Plus: A shift in how I’m taking on Creative Changemaker
Have you heard that expression along the lines of, if you don’t give your body the rest it needs, it’ll find other, more unpleasant ways of demanding it from you? Usually in the form of sickness or something like that.
I recently had my own experience with that.
It would prove to be a very busy time, too, as getting back from three weeks abroad usually means there are a lot of household chores and work tasks to catch up on. Deanna happened to catch some kind of stomach bug shortly afterwards, plus it was Mothers Day weekend, so on top of all that, I did a lot of time taking care of the kids one-on-three.
By the time Monday came around I was actually glad the weekend was over because things like staff meetings and work tasks I could sit down for felt restful in comparison to running after kids and literally running.
I’ve always had the tendency to pack as much into my day as possible, shortchanging sleep to make it all fit. The fact that I wanted it so badly says a lot.
The next week goes by fairly normally. I’m still behind on my rest quota but at least I’m getting to some rhythm. My next long run comes around, an 18 miler. I decide to prepare for it every way possible. Water bottles and clothes set out the night before. A nice big meal for energy. Proper stretching.
I’m halfway through, which with the initial leg adds up to about 7.5 miles.
And then…
The lake is mostly smooth pavement but not perfectly so. There are plenty of trees around it so the roots will make it so that there are always little cracks and occasional bumps. Compared to the sidewalks of the surrounding neighborhoods though it’s much better.
But all it takes is one bump. At 7.5 miles my right foot hits one off rhythm.
This is the fourth spill I’ve taken while training for this race. Why do I fall this often? I immediately question.
I get up and look down. It doesn’t look good. My right palm is bruised and my left elbow is stinging. But the worst damage is done to my knees. Both are bleeding. The left knee is peeled white and just starting to bleed. I can tell it’s gonna be deep. I call Deanna to meet me at the end of the lake with bandages.
I still have to make it back to the parking lot, which is another 2.5 miles away. I walk for a bit to baby my knees but then realize that’ll simply take forever. So I break into a jog, refusing to look down as I feel my legs getting worse.
Passing by other walkers and runners, I try to shoot them a my-eyes-are-up-here look since my lower legs have a horror movie vibe.
The next several days are a pain. Literally. Who skins their knees like that as an adult? Maybe a skater, but not if you’ve got the knee pads. I invest in spray bandages, which prove to be a very helpful medical innovation.
Doing anything that requires pants is extremely inconvenient, but what else is new.
I end up skipping my runs for the rest of the week to try and at least get a scab.
When I’m finally able to run again, it’s at a much slower pace. The scab doesn’t bend well with the knee and the awkward feeling adds a whole minute to my splits.
Funny enough I also make the discovery that I have a whole extra week ahead of my race than I anticipated. I decide that this is my sign to make that a bye week. That a two hour nap midday might be more rewarding than a twenty mile run.
The adage of your body demanding rest when you don’t give it at a proper time… that rings true. In the end, I’m glad that the damage was skin-level, albeit pretty deep. But it’s not something that threatens to derail the whole race the way a muscle, bone, or joint injury might.
Between running and improv, I’ve never been more cognizant of how rest is part of any effective preparation process. Not something you want to neglect.
I’ve decided to take one of my favorite creative projects and scale it way, way back.
I’m only going to be doing one Creative Changemaker piece a month.
Creative Changemaker is my recurring video series where I share insights on that overlap between doing creative work and trying to create positive change in the world.
So much about catalyzing change is related to communication, connection, and the stories we tell, and I believe strongly in the essential position of creatives at the helm of any social movement.
Trimming it back was a really tough call. I love the things I’ve shared via the Creative Changemaker series and it felt like there were plenty more ideas in the tank.
I had hopes of establishing it as a hub of resources for people working at that intersection. In my years of doing climate communications work, I know there are plenty of us.
One aspiration was to use that series as a launchpad for more opportunities to speak or do live trainings.
So, why call a pause to something I was really enjoying, that I had hopes to take a little further?
A few reasons, but first and foremost, it wasn’t quite doing what I hoped it would in order to justify the amount of effort I was putting into it.
For a lot of my work, I tend not to care a whole lot about vanity metrics, views, likes, etc. I have the luxury of not needing to rely on those numbers for my income.
Online content also just so happens to be at a spot where achieving numbers seems to be more suppressed and random than ever, not a reflection in the quality of content.
Something about the lecture style of Creative Changemaker made it feel a little more labor intensive than my usual creative content. It’s something I’m passionate about but there just wasn’t as much flow.
I’m scaling it back to one episode a month. I’m also hopeful that this means the one episode I go with is more thought out, more carefully constructed, and more valuable as a resource to others.
One of my most recent videos (not from the series) was in praise of the virtue of Yutori. The Japanese concept of creating a spacious life. One of the things I’ve been really needing a lot has been that space. Especially as travel, my storytelling day job, parenting, and running have been picking up steam.
In order to have a life of Yutori, it takes a willingness to part with things- even good things- that simply make life a little too suffocated.
I thought it was about time to perhaps end the whole project and call it a good run, but I recalled one episode in particular from a few months ago.
The main idea there was that creatives should regularly take inventory of all the things that take all their time and energy, all their commitments and see which are proving worthwhile and which aren’t.
I also suggest trimming where I can.
That episode reminded me of past times I had to cut back on projects of mine even when I really wanted them to work out and it made me realize a trend.
When you give things their proper breathing room, they flourish. You aren’t struggling to keep up with a self-imposed sense of urgency. Instead you can remember that the things you spend your time doing are things you enjoy. Things you chose.
I'm glad that episode reminded me that the choice isn’t always between continuing versus stopping. Sometimes making an adjustment is the best option. I do think scaling back at this moment is the right move. It’ll take pressure off my life, allow me to improve the quality of the project, and perhaps those two things will ultimately be helpful in having it go where I had hoped.
I’m looking forward to creating more episodes with a higher production value. With content that is a bit more rehearsed and polished, and written to address some of the questions and concerns in my niche world of social-good storytelling that I hear the most. I also hope to get a new backdrop for recording soon enough!