We Need More Than Economic Recovery!
“We live in a world that celebrates work and activity, ignores renewal and recovery, and fails to recognize that both are necessary for sustained high performance.” Jim Loehr, PhD - The Power of Full Engagement
While I’m not proud of this fact, there is a part of me that distains “down time.” Most who work in healthcare have a bit of this in us. Achieving, producing, and high-performance seem to be part of the DNA of our professional lives. And yet production without recovery can lead to breakdown … of individuals, relationships, teams, and organizations.
Despite cognitively recognizing the importance of recovery, I have too often not practiced it in my own life, tending to favor doing over being, “yes” over “no, and more rather than less. And when we habitually do this, what was once a blessing can soon become just plain busyness and even a burden, which if continued long enough can lead to burnout.
As I ponder the impact of this tendency, I’m reminded of Aesop’s fable of the goose and the golden egg. To refresh your memory, one morning a farmer finds a glittering, gold-colored egg sitting beneath his goose. At first he thinks it is a prank but decides to have the egg appraised just in case. To the farmer’s amazement, the egg is pure gold! Each morning his now prized goose continues laying the valuable eggs, and the farmer becomes extremely wealthy. But he also becomes impatient, wanting the goose to produce more rapidly. One day in his frustration the farmer kills the goose, hoping to get all the golden eggs at once from inside. As we all know, he finds nothing and now has neither a goose nor any more golden eggs.
In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey uses the lesson of this fable to emphasize the importance of the dynamic interplay of engagement and recovery in order for optimal effectiveness and consistent high performance to be achieved: “To maintain … the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness.” Successfully mastering this is vitally important whether we’re talking about a golden egg-laying goose, a high-performance athlete, or a devoted healthcare professional.
This week, I urge you to reflect as to how you are attending to the “renewal and recovery” portion of the work and activity/renewal and recovery dynamic, and specifically on how you are building intentionally scheduled recovery time into each day and week (shorter-term recovery) and into your months and year (longer-term recovery). Since this is not something that is promoted or modeled by our professional culture and is antithetical to our inner “drive”, lean into your PeerRx partner or another colleague for encouragement and support to help break these unhelpful patterns. Here’s to many golden eggs in your life, and a healthy goose!
PS: Next week I’ll share more as to how I’ve incorporated recovery into my own life (and where I need work) and offer suggestions as to how you might do so more effectively as well.