One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to walk the beach in the morning. The stress of my non-vacation life quickly melts away as I face a tropical breeze and roaring sound of crashing waves. Humans are drawn to the ocean. Speaking in broad terms, I believe humans are at peace more at the ocean and on the beach than just about anywhere else. That may not ring true for everyone I suppose, but there is a definite lure of the ocean. I heard it summed up very well years ago in a quote by former president John F. Kennedy.
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”
As my family ventures to the ocean annually for vacation, one of my highlights every time is usually that first morning. With my wife and son still sleeping, I will venture down to the beach and just take it all in. The sounds, the smell, the feel of the sand and of course the view up and down the coastline and then straight out toward the horizon. Watching the power of the ocean and the texture of the water change from far away with seemingly calm water, to building swells and eventually the surf crashing on to the beach in front of me is just a thrill for me that never gets old.
Staring out at the Gulf of Mexico never disappoints. The different colors of the water due to the waves coming to shore, the occasional boat on the horizon, maybe a dolphin or two and the birds working the shore provide something to marvel at, to observe and to appreciate. I’ll never venture out too far, and I won’t travel great distances up and down the coastline. I’m content to arrive and just soak it all in, staying in the same basic area. I’m pretty sure that I could walk out on to a beach near the spot where the final remnants of the waves are lapping at my feet and just stare for hours at a time.
But hanging out on the beach can be tricky. As wonderful as the scenery surrounding you is, you can’t stop too long if you’re in the surf without having to make adjustments. The ruse of the beach is that you think you’re standing on solid ground, but in fact you are not. What feels like solid ground under your feet will quickly turn uneven and before you know it, you can no longer stay steady on your feet.
Life can be that way too. Often times in our life’s journey, we want to find a place where we are comfortable and stop. You find that perfect place and a certain balance in the world, and you want to just stop to enjoy, and observe the world around us from that one point. But as humans, we need to continue moving, growing and changing. And even if we don’t want to keep evolving and changing, it doesn’t matter. The world is still spinning, and things are always changing. If we choose to not adapt - change - evolve, before we know it, we will feel uncomfortable. That steady ground we stopped on will soon be leaving us. We will become unsteady and struggling to stay upright. Even as we stop to observe and bask in what life has provided, things will continue to change around us.
The Kennedy quote I mentioned in the open is pretty iconic. For a guy that was pretty quotable, his remark about the ocean and our evolution from it is often sited by people. President Kennedy made that comment September 14, 1962, which was about one month prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was at a dinner the day before the first day of racing in the America’s Cup for that year. In his speech before he mentions how we are all tied to the ocean, he also said: “I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears.”
Kennedy spoke of change and how we, as humans we are intimately intertwined with the sea. To me, a commitment is a bond and an understanding with someone or something. As he pointed out, there is also a biological bond to the ocean for humans. That deep rooted bond that Kennedy spoke of nearly 60 years ago, much like the actual steps I take on a Gulf of Mexico shore line brings comfort to me. The sea changes, the light changes along with the boats that navigate the sea, so personal change is only natural and should be embraced. Change is a part of our DNA, in our blood, sweat and tears.
So it is only natural that we should embraced change. But let’s face facts, change can be unsettling. Anyone who tells you that they love change is lying. We are creatures of habit, and even the slightest disruption can throw us off. All it takes is a slight alteration is my early morning routine, and I’m likely to forget keys, teeth brushing, or something else that otherwise would have been accomplished without much brain power through routine.
Throughout my career, I have been that guy that came in to make changes. I’ve spent a fair amount of my time over the past 20 years playing the role of “fixer” with organizations that were ready to make a change. And in all fairness, not all were ‘ready’ to make change. In some cases, the organization was not left with any other option. The sand has shift from underneath their feet, and they were left unstable and forced to take dramatic action. Assessing the talent in a business unit, making sure that they are doing what they need to be doing, now and going forward in an efficient manner, and producing the best results possible has been the foundation of several career moves for me over the past three decades.
For all the changes I’ve had to make, including some very ugly and unpopular decisions that had to be made to save the organization, I still rebel against change in my personal life.
It is only natural. When you find that perfect stretch of beach with the perfect view in perfect weather, you kind of want to stay. Right? When you find a job that you enjoy, that you are good at and are compensated appropriately for, why would you want to alter that? Never mind that change might mean a positive change. We tend to focus on the possible negative outcomes.
The worst part of change is the anticipation. Not knowing the next step, or playing out in your mind all the potential negative outcomes is why people hate change. So during this season of New Year’s Resolutions and change, I’m not making a resolution to change. I refuse! As we’ve discussed, change is going to happen whether I resolve to do it or not.
Instead, I’m going to resolve to worry less.
A good friend of mine is facing a number of physical ailments, and I’m sure he has his fair share of dark moments. But George decided to school me a few months back about an unseen enemy that lurks among us; the enemy of worry. He introduced me to the teachings of Earl Nightingale and “The Fog of Worry.”
Nightingale quickly tells the story of fog, and that a dense fog covering seven city blocks 100 feet deep is composed of less water than you’d find in a typical glass. “If we can see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light, they wouldn’t tend to blind us to the world, to living itself, but instead could be relegated to their true size and place,” writes Nightingale.
He breaks down the worry that haunts many of us.
• 40 percent of the things you worry about will never occur anyway
• Worry about the past and things that cannot be changed is 30 percent
• Worrying about our health: 12 percent
• Petty worries: 10 percent
So through the fog of worry, it boils down to just 8 percent. The remaining 8 percent of worries are worth any energy spent. That means ninety-two percent of our worries are wasted energy, wasted opportunities and have absolutely no place at all in our lives.
I came across author Jon Acuff. He’s a great follow on Twitter (@jon_acuff) to keep you focused and to keep you positive. And in case you haven’t figured that out yet, I kind of need that sometimes! Acuff recently commented on social media, “Fear is a feeling, afraid is a choice. When fear shows up, I feel it fully. But then, I have the choice to stay in it or choose hope. Some days, I have to choose it 1,000 times.”
That fear of change - that fog of worry that may be washing over us needs to be put into perspective. Make the choice of hope, make the choice to be positive. Make the choice to worry less and accept that change is going to happen. Realize that the rest of the emotion that comes with it is a part of the fog which can overwhelm us and block our vision of the world around us.
In 2022, let’s try to focus on the 8% that matters.
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