Your steady state
“Sorry — we’re too busy to save any sailors at the moment.“ (Miami University Libraries)
Many years ago, I was in the habit of working from about 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day, plus 9:00 to 3:00 on Saturdays.
Each morning, I began by answering emails and phone calls for the music school, and then I taught music lessons until the evening.
This was doable — I was young.
And then came the Bahá'í Fast, which requires abstinence from food and drink from sunrise to sunset each day for nineteen days in March.
During the Fast, I realized that my life only worked when it worked. Skipping lunch and snacks took away energy I was counting on, and I had already been operating at a deficit.
The Fast, which is supposed to be uncomfortable, not torturous, exposed the problem that had existed all along: I was doing way too much, and I was on the road to burnout.
Because I had been pushing so hard to get through a given day, fasting made my routine impossible. The Fast wasn't the problem — it was my inhumane schedule. I didn’t think in terms of nine to five — I figured that if I was awake, I could be working.
I had created a steady state that was untenable, and this fact was undeniable when I put stress on the system.
We all tend to have a baseline of activity that we take on, along with habits of sleep, nutrition, and exercise. This is our steady state: our baseline expenditure and inflow of energy, money, time, and attention in a typical day or week.
Giving consideration to your steady state can add margin to your life and prevent overwhelm.
We can handle an increased level of activity for a period of time, but not forever. When we try to keep up a more intense pace indefinitely — when we try to make that higher level of activity our steady state — we will get sick, depressed, or burned out.
For example, I can go out to eat a couple of times a week or go see a show occasionally, but I can't do these things every night. I'll lose sleep, run out of money, and suffer from the lack of solitude. Maybe some people's steady state can include going out that frequently, but not mine.
Even when we keep our steady state manageable, we need to anticipate the outside forces that continually act on us. These are part of our steady state and must be accepted and included in our reckoning. If you are a parent of young children, you can naturally expect messes, tantrums, and illnesses. They're not disruptions to the routine — they are part of the routine.
As a receptionist, you can expect that whatever you're doing or thinking about will be constantly interrupted by phone calls.
If you work in an emergency room or walk-in clinic, you can expect a constant flow of sick and injured people.
If you're an auto mechanic, your day will be filled with broken cars.
In any of these situations, if we expect a smooth, unbroken sea of free time, we'll get unnecessarily frustrated. Better to recognize that obstacles and inconveniences are part of the steady state. We need to take them into account when designing our lives.
These days, my steady state is built on long hours and dense with problem-solving and human interaction. Once again, it only works when it works. To correct this, I have to edit out certain activities (like checking my email first thing in the morning or looking at news headlines late at night) and then add restorative ones (like seeing friends and family, eating healthy food, and getting enough rest). I have to account for things like conflicts between students, staff absences, and traffic. I should program eight- or nine-hour days, not a twelve-hour ones.
It's a work in progress, but I'm going for a steady state that leaves room for me to be responsive to whatever comes up while also completing what I had planned, and to look forward to the next day with eagerness rather than dread.
When we set up our life based on an unrealistic steady state, we will be surprised or dismayed when reality intrudes. But when we operate based on a clear-eyed assessment of our situation and make careful choices to accommodate it, we can build a steady state that is manageable from day to day, leaves room for emergencies and spontaneity, and fits our values.
