Against my will…
Pay attention to that phrase, as the first words out of the box are often tellingly resonant down the line...
The building where my Wednesday mornings at 8 pilates training sessions took place has been sold, forcing my pilates teacher to find an alternate venue to offer her mysterious but ultimately strength and posture-enhancing line of endeavor.
I was informed that she found a new location, farther from my house, and with an available appointment for me, noton Wednesdays at 8, but instead on Saturdays at 9.
Bottom Line: If I want to continue my pilates training with this exquisite and masterly pilates teacher I have to replace my habitual – for more than three years – “Pilates – Wednesdays at 8” appointment with the farther-from-my-house “Pilates – Saturdays at 9.”
“Not that serious”, you are thinking? Yes and no. (Depending on who has to change their appointment.) In practical terms, here’s what this jostling schedule-change involves.
Moving pilates from Wednesdays to Saturdays means I would have to bump my habitual – for even longerthan three years – Saturday morning “Walk at the Beach.”
But to where, I am now forced to ponder. To the vacated opening, Wednesday mornings at 8?
I could do that. But it means substantially shortening my “Walk at the Beach” because Wednesday’s a weekday and I have to get home to start working on my blog, not a problem on Saturdays because I don’t write on Saturdays, but I do during the week, so it is.
Okay, so, a “duration dropped” walk at the beach. Consequences? First, a measurable decrease in “Exercise Time.” Plusa reduced stay at the beach, where, as recently mentioned, many interesting blog post ideas come to me. Not that I expect them to – because then, I am pretty certain they won’t – they just do. Less time at the beach narrows the available “window” for them to – voluntarily, I cannot over-emphasize – fly into my head.
So. A depletion in “Calorie Burning”, shorter inspirational interludes at the beach. (And potentially less blog post ideas. And I meanthat “potentially.”)
Not to mention a longer drive to pilates Saturday mornings at 9 than to the previous, more proximate venue Wednesday mornings at 8.
And, as if that weren’t enough…
I used to practice the piano Saturday mornings at 9 – the time of my now Saturday mornings at 9 scheduled pilates appointment. So I have to change thatas well.
With this altered itinerary, including the extended two-way commute – I cannot begin my hour-long practicing the piano until Saturdays at 10:30, effectively killing Saturday mornings, previously spent enjoying the company of family and friends. That time is now gone.
Summing Up: Pilates – moved from Wednesday to Saturday. “Walk at the Beach” – moved from Saturday to, possibly, Wednesday. Practicing the piano – still Saturday, but inconveniently later in the day.
All because the building where I went to my Wednesday at 8 pilates sessions was sold.
Okay, fine.
He said, in a tone of grievance-filled annoyance.
Willing to “adjust”, however, I try my first Wednesday morning “Walk at the Beach.”
And you know what I noticed?
My energy, compared to my Saturday morning “Walks at the Beach” was demonstrably depleted. (In fact, I did not make all the way to the beach, settling for a seriously curtailed “Walk near the Beach.” Plus, I felt a palpable tightness in my throat, attributable, I believe, to a suppressed reaction to an unbidden change in my scheduled walk.
That’s what change does.
It makes you weaker and angrier.
(And don’t tell me that ballplayers forced out of their comfortable routines don’t feel it as well. What am I, freakishly atypical? A minor change in myhabitual routine left me physically weak and unable to swallow. And you’re saying that doesn’t happen to ballplayers? Oh, please!)
Two closing considerations:
Today, I took my secondWednesday morning “Walk at the Beach” – I made it all the way to the sand this time – and I was beginning to feel better. I even noticed an improvementover my Saturday morning “Walks at the Beach” – no hordes of runners training for the marathon, loping snootily past, going, “‘Walker’ on the right!” Leaving me thinking that maybe it’s the interim transitionwhere you feel grumpily discombobulated but you eventually get over it.
Two:
Maybe “change” itself isn’t the problem. The underlying concern – which I now repeat for convenience so you won’t have to scroll back to the beginning – may actually be
“Against my will…”
It’s not the change. It’s the “Nobody asked me.”
Still, despite this glimmering insight, it won’t be easy altering my behavior.
2 comments:
The underlying issue here is why a change in venue necessitated a change in the schedule.
At work, we are always told that any change we are asked to make to our products is just a simple change. "It will be easy to make this change," we are told. My colleagues and I then respond, "Any change is easy when you don't have to make it." with the emphasis on "you".
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