Running and Work

Since last October, I've been trying to run more frequently.  I used to run a lot more, and I've talked about this before.  But since last year. I've been putting in 3-4 runs a week.  It was tough intially, as inertia exerts a stronger pull than you can imagined.  But after the first few weeks, it became a routine and easier to don my sports/footwear and hit the pavement (or treadmill on some days).  After a few months, it became much easier and I actually looked forward to my regular runs.  In fact, it gave me a high that was hard to match doing other activities.  It also gave me a respite from my often hectic and stressful work, especially as a number of my staff had resigned recently.  But that's a story for another blog entry.

So, its now almost a year since I started running regularly.  And for the most part, I've kept to the 3-4 runs a week schedule.  However, it was impossible to do so the last 3 weeks as I was really swarmed at work.  In fact, I only ran during the weekends, and sometimes only once.  Not running was bad in 2 ways.  I felt that I was slipping back to my old ways and this terrified me.  This was especially as my other friends have put on a lot of weight.  I was also deprived of an outlet to release steam from work, either fending off ideas from my new boss or figuring how to position my people better for the coming ranking/promotion cycle.  Not to mention the tons of things that needed to be done.  I've been a supervisor since 2000, but my current group of people is the hardest to manage.  For one, they're nearer my age and some have kids, and it's therefore challenging to motivate them to do more.  For another, I'm not sure if they see things my way even though it's been 2 plus years since our paths crossed when I joined the Ministry and inherited most of them.  Maybe they don't see the need to level up the tempo and do more, or they've other ideas.  But my boss feels we can do more and do it faster.  Given how things are nowadays where we need to always find new ways to add value, I find it hard to disagree.

And it's the same with running.  Once you're used to doing a certain distance at a given time, you find yourself wanting to run further or faster.  And this should apply at work too.  Once you reached a certain level of proficiency, you should want to do the same things faster or do more things within the same time.  I thought it's normal as what would be the point in going to work everyday?  As thinking creatures, there wouldn't be much fun if life was just doing the same thing day in and day out.  I guess my challenge is in getting others to see it from my perspective.  I'm sure my people feel the same way as I, but for whatever reasons - other commitments, personal choices etc, they're not doing it.  Personally, I'm getting tired and a part of me wants to throw in the towel.  When I was in MINDEF, the last team I had was great.  We got along superbly and they were not cynical about things and what I thought we should do.  We still see each other regularly even though I've left for more than 3 years.  Maybe its just chemistry that not every team can gel to the same extent.  So I guess I need to be realistic and do the best I can.  We'll see how that goes and if I'm still here by year's end.