GETTING INTO RHYTHMS HELPS US KEEP OUR LIVES RUNNING.
We all know the basic work week rhythms for our families and we try to balance them so we have time together. These rhythms are made up from dozens of smaller rhythms, like an orchestra. We even have a rhythm to our wake up routines in the mornings. We try to instill rhythms in the work day to maximize our efficiency or to keep the team connected.
These rhythms are good because they make our lives more predictable and it's easier to accomplish things. Runners strive to get into a rhythm so they can run past the fatigue and keep going. Running coaches teach methods like counting steps or matching your breaths to your steps. This forces you to concentrate on your rhythms rather than your tiredness.
But rhythms can also cause us to get into a rut. Rhythms can become mindless routines which can become tedious and mundane. Like the runner who says, “I run 5 miles every day.” While that is an impressive discipline, I wonder, “Why not run 6 miles sometime?”
The recent fire at my office caused a significant disruption to my rhythm. Suddenly, my business hours didn’t exist. Do you realize how much of your life revolves around the opening and closing of your practice? There was no meeting time, no planning time, no patient care time, no frame inventory time, no review financials time, no exercise time, no meal time, and no family time.
Because of this disruption, we are being forced to ease back into the business, bring the old rhythms back slowly. Watching the rhythm of the practice build, you can balance the old, established rhythms that help make you good. At the same time you can stop the ones that were holding you back. And by not adding back everything, you can put in new systems that you have been meaning to all this time.
Without this disruption, we would have kept doing the same old things we have always done. We may have tried new things here and there, but mostly it would have been the same old routine. But by taking it apart and putting it back together again, you realize that you have a lot of extra noise that is keeping us from growing. I will continue to share with our members the things I find that have been holding us back as we rebuild our rhythm.
Song of Summer
All of this rhythm talk reminds me that we have not yet had our annual vote for the Leadership OD Song of Summer. Just for fun, we poll our readers for a song that will represent your summer. Most years, I vote for something about putting my toes in the sand, or riding around in a pickup truck. But this year I will be voting for The Rhythm is Gonna Get You by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. (If you miss the 80's - Listen to This)
I hope to see you soon,
Mike