Timing and pacing. Waxing and waning. A lesson, from my garden, in pacing to maximise productivity and minimise burnout.
I enjoy gardening. I grow a good proportion of our fruit and veg. Not only does it actually nourish me; getting up close with the earth and Mother Nature renews and regenerates me.
When my children were small, gardening was a literal escape and solace. Precious “me” time could be found in the greenhouse, planting seeds. Planting out my “babies” into the warming soil, feeding, nurturing, weeding, and protecting them lifted my soul. And what a joy to harvest and enjoy the unbeatable taste and freshness of home grown produce.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot. Shared bumper crops and gluts with friends and neighbours. I’ve experienced plenty of failures as well; pests, frosts, rot in the wet, damage due to drought, even losing an entire crop to tomato blight. I now know what I can sow to grow quickly, what takes time.
I plan sowing, potting and planting to ensure a year-round harvest.
And a key learning was paying more attention to the moon. Learning to plant seeds at the correct time in the moon’s 28 day cycle has transformed my vegetable patch’s productivity. The waxing and waning of the moon – energy and sap rising and falling – makes an enormous difference.
And timing matters in so many aspects of life. Understanding our natural cycles, adapting ourselves to them, pacing ourselves, working with our natural rhythms rather than against them.
It took me far too long to appreciate this in the garden.
As a leader, what can you do to build your adaptive capacity and work with the natural cycles and tides, rather than against them?
What can you do to better plan and focus your energy, and the energy of your team realistically and appropriately, to maximise reward, minimise effort and prevent burn out? What can you do to pace yourself better?
As a resilience coach I work with leaders and teams to build their adaptive capacity, to explore how they can better pace and prioritise their time. They find they increase their productivity, satisfaction and engagement. Reach out and explore how this might support you.