel, more horizons to see.
What I realized last week is that the speed of the train doesn't change, but my daily perception does. If I allow myself to get 'tunnel vision' and bury my head and streamline my view to only that of the tunnel, 'everything' races by with a fury. It is no longer a journey that I am living, experiencing and savoring, but an intense time warp of speed, noise, and tension that is more out of my control than in.
So just as fast as I had 'gotten on the train' I decided I had better lift my head up and take in what was 'outside the tunnel.' I have no intention of getting off the train because life is good and I like it fast! ;-) But I sure can enjoy the journey a lot more without the tunnel!
Mid-week I received the 'offical' Athlete's Guide for Kona and when I opened up the link I saw the counter..."17 Days" (and blankety blank minutes and seconds) to race start in Kona. Now I was 'officially' nervous. Not about the event itself, per se, but the gazillion things I had to wrap up and put in place before even heading to the airport. I hadn't even made it to the grocery store since returning from Vegas!
By fulfilling the coaching needs for youth swim I had now committed my coaching/teaching/client schedule to over 30 hours per week and that didn't include being a wife, mom, homeschool coach, OR getting my own training in! (Thank goodness that was tapering down!)
Simultaneously Steve was also rocking with his schedule, trying to solidify funding for an amazing nonprofit opportunity, 'managing management' at TSR, helping with kids, driving carpool, running back and forth to the bike shop for me, breaking my bike down, putting it back together, reminding me where I last sat my gear down, and popping into HEB daily for 'emergency food' to get us through the night. Apparently, our pace was visible, as a dear friend brought meals on wheels to us for dinner one day when she came to spin class. Bless her. It never even made it to the fridge. Straight to the stove and chomp...consumed by all!
Our train has been moving fast. Is that pace out of the ordinary for us? No, quite honestly not. We live fast. Intentional, with purpose and passion, but fast. However, what I realized during the first week of taking a little more on and then noticing that there was a 'counter' clicking off the days, minutes and $&@/$?! seconds to the close of a chapter, was that when a train is in a tunnel, it feels like it is moving much faster than when it is in the wide open. Even if you haven't been on a fast moving train lately (a real train...not the one we are all 'living' on!) you can imagine the power and speed when it moves from open land into the tunnel, you can hear the roar, feel shaking, the squeeze of the smaller space, hear the intensity of the cars on the tracks, the speed of travel, the echo of noises, see the light define the walls and how the space seems to narrow, confine and control us.
Then, when the train breaks out of the tunnel on its journey, there is immediate relief, a sense of calming, less aggravating noise and ruckus, more space to breathe, less tension to feel, more horizons to see.
What I realized last week is that the speed of the train doesn't change, but my daily perception does. If I allow myself to get 'tunnel vision' and bury my head and streamline my view to only that of the tunnel, 'everything' races by with a fury. It is no longer a journey that I am living, experiencing and savoring, but an intense time warp of speed, noise, and tension that is more out of my control than in.
So just as fast as I had 'gotten on the train' I decided I had better lift my head up and take in what was 'outside the tunnel.' I have no intention of getting off the train because life is good and I like it fast! ;-) But I sure can enjoy the journey a lot more without the tunnel!
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