"The Dynamic Grip" - An application for the mechanics of processes.

How you start a movement can dictate how you will end it.  From a physical perspective, I am learning this from my recent experience with a new regimen I started in August where form matters, and performing a movement incorrectly can lead to injury.  Much like a golf-swing and Olympic weight lifting, mechanics makes a difference when it comes to managing processes and the relationships that make them work.  The mental checklist we go through as we engage in these activities is something we can learn, but it takes instruction, practice, and an understanding of the process. 

When I think about processes, I think about some sort of order, a list, or an algorithms. I have warmed to the understanding that part of successfully navigating a process lies in not to hold onto it too tight, especially when some of the mechanics are new to you.  Maintaining a "dynamic grip", is important.  Hold onto a process too tight, and you may risk losing your ability to feel it move.  Being far from stable,  many processes need that wiggle room.

I was pulling a team together for a funding opportunity when the need for a "dynamic grip" became clear.  I found myself holding on too tight to one particular part of the scope of work.  In my mind, only a certain type of partner could do this work, and I was temporarily too rigid to see things otherwise.  I stepped away from the process for a minute to complete another task, and an email popped up on my phone reminding me of a meeting.  I saw the list of addressees, and found the perfect partner to provide the services we needed for the funding opportunity.  I made the call, and in minutes a collaboration was forged. Serendipity made me loosen my grip, and allowed me to open-up to the input from an unrelated inject in the form of that email.  

"The dynamic grip" may sound better suited to a sports tutorial, or even martial arts entertainment, but it is more than that.  It is an analogy for maintaining contact with any process - keeping close to the  people who inspire us.  It is also an analogy for staying open and nimble, which relates to rapidly (and strategically) placing ourselves in situations that may be foreign to us in order to experience growth and inspiration.  Lastly, it relates to being present in all we do, so we remain active, and never become numb to the processes in which we are engaged.  Try it, and let me know how it works for you. 

PV

Sustained Social Support (Healthy By Default)

It took me travelling to the Bay Area for a public health conference a couple weeks ago for me to gain a better understanding of some more of our food habits.  In a nut-shell, we love sugar, we're not that afraid of fat, and we really love bread.  Across the aisle from me, a woman ate every last morsel of a thick steak she had left-over from lunch.  I listened as she scraped deep into the crevices of that plastic container, and made sure she got every last bit of that fat from the corners which she licked off her little plastic knife.  Between her, the calzone and garlic bread guy, and the "election day in VA" length line at McDonald's, I got thinking about how hard it is to travel and eat well at the same time.  With Thanksgiving around the corner, and the rest stops teeming with turkey-bound travelers, I had an Arsenio Hall "things that make you go hmmm" moment.   

I love good food, and over the years I have managed to find a lot of food to be, well,  "good". My scientist / public health / physician brain may know better, but it definitely knows what tastes good. I have what I call “funny food moods”, and I do not make my best food decisions when I am hungry. This is a major problem when in the grocery store and when I am traveling, because even the "healthy" fridge looking stall at the airport is stacked with sandwiches, wraps, and parfaits.  Not all bad, but limited at best.  What if we had some better options to choose from? A "real nut stop", fruit stand, or a "bun-less burger bar" for example. Would people frequent them?  I think so.    

Having fought with food, weight, body-image, and self-confidence over the years, this food thing is personal for me.  It has taken small steps to keep my personal gains in place, and there have been all sorts of excuses for my occasional lapses.  I could (and have) blame my work schedule, my friends, and even my genes. At the end of the day, the desire to start my changes had to start within me, but I needed support. We all do. 

With our current preventable chronic disease statistics moving in the wrong direction, the support I am alluding to can no longer only come from caring families, social networks, and some media outlets.  Civic and corporate engagement in creating and sustaining commercial and environmental support mechanisms are also necessary.  The talk of meeting the "double bottom line"  (doing good, while doing well) needs to be more than rhetoric for end-of-year reports.  Accountability on health outcomes would do well to be woven into inter-departmental government and business strategic plans and operations.  I am not suggesting additional oversight, regulation, or crutch creation. I am simply suggesting more shared responsibility for that valuable intangible, sustained social support - the kind that helps you stay on track when you are on the road.  Healthy by default...hmmm.

PV

P.S. Congrats (& thanks) again, Mr. President!

Four more years...

...time to get back to work.

PV