The longer I live and the more places I visit, the more I appreciate changes in season. This week the weather in Orlando, Florida, where I live, shifted from dark-soggy-winter-chill to warm-bright-spring. The change naturally invites me to be outdoors more, leave work a bit early, and enjoy some long bike rides.
My motivation wasn’t forced. It felt like a natural rhythm of grace.
As a leader, the longer you lead, the more you have to pay attention to the natural seasons of leadership. Introducing another new change initiative when your team has been pushing hard to meet deadlines or deliver a fantastic event can feel like you’re pushing a huge boulder up a mountain. That boulder may be a combination of physical fatigue, emotional resistance, or simply too much at too fast a pace for too long.
For years I fell under the false assumption that I could live a balanced life. Time management books promised me it was possible. Balance assumes I can keep all the plates spinning. I’m learning that seasonal rhythms – allowing some plates to fall and just remain on the ground – is actually the way God designed people and nature to work. When managed well, it feels more natural.
For the past two months I lacked motivation to post on my blog. I would begin a new post and stare at the screen but nothing would come. I’d pray and feel guilty, but the well was dry. I reflected on my lack of motivation and realized that I had just come off a heavy season of writing, editing, and publishing my book CLOSE, an intense season of travel and meetings, and 10 days of fun holiday vacation with my family. Like an athlete, I simply needed some off-season time to allow my writing muscles to fully recover. Now I’m back.
The wise teacher of Ecclesiastes 3 instructs us that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to plant and a time to pluck…a time to break down, and time to build up… a time to weep and a time to laugh….”
A wise leader knows what time it is. What season are you in?
8 replies on “Seek Rhythm, Not Balance”
I am in a season of cheering on my favorite writers! Thanks for sharing your heart.
Very timely input here, with great wisdom. I have struggled for years with this concept of “balance”. What does this even mean? Why do we put it on par with Godliness when it is clearly missing from the lives of our Biblical predecessors?
Rhythm seems much more understandable, congruent with Biblical teaching, and in step of the pace of leadership.
Thanks for pushing through and writting this one, Ken!
Thanks, Kourtney. Your cheering spurs me on.
Great insight, John. Here’s to celebrating some biblically unbalanced living.
Still trying to figure out what plates to let fall and definitely learning that balance does not work for me either.
Thanks Ken – I’m certainly going to pass this on – and use it myself!
Thanks, Jason. I pray you will clearly discern what things to let fall, at least for a season.
Great to hear from you, David.