It is just like in baseball for me, the feeling you get when you are almost finished with the year. Just like a base runner rounds 3rd base running wide open headed for home, this time of year I get the same feeling. There is so much to do and so little time to do it that you are going as fast as possible, short of breath and just trying to reach the finish line. The end is in sight, but you still have to run as fast as you can to get there. There is no giving up, slowing down or even dropping your stride in the smallest least bit when it is the end of the 4th quarter and you are almost to the finish.
For me, running wide open all the time is a passion. (And I don’t mean the act of physically running, for that is one form of workout I cannot stand). But I enjoy the fact that most things in life are nonstop. It doesn’t stress me out when things are flying past you in the moment. In fact, I usually find myself the most stressed and most anxious when there are too few things going on. The thing I love most about my job and what makes it truly the right career for me is the pace – the fast pace. Having never been one to slow down or sit around and wait, I have truly found my calling in life to do what I do. It can be draining, exhausting and downright depressive some days with all the stuff you have to deal with, but there is always a new challenge and a new project to work on. It is also fun to run fast because you can always outrun your mistakes, and I have made a lot of them in my past. If you go fast enough and try enough new things, then you can outnumber your losses by having a lot of wins and it causes you to think less and less about what you failed at. But by living a life drawn to speed and velocity, you can simply get ahead of just about anything in your way.
Another point about the end of the year being so fast is you are always trying to cram more into a set amount of days than you are at most other times of the year. The days are shorter, and the list of things to do is longer because you are working with a deadline that falls on everyone’s calendar in the last day of the year. It is more hectic and a time of higher anxiety than any other time of the year, even before you add the holidays into the mix. Then, along with the holidays and the need to be in a lot of different places, you can rev your engine so high that you are at your very limits, only seconds away from blowing up.
Once I get to home base or the finish line, then and only then it is time to rest. Just like a baseball player touches home base then slowly walks into the dugout, that is how it feels to me once you have stopped traveling and hit that time period that is 1-2 days before Christmas. It truly is the greatest time of the year for me with the feeling of the most accomplishment when you have finished the race and can marvel at the fact that you just scored your final time.
The pace is fast, the tension is high and everything is on the line, but that is truly what I enjoy about life this time of year the most.