In school we had Presidential Fitness Testing twice a year. With the regularity but none of the excitement of a Victoria’s Secret semi-annual sale, we’d be instructed to perform a handful of physical tasks while the rest of the class looked on and the gym teacher authoritatively recorded our performance on a little clipboard.  

One of the tests, you may recall, was dubiously called the “V-Sit and Reach.”

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Objective: sit on floor, legs out in front, with a ruler held between your feet, while “helper” students hold your legs down flat against the floor to prevent your knees from bending. Then reeeeaach as far forward as possible. The number of inches you reach past your toes is your score, which will later qualify or disqualify you for the acceptable red, or coveted blue, ribbon.

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For me, it more closely resembled the “V-Sit and Bounce Forward.”  My hamstrings have always been tight. Always. The V-Sit was a colossal failure, year after year.

I grunted, I pushed, I pulled, it hurt like hell, but I persisted because I wanted the goddamned elusive blue ribbon. I never got it. My hamstrings stayed tight.

Decades later, I found yoga.

There’s a phrase in Sanskrit, “stira sukha,” which when loosely translated means “easy and steady.” One of my favorite yoga teachers often reminds us that we have to go easy, steady, and with compassion for ourselves and our gradual growing.

These days when I stretch, there’s no grunting, no one locking my knees in place, no bouncing. There’s ease with where I am today, in this moment. There’s deep breathing into my muscles, and I ask myself gently if maybe on the next exhale could I relax into it just a little more? Just a tiny bit more?

Guess which approach to loosening my hamstrings worked?

Quick answer: I can finally wrap my palms around the soles of my feet. It feels so, so good.

Relevance, please?

We overachieving, game-changing, perfectionist professional gals, we get it done. We do! It’s marvelous!

We deftly handle the daily details, we’re thinking about the future, we’re creatively expanding our own sense of what’s possible in small business. Sweet!

But I, for one, often think everything that leaves my desk must be early, flawless, and revolutionary. Guess what happens? I wear myself out. (Duh.)

I wrench the last bit of genius out of my brain by brute force, because I just need that blue ribbon.

I’ll take burnout for $400, please.

How often are we grunting, straining and hurting like hell, and demanding of ourselves what could be gracefully found in time, if we only worked with ease, with steadiness, and with compassion?

 Oh, yeah.

The more I care for myself, and the more space I give my ideas to play in the breeze and evolve in their own time, the lovelier the outcome.

Even better, when I slowly, compassionately make forward movement on my goals, I arrive emotionally equipped to savor the success. Seriously y’all, it’s sweet relief.

Comments: Do you feel pushed, obligated, or strained to be awesome? How do you remind yourself to take it easy, steady, and with compassion?