There is rhythm in all things. The famous Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi was a master of this Hermetic Principle, but his understanding of the nature of rhythm went deeper than its application in the martial arts.
“Rhythm is something that exists in everything, but the rhythms of martial arts in particular are difficult to master without practice…… In the field of martial arts, there are rhythms and harmonies in archery, gunnery, and even horsemanship. In all arts and sciences, rhythm should not be ignored.“ -Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
We all go through seasons of life. There are good times and bad times, busy seasons and times of relaxation. There are times when everything seems to be going right, and times when everything seems to be going wrong. We have been told to seek balance, but I don’t think that is the right approach and I’ll tell you why.
In the busy seasons of life, there is no balance. So to try and find balance by trying to slow down or resist the chaos would be out of rhythm with the busy season, and what happens? We seek balance and the business doesn’t stop. The work doesn’t go away by counteracting it with more relaxation. You don’t make problems go away by avoiding dealing with them. When life is demanding that you act and you don’t, then you end up losing.
In fact, when we avoid increasing our efforts during the busy season of life, it just prolongs the season because instead of leaning into the rhythm, we pull away from it by looking for more relaxation and more things to distract ourselves with. Instead of matching the rhythm with more effort, you make the busy season more difficult because you didn’t match the work output. The work doesn’t go away, so it just piles up higher and gets drawn out.
Don’t seek balance with the opposite, seek to match the rhythm and ride the swing to a higher peak.
Imagine a pendulum swinging. The swing is representing the change of rhythm to that busy season of life, and when you try to counteract it by slowing it down or by engage in distraction, then the pendulum only swings back with more force, and it only takes longer for it to reach its peak and then eventually swing the other way into a new rhythm.
When you match the rhythm, you can ride the swing all the way to its peak and give it the momentum it needs to quickly reach the apex.
I’m in a busy season of life right now, and if I tried to slow it down or stop it, I would be crushed. It seems like every day something new pops up that has to be taken care of immediately. The pace at work is ridiculous, I have deadlines to meet left and right, unexpected problems have been popping up, my family life responsibilities don’t slow down to compensate, and I still have my personal goals I want to meet.
If I slow down, things will fall through the cracks and cause more stress than what I’m already under. If I decide that life is unfair and I resist at every turn, then things only get more difficult. I have to match my effort to the season. I’ve probably had two afternoons in the past two weeks to actually relax, which really means working on my hobbies, and that’s what it takes to get through this season of life.
Despite all the stress it’s caused, I’m grateful for this season. It has pushed me to do more than I would have without the external motivation, and that’s what seasons are all about. I don’t know the reason for the phenomenon of seasons of life, but I like to think that God gives us seasons to push us to grow in one way or the other, and I have found that the more I resist, the less I learn and grow.
Match the rhythm of the season.
When I was younger, a season of a relationship had ended. It was painful, but a new season had dawned. It was a season of self-focus and reflection. I was sad and angry that things didn’t work out at first, but I decided to lean into that season of solitude, and I dedicated it to my martial arts practice. This is when I learned another lesson about rhythm and extremes.
I had just gone through a hard break-up, and throwing myself into my training was exactly what I needed. I practiced everyday for hours, and what I realized was that to reach higher levels, that there is no such thing as balance, and sometimes it is necessary to polarize to an extreme.
My martial arts practice before that break-up was half-hearted and only as frequent as I could get myself to class. I practiced more for when it was convenient than really being dedicated to the lifestyle. Now, I didn’t become a Bruce Lee or a UFC champion, but I realized that the advancements that I achieved would have never come to me if I wasn’t practicing to an extreme. I was living and breathing martial arts for about two years.
What happened was that I didn’t socialize as much, and I missed out on a lot of events and outings with friends. I didn’t really move any further up at my job, and my family time was less frequent. But what I realized was that I was so much more proud of myself and at peace with who I was becoming that although the social interactions were less frequent, they were of better quality.
I wouldn’t trade that season of my life for anything. I still feel nostalgic thinking about cold nights watching the sun go down by myself, sitting on a chair in my backyard during a rest period between rounds with my punching bag. I was drenched in sweat, a hoodie over my head like blinders on a horse, and I could feel the discipline flowing through my veins like an intoxicating elixir.
I miss the early days of being excited because I found enlightenment on how to move my feet a certain way to kick better. It was the moment when the hard work paid off and everything clicked. There’s a difference between being taught a way to move, and from practicing it so many times that you internalize the feeling and truly understand the application. I would’ve never known what that felt like if I hadn’t dedicated myself to my practice to such an extreme.
That season ended when I joined the Navy, and a new season of intellectual development began as I went through the nuclear training and then out to the fleet for deployment. I had to polarize my efforts to my studies to make it through the training, and my downtime was used in the gym and to practice my martial arts, but it wasn’t my main focus. I had to move with the season.
“In the professional life of a warrior, there are rhythms of rising to office and rhythms of stepping down, rhythms of fulfillment and rhythms of disappointment. In the field of commerce, there are rhythms of becoming rich and rhythms of losing one’s fortune.” -Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Each season of life has something to teach us. Some are longer than others, but all have their purpose and it is up to us to make them most out of each season.
Now, if you’re moving through an extreme season and things are going out of balance, we want to avoid burning out or neglecting things so much that they are unrecoverable. That’s why I advocate for prioritizing basics. That means although you may be in an extreme season and you may not have as much time to give, you prioritize covering the basics.
The basics are: family, health, and wealth. That means when you have family time, if it’s not as much as you used to have, then you make the quality better. Leave everything else at the door and be present with your family. Try and maximize the quality of your interactions, and make the most of that time.
Sometimes people get caught up in a strong career focused season, and they neglect family and relationships too much, and the recovery of those relationships is difficult or even impossible. Or they focus so much on their careers that they completely neglect their health and then their work performance is affected. It takes significantly more time to recover health and relationships than it does to maintain them.
When it comes to health, that means getting as much sleep as you can, eating as clean as you can, and making time to exercise. The extreme season may mean that you get 6 hours of sleep instead of 8, but you can do things to make sure that the quality of that sleep is good.
The extreme season might mean that you have to eat a crappy meal once or twice a day because you don’t have time to cook a healthy meal, then at least make that one home-cooked meal a good one. Have some healthy snacks. Maybe you only have 30 minutes to exercise instead of an hour, but 30 minutes is better than zero.
Prioritize the basics. In a paradoxical way, matching the rhythm of the seasons of life is finding balance, and by prioritizing the basics, although you may not be getting the quality or quantity that you want, will prevent other areas of your life from degrading.
Another important lesson of rhythm is to be around others who match your rhythm. Sometimes we fall into disharmony in our relationships. Either we try to make a relationship work that shouldn’t work out, or we surround ourselves with people who prevent us from being who we really want to be.
If you want to be a fit person or a rich person, then you should be around people who match that rhythm because our environment is a huge factor in our development. If you want to be fit but the people around you aren’t into that lifestyle, or they inspire habits that are unhealthy, then the likelihood of you reaching that goal is small.
If you want to be rich, then associate yourself with other people who match that rhythm. If you want to take life seriously and make a lot of money but the people you associate with just want to party and chill, then more than likely you will match that rhythm.
Understand the rhythm in all things. Match the rhythm and embrace the seasons of life.
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