A Pause to Sweat

Today was theoretically the first day back at work after taking some time off for the holidays. I actually worked most of last week from home, but avoided UCLA because we were technically not supposed to be in the academic buildings and there was no heat available.

Since October, my work schedule has been a little strange because I have been adapting to setting boundaries at my post-doc position (trying to keep it to 20 hours...though it often floats near 30) and working "full time" for our private company where I do training and consultation. While this shift was supposed to represent more balance since it was moving from 2 to 1.5 jobs, it actually has been a bit more complicated than before as I have figured out my new roles at both jobs and tried to figure out how to split up my time. I kind of feel like I was working even more than usual. This did not leave a lot of time to take PAUSE. In fact, I felt like I was trying to push myself into fast forward most of the time to satisfy all the demands.

I really like my work. My work is very connected to my personal identity, my self-worth, my sense of being independent and self-sufficient, and my feeling of contribution to the world. I feel so grateful every day to have the jobs that I have because they are rooted in improving the lives of children. Despite my passion for my work, there are times when I really need to be better about putting it aside, not just physically, but also on a cognitive level. I think maybe this is why I like to run--for whatever reason when I am running, I don't think about work.

This morning, I had planned to return to my office. Then, yesterday I heard that Jillian Michaels would be at the Grove this morning to do a free workout. For those of you who don't know, I love Jillian Michaels. I own all her DVDs, I watch the Biggest Loser every week. I dislike when she tries to do psychotherapy, but I enjoy her hard-ass approach to training. I decided to press pause on returning to work and instead brave the 41 degree weather and rain to go meet Jillian Michaels.

I won't relate the whole story--it would be too long and most of you don't care so much to hear about how long I waited, how cold it was, how hot Jillian looked, how nice Jillian was to us, how hard the workout kicked my butt. In sum, it was totally great. I pressed pause on work, despite some anxiety that it caused me, and I got to meet one of my biggest inspirations. Even better, I got personal workout attention from her, and may be on TV tonight!

All in all, this pause delayed my workday until 1pm. Something funny happened, though. I felt so energized and inspired that I worked EXTRA efficiently today. I plowed through a page-long to-do list with some very critical items and never even took a facebook break. Instead, I took 3 small 5 minute breaks where I ran up and down 6 flights of stairs, which got me energized and quickly back on task. Maybe I am finding that my pauses need to be accompanied by physical activity in order to clear my head! I got more done in 4.5 hours today than I typically get done in at least 8.