For a few months, many of us felt disoriented by each of 2020’s successive upheavals. Within a relatively short period, many things we had assumed to be true were upended. It left us dizzy.
Now that the initial shock of the triple crisis has begun to wear off, we face a new season. It’s a grind.
“Every day seems the same,” a friend said to me recently. “It’s another Groundhog Day. And there’s no end in sight.”
We could resist this period of day-after-day monotony. We’re so accustomed to hurry and distractions that pull us away from the daily-ness of our lives. It’s easy to see the same-ness as a signal that nothing is happening, that we’re wasting time.
If we want to distract ourselves from that empty feeling, it’s easy. Even without business travel, gatherings at restaurants, kids’ activities and normal vacations, there are so many ways to occupy our attention right there on our phones and tablets.
But the bright leader knows something about The Grind. She knows that it offers her something precious, exactly because it strips us of our normal distractions. He knows that he has a unique opportunity to use the routine like an athlete uses the rigors of a training camp.
That, after all, was the point of Groundhog Day. It followed the slow transformation of a jaded, cynical person to a better version of himself after he (eventually) embraced The Grind. As a result, he found his way to a life free to flourish, a life filled with love.
There’s no wasted time for that kind of person. Even in The Grind. Especially in The Grind.
