The Roller Coaster

I suspect that one reason we love (or hate) roller coasters is that, aside from the physical thrills and sensations, we recognize the way our emotional and spiritual real life situations are mirrored in all of the ups and downs, spins and loops.

I just hit a handful of key deadlines (as part of an amazing team, the kind that my Pepperdine MBA program told me about, but which I had trouble believing in at the time – that’s a story for another day) and after more weeks and weeks of stress and long days and all that goes with it, all of a sudden today it’s just…normal. I have plenty to do, and to a certain extent there’s some chaos in trying to figure out which items to pull off of “the back burner” first, but getting it wrong has minimal consequences. Annoyances, possibly. Inconvenience, probably. “Consequences?” Not really.

And then I looked at the Chiefs’ calendar and saw that we’re playing the Raiders in Las Vegas next week, on the 25th, and wait, that can’t possibly be right because we’re playing them on Christmas and HOLY GUACAMOLE, BATMAN! Christmas is in just ten days! When did this happen? Why didn’t anyone warn me?!

I understand intellectually where we are on the calendar. There are lots of lights up outside. There are stacks of gifts waiting to be wrapped and put under the tree.

But mentally, coming down off of that “deadline high” (and being a little bit sleep deprived) I had slipped into an emotional state where I figured that I could kick back, relax, and coast a little bit.

But there’s Christmas stuff to finish and cards to get out and presents to wrap and all of that stuff on the back burner and the budget to be working on at work and a couple of other big projects that are lurking around the corner and all of a sudden the corner is RIGHT HERE and we really, REALLY need to make 2024 the year we find our forever home, buy it, and move…

And above all, having coped for weeks with one critical task and deadline after another, gone (for an hour or two) into coasting and relaxing mode, and now almost immediately being surprised and ramping back up, there’s an element of PTSD. What have I missed? I’m tired, I’m worn down, I’ve let down my guard for an hour, is there anything I’ve overlooked? Day after day after day of critical deadlines, how can I not have one tomorrow? What ball am I dropping? What’s gonna bite me in the ass? I almost forgot about Christmas for crying out loud, what else am I capable of forgetting?

It will be fine. Really.

But.

It is a roller coaster. You can go through all of those plunges and rolls and curves and manage to make it through, but in life you don’t get to just stop and get off the ride. There’s another lift hill ahead. Or a hidden cliff that you’re going to plunge over.

Breathe. ENJOY! Relax.

But you may not get to kick back into cruise mode just yet.