One morning last week, I opened an email from my (new to me) local pottery studio. I scanned down the class times and sessions, each for a six-week stretch running July through August. Ah, sweet summertime, I thought to myself innocently, chuckling internally about the sandlot-summer comment I made at the pool yesterday. 

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Then, with the flick of my wrist and a scroll further down, the 12-week sessions, running July through mid-October, hit a different nerve: mild, maybe flaring to the extreme, panic. October will be here before we know it. 

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I’m reading The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli and am enjoying the puzzle that swirls around in my head from chapter to chapter. If I’ve been complaining to myself about not having enough time to create and build the vision I have… but what if I change that tune and instead focus on creating or finding the time, bending my own time, so to speak, to make the work happen. 

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If this sounds too familiar from a Type A, high-performer perspective, the alternate lens is probably more helpful: what would it look like if this was easy? 

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Not that by asking the question it is so, but perhaps by presenting the concept, I can stay centered on the work flow and let it unfold alongside the other very real milestones and objectives personally and professionally. 

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Since my January 2023 health crisis, which followed on the heels of a precarious nine months of different but challenging health concerns, working in the "hustle-no-matter-the-cost” mentality must be in the rearview. If my health isn’t managed alongside the broader goals for work, it’s painfully clear that the work must be adjusted – often I physically cannot continue otherwise. 

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In many ways, work is one of the last things on my mind. Feeling my mortality so intimately has changed me. But as I’ve gotten back to myself, chided a bit by an Eastern religions speech from my cardio surgeon (or maybe we call this life experience), the focus is not on doing the most to prove that I can. 

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Instead, I’m focusing on following the joy. While sometimes that leads to an overflowing schedule, it’s the good, life-giving kind. Which works when I’m healthy, but is still largely unsustainable. Energy, not just time, is true wealth. Preserving, supporting, and growing my energy is what will create space for these other realities. 

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So, the experiment begins: How can I create these channels or opportunities for myself with ease (or as much ease as possible)? I feel it is important to note that by ease I am not assuming it will be easy, but more so manifesting, or setting the stage that going after these goals must flow within the structures and the guardrails that are keeping everything ticking along. 

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Of course, I have a hypothesis or two – but the real test will be in how sustainable it all is.

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