Finding My Wheelhouse

I want to start with a confession: I'm a little obsessed with Jillian Michaels.  Yes, I know that The Biggest Loser is completely problematic (she quit, didn't she), and I know that she can be a little extreme, but I like her.  A lot.  So much that I listen to her weekly podcast and I don't even really mind that she calls everyone "buddy".

This week, she used the term "wheelhouse".  Hadn't heard it before.  JB tells me it is a baseball term.  Your wheelhouse (as maybe you all know) is your sweetspot.  That place where you hit your stride and feel great.  Psychologists call it "flow".  Mystics might call it revelation.  While the term might now be a baseball term, it has its origins in boating, of course.

Boating is where I went when I heard Jillian use it.  It reminded me of the extraordinary book that might friend Jessica Dulong wrote last year - chronicling her adventures finding her wheelhouse, literally and figuratively, on the Hudson river - in the engine room of a fire boat and behind the wheel of a tug.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do so.

Jessica and I have known each other since we met as teenagers at an elite boarding school where we were constantly being told we were the "future leaders of America".  And some of us did indeed become that.  Many of us, though, fell into a long Gen X journey of finding our wheelhouse.  Discovering what it is that we can do that will put food on the table AND help us find our groove.

I started a new job this week.  In many ways, the move comes out of my long term and short term search for my wheelhouse.  It comes from noticing on a regular basis what things I love doing - the moments during the day when the passage of time ceases.  It is new, but it isn't new.  Those who know me well will recognize that components of it are getting back toward my roots - so new, but familiar at the same time.

Which resonates with me at this moment in the Jewish calendar - of Simchat Torah.  For those who don't know, this week we read the end of the Torah, and then, in pretty much the same breath, we start all over again.  Telling the same story, another time.  If we are lucky, each time we hear something new in it, and with each reading we come a little closer to understanding.  And to me, to understand Torah is to understand ourselves and our world - to come a little closer to spending more and more time in our wheelhouse.

Been a touchy-feely few weeks here at Fishing For Good.  Next week, back to running and community and organizational thinking. And in the coming weeks, my thoughts about coaching, too - 'cause I most definitely haven't been doing this thinking alone.  In the meantime, hope those of you who are dancing with the Torah (or marching, or parading around with flags with apples on top) have a joyous holiday.