The Rebound
A raw stream of consciousness with a chance of lessons.
Prelude
They got me.
In the final few weeks of winter, just when I thought I escaped.
Months of resilience, augmented with recuperated strength and unrelenting momentum - Why Now?
Stealthily got me the day before Valentine’s, arriving like they checked the calendar…
Yuck. How clingy.
An itchy throat and a cough later, my fate was sealed.
The worst part is that I didn’t see the uninvited guest that was following me all along.
It was only then I realised the battle I had been winning by fine margins.
Eventually it was death by a thousand cuts; consistent rain and temperatures that would halve and double in the space of a week.
It felt like a miscarriage of justice - I felt like I was being had.
In the previous post we talked about small wins, but is there such a thing as small losses?
How do you react and prevent them from becoming something bigger?
Could you even flip it on its head?
We’ll explore the power of framing which decides whether the pattern cascades or if you rebound into an even bigger win.
Manufacturing Challenge
Once you’re assured that your efforts are at the standard you pride yourself on, what do you do next?
Do you simply maintain it, or do you push further?
I found that I tend to the latter; low stakes but personal challenges that could change what I believe about myself.
It could be as simple as pushing extra weight in the gym, staying consistent with breathwork, and eating well in advance of my mandated bedtime.
That cultivates the strength, resilience, and discipline that doesn’t only push you forward, but also has your back when things get tough.
Having that as a mindset is a prelude to any oncoming difficulty; almost like a moat protecting you from external threats.
Without challenge, there is no risk.
Without risk, there is no growth.
Without growth, there is no fulfilment.
To self-administer hardship seems superficial on the surface and brings more questions than answers.
But this voluntary path has its answers rooted beyond the foreseeable future, grounded in a pursuit for meaning because you are choosing your ‘hard’.
Even when you’re not in a position to choose the challenge, your mindset plays a significant role.
The late Viktor Frankl, a neurologist and psychiatrist, wrote the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” which was produced following his survival of Nazi concentration camps.
In witnessing these horrors, Frankl deduced that those who could find meaning in suffering can transcend their circumstances and discover a deeper sense of purpose.
Within this is a person’s attitude, which can allow us to navigate the situation with resilience and grace.
This point rings true for our problems today; your attitude dictates your reaction and ultimately your reality.
Beneath the self-administered challenges is a belief that is cultivated for the person you are becoming.
In the case of my simple cold, resilience resided in my attitude.
Did I see it as a roadblock or an extra weight I’ll be momentarily carrying around?
That framing alone determines whether I resign to being confronted by an unforeseen challenge or if I continue as if it wasn’t there…
Every decision counts
Each decision is like a checkpoint.
You’re playing a game that dynamically adapts to each choice, which steers your direction every day, every hour, and every minute.
When coming to terms with my cold, there was an internal conflict that arose.
One side said rest, the other side said, ‘it’s minor - continue’.
Up until that point, I didn’t feel like I was pushing myself particularly hard to end up in such a situation - instead I was very content.
So resting to me meant drinking peppermint tea every other day, intentionally having shorter work blocks, and calling friends.
I felt that approach met the middle ground between the conflicting sides within me.
Doing nothing wasn’t an option - pushing harder wasn’t either.
Even in the abstract situation of handling a cold, I see how my reaction naturally gravitated towards nuance.
As a hard-worker, it’s easy to feed the narrative of just pushing more and more as if success wouldn’t come otherwise, but there was a peace within me that acknowledged my efforts to date and allowed me to continue life without the worry of losing time.
This allowed me to continue on my rhythm without compromising standards.
Younger Malick would be annoyed at the fact that a cold… A COLD had the nerve to step to him.
Doesn’t it know how efficient these cells are?
Anyways, what followed was head in hands frustration, but for what it was worth, I still went through packets of tissue and pushed cold and flu capsules through foil like my life depended on it.
At the time, instead of the focus being on my locus of control, it was on the damaged entry point where it had been encroached.
Same situation. Different reaction.
But a lesson for myself was in taking accountability for that vulnerability.
Before this, we were talking about manufacturing challenge, and given we are in a position to control how much pressure we put on ourselves, there is bound to be oversight in our judgements.
This means that when we balance this with what’s demanded of us, mishaps will happen, but our reaction is a choice that will either exacerbate or help the situation.
Will you approach it from a place of grace or regret?
The Rebound
In the middle of my internal skirmish, I managed to have one of the best cardio sessions I’ve ever had.
It was suspicious.
I was pushing myself, but that wasn’t anything new; it just came much easier than expected.
No cunning cough, no snotty sneeze, no fiery flare up. Hmm…
Within the same day, the symptoms became progressively distant.
Maybe I sweat the cold out?
Something I am grateful for is still having the courage to commit to my full cardio routine even after having a delayed upper body session the day before.
Let’s just say when the soreness kicked in… yeah.
Nonetheless, the decision to stick to what I know proved pivotal.
For me, the worst part about having a cold is the literal limbo of ‘how long can I hold this cough’ and the mental limbo of not being sure if you have the same capabilities as before.
That doubt is the catalyst for more losses.
Within a week it went from sore throat, blocked nose to ‘did I even have a cold?’, and that wouldn’t have been possible without proactiveness.
It’s easy to play the game of ‘if I can’t see you, you can’t see me’ when it comes to ignoring our problems, but more specifically our internal ones.
To say that I tackled the cold ‘head on’ would make it seem like I’m the perpetrator, so that’s too far.
But, I did have to acknowledge it.
Almost like a noisy neighbour and knowing what times the volume levels rise.
In this case, sickness collapsed all desires into one - good health.
It was grounding and a revelation at the same time as it indicated that I was treading thinner ice than I realised.
Maybe managing my health in harsh weather was the overarching challenge all along and I just habituated within that.
At the time, the weather was the neighbour that would jolt you awake at the crack of dawn with a loud bang, but you forget it next day.
There’s only so many disrupted sleeps you can have until you feel the effects…
It’s a reminder that no matter how hard you try to evade or how many challenges you set for yourself, there will always be something you don’t foresee.
Conclusion
Was this even a small loss?
Just like a small win, it is if you frame it as such.
This post is a snapshot of the oscillating wave we call life.
Usually, the peaks and troughs develop alongside our energy; whether we’re fatigued, moody, or energised; whether we’re starting something new or about to finish something and so on.
Every so often, the wave is centred on events, in which by testing your resolve, they determine whether you rise or fall.
In everyday life, such events can occur and ownness is on you to acknowledge and positively frame the experience to the best of your ability.
Surprisingly, having a cold as my Valentine’s was a part of an incline in that oscillating wave after pushing through a period of scattered thoughts and attention.
Maybe it was all part of the plan…