Raise your hand if you are sick of the word PIVOT!
*hand raised*
Pivot, to me, seems so effortless, easy and streamlined, like…
“oh, I’ll just pop right over here with this new thing and it’ll be oh so easy.”
*Actually, “pivoting” was easy for me at the begging of *points to everything* but I, and imagine you too, are done “hoping over here with this new thing”. From homeschooling to now wearing masks inside because of all the fires, and then trying to “pivot” yourself into some new way to take care of yourself without buying up Bevnmo.
So, I grew up on a boat, a sail boat. And if you don’t know how sail boats move across the water, here is a step by step lesson:
1. After screaming and yelling at the crew members (kids) the captain makes way out of the slip (the place where they boat is parked) by way of motor (that may or may not work on any given day).
2. Captain makes way out to the open water, without hitting other boats…ideally.
3. A flurry of chaos and yelling once again arises as the sails go up, lines (ropes) tussle across the deck at a dangerous speed and the motor goes off. Sailing ensues.
4. Open a beer.
-> 5. If the vessel is going up wind, it’ll need to change directions and or “tack”. This is the the hysteria part of sailing. The sails have to go from one side of the boat to another, the entire boat tips in the opposite direction, (healing) and the BOOM, (the horizontal part of the mast) swings rapidly across the boat. *This is called a boom for a reason, as it will hit heads and cause concussions, or throw a grown person into the water. It all depends on the wind and the captains aptness to warn everyone by yelling “READY ABOUT!!”. (when I was a kid, my dad yelled “ATTACK”, and that made sense to me, as he had 4 small kids on the boat) In a few minutes, the lines were released and tighten, the sails made this huge popping sound as the wind would catch them, and finally everything would calm down.
6. Beer time.
7. Do number 5 again until you hit your destination, or you run out of beer.
I like this analogy for our current “everything”. We are all heading upwind to, and are constantly changing directions, screaming, ducking and then having a beer. It’s a combination of chaos, crazy and breathing. But the good news is, that once it’s all over, you sail downwind, and that’s just a straight shot from point a to b, and I’m hopeful that will be in our future.