“A lot of life is like surfing.”

A thought by Ray Johnston (2014-05-13) from his book, The Hope Quotient: Measure It. Raise It. You'll Never Be the Same. (p.122). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now you might ask what does Ray mean when he says that?  Good question.

He goes on and explains, “There are seasons when waves of opportunity come in and you just have to catch them while the surf’s up. But then you have to ensure you take equal time off when the ocean is flat.”  And that is so true.

He then says, “I want the people I work with to be happy and healthy. So, to make sure our team actually has a life, we train our staff to do three things: 1. Divert daily. 2. Withdraw weekly. 3. Abandon annually.”

First of all, he says, “Divert daily means to divide each day into three sections— morning to noon, noon to five, five and beyond. Most days, they don’t work all three. Sounds simple, but when put into practice, it changes everything. A church has almost round-the-clock activities, with businesses that can be called only during the day and members who can be called or attend classes or rehearsals only at night. Divert daily helps team members balance it.”

He then says, “Withdraw weekly means to carve out one day a week for rest and focus on enjoying God. One day a lady called her pastor, very upset. ‘I called all day Monday,’ she said, ‘and I couldn’t get through to you.” “Monday is my day off,” he said. ‘Well, the devil never takes a day off!’ The pastor paused, then said, ‘When he becomes my model, I’ll let you know.’”  Good point.

Then finally he says, “Abandon annually means getting away for an extended period from all the demands of work. For people in high-pressure jobs, my experience says that one week of vacation does only some good. It takes one full week just to start to unwind. At about two weeks, they can finally start to relax.”  Very good advice.

He goes on, “When I tell people, ‘You have to take some time off,’ they often reply, ‘Ray, clearly you don’t understand my life.’ ‘I understand that sometimes you’re too busy to check out for a while,’ is my standard response, ‘so you catch the waves when you have to. But make a point to catch them only when they come. Then take equal time off.’” 

Good, good advice for all of us no matter what we do.

Remember, “A lot of life is like surfing.”

So, how are your waves?