The current state of the universe is, by any description, changing by the minute. Perhaps the biggest discomfort for all of us is the true lack of a constant, comfort zone. I am a creature of habit, change is very tough for me and pretty stressful in my personal life. Yet, as I was reading a small piece about the surfer Stephanie Gilmore this morning one thing rang true. She was quoted as saying “Surfers have to adapt all the time. I think that’s why a lot of us are quite chilled out; we’re used to being at the mercy of the ocean”
That led me down the rabbit hole of thought as it really struck a nerve, it had me thinking about my profession and some of my favorite activities: teaching kids, golf, running and surfing. Each one of those pursuits requires constant adaptation not only to simply survive at it, but to improve.
After two years of teaching back in 1975-76, I was “excessed” and found a job as an operations analyst for an international British firm in the NY Financial district. While it was lucrative (for the time, and occasionally I do lament the $$ I gave up by not staying the course) I HATED it. It was the same day in and day out, gathering statistics, compiling them, providing feedback as to the efficacy of satellite office operations around the country, and sometimes traveling to those offices to lay people off due to the numbers (trips that cost the company far more for the three days of travel than they were recouping getting rid of the people I was sent to “excess”). It was the same day in and day out, most contact was with buddies at lunch, but other than that it was suit up, take the train, subway, go to the office, compile data, write reports, leave the office, take the subway home. The next day it was get back, Jack, do it again…wheels turning round and round…
The tipping point was on a trip to the Overland Park Kansas office where I had to make a decision of which of three clerical workers I was going to recommend be “excessed” Their annual salaries ranged from $5700 to $6100 per YEAR…(again, 1976 remember). On that trip, I flew business class, had an open ended expense account, stayed at a very nice hotel, was taken to play a round of golf at a local country club, met and played a few holes with Tom Watson, had lunch the next day at Arrowhead Stadium with the Hunt Brothers, had an amazing dinner in the stock yards. I was in the hotel that night looking at the data and the notes I had taken during my interviews with the three “candidates” all of whom were integral in supporting their families, looked at my expense data (never mind the country club or Hunt Brother’s lunch as they were covered elsewhere) and realized exactly how dumb this trip was from a cost effective standpoint. Loooonnnngggg story short, I went back to the office the next day, told the three people I hadn’t made my decision and asked them to resubmit some data to me over the next two weeks in a slightly different fashion (yes it was rigged). With that data I was able to justify all THREE jobs for at least another year, and having done that, handed in my two week notice, at which point they offered me a 40% salary increase and a new job title to stay, nope couldn’t do it…at 24 years old I kissed corporate life goodbye and went back to teaching, something I’ve NEVER regretted. That was my very first professional “pivot” or adaptation.
For the next 44 years I realized that teaching requires constant adaptation and “pivoting” (a very overused word these days), face to face, and even now during the last 3 months of distance learning it’s totally different then the face to face daily exchanges.
That brings me to running…No route is ever the same, the roads can be dry, wet, sandy, filled with potholes, dogs, walkers, even the terrain changes from day to day, you always have to be on the lookout to adjust your gait, your speed, while the motion is pretty much the same, the efforts are in constant flux.
Surfing: whether it’s on a board, or body surfing, you have to be constantly aware of changes in wind, keep an eye on the set, feel the flow of the water, and just tune in to your environment. Even knowing when to pull back from what seemed to be a perfect wave can be the difference between serious injury and moving on to the next opportunity.
Then there’s golf: One of the things I’ve learned is that you can play the same course every single day, and almost never have the same shot. You not only have to adapt your swing to the location of the ball, to the terrain you are standing on, you have to look at where the pin is located (another constantly shifting change). You can also make a perfect swing and have a sudden gust of wind, or bounce, change everything about the result . Even the way the cup is cut can change the result of a perfectly struck putt. You then have to put that all aside and hit the next shot as it is also totally unique. Even the simple act of teeing the ball up is never exactly the same. You need to adjust and adapt on the spur of the moment. The biggest adjustment has been coming to the realization that at almost 68, even with the new equipment, I can no longer hit the ball as far as I could at 38, I’m about 20-30 yards shorter now so where I could mash a 5 iron maybe 180, now on a good strike I can count on about 160. That changes how you approach a hole from the tee to the green.
Adaptation, adjusting, being flexible, pivoting, changes, all incredibly valuable tools for life, all things I’ve learned not by reading alone or by listening to lectures, but by doing, by being thoughtful, and by considering all the variables that go into these things (most of the time making 5 decisions per second based on these facts). All of these “lessons” have served me very well in dealing with the current state of the universe and for that I am thankful beyond words.
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