Life Rhythm Theory
An Unfinished Piece by
David Drury
Back to www.DruryWriting.com/David
PART ONE – THE RHYTHM OF LIFE
Human beings approach life
at different natural rhythms. These
rhythms show up in many parts of life.
They affect the way we feel on the weekends or how often we need
vacations (and for how long). They
affect how we feel in the mornings or how much we like springtime. They affect our mood and our attitudes on a daily,
perhaps even yearly and certainly for some of us at least seasonally basis. They are the reason some “out of rhythm”
activities and personal disciplines don’t “click” with some of us and others
do. And more than anything they affect
our schedules, and should dictate them. However,
usually our rhythms are forced into a box not of our own choosing for prolonged
periods of life. Sometimes we call this
“work.” Our lives are affected by this on
such a sustained but less than obvious way you might call it subliminal. Yes, we may adopt or adapt to a different
life rhythm for a season that may not be fully natural even if not wholly
unhealthy. However, peak efficiency,
energy and satisfaction in life are more likely to be achieved at the kind of
life rhythm one “naturally” is aligned to.
This is Life Rhythm Theory.
Rhythm is about cadence and
tempo, regularity and measure. Rhythm
cannot exist without two factors: beat and time. Our lives have a seeming infinity of
“beats.” Each activity and habit we
engage in—each relationship and each responsibility—are “moments” that are the beats
of life. However, our lives have a
limited amount of time. The sun goes
down. Deadlines pass. Hairs grey.
The years turn. This is why it
seems like time management has become the great unsolvable puzzle of our
species. This is also why day planners,
palm pilots and computer scheduling programs all make a tidy profit in our
economy.
But few of us feel a great
amount of control over our time even with these tools. The beats come faster than we seem able to
handle them. Like a drum line marching
around in our heads—we can’t keep up, and we acquire what we call “tension
headache”, “stress”, “burnout” or “a complete and total physical and mental
breakdown thus losing our jobs, families and friends.” The problem is not always the speed at which
the beats are coming, however. More
often than not the problem is a matter of rhythm rather than pace. We have to manage the rate and sequence the
beats of life come to us in a way that matches our internal ability to not only
handle them, but harness them.
(INCOMPLETE)
PART TWO – RHYTHM GROUPINGS
Most Common Life Rhythm Groupings:
Daily People – some people are oriented around a daily internal
clock. They wake up in the morning and a
voice in their heads says, “It’s Tuesday… what do I do
when it’s Tuesday?” Then they go about
the things that make Tuesdays “work” for them.
These people usually get a great deal done on a daily basis or at least
they do when they have clear, achievable daily responsibilities to complete. Many Daily People dislike having their
schedules radically changed or spontaneously altered by others so they desire
advance warning of such things. When they
are operating at their peak Daily People are very good at key routine tasks and
procedures. In watching Daily People,
you’ll note that they take the same amount of time to do dozens of tasks the
same way every single day of their lives, from making the bed or writing job reports
to reading bedtime stories or saying their morning prayers.
Off-Beat Issues for Daily People: When a Daily Person is asked to do long-range forecasting
or strategic planning; they get “off-beat.”
It doesn’t match their life rhythm at all and most Daily People will be
thrown off by such a task. They may
adapt to the task or learn skills to make it through—but few Daily People will enjoy
such big-picture thinking. More
accustomed to things that “need to get done now” or that are due at the end of
the day—a Daily Person might do more than any other individual on a team within
a month but still not complete the monthly report that takes a half-day to
produce. Instead of taking the half day
to write the report they were doing what they would consider to be “real” work. Once a system is in place, few people can
operate it as efficiently as a Daily Person.
Managers: if you want something done well every single day get a Daily
Person to do it.
Spiritual Parallels: Daily people often find great strength by
incorporating a Daily Time Alone with God into their schedule. They may do it at the exact same time and
place every day, and then do basically the same thing: rest 5 minutes, read 15
minutes, pray 10 minutes, etc. Sometimes
frustrated that they don’t grow faster or gain huge spiritual insights, Daily
People should more often be patient to simply “engage in the discipline” on a
daily basis and then look back and see the growth. Daily People may not be as inclined to enjoy
a spiritual retreat or re-focusing day, and they likely won’t get as much out
of a Day Alone with God as a Monthly Person will. However, so many of our spiritual disciplines
have been interpreted as daily ones that there are plenty of pathways for
growth for them to pursue. At their core
very practical, these people will often want the “application” from Sunday’s
service or message so they know what to do that very week. The key question for a Daily Person to ask
about their spiritual life is: “What moments do I have in my daily routine that
is growing me closer to God?”
Daily-Style Careers: While not all people in these occupations have this
kind of life-rhythm, many people in the following occupations were drawn to
them because they are Daily People or these jobs may be more conducive to those
who know they are Daily People: Restaurant managers and employees, service industry
workers, computer programmers, massage therapists, accountants, specialized
medical professionals, administrative assistants, factory line-workers, professional
soldiers, homemakers, engineers, news reporters, bus drivers, postal workers,
mechanics, store clerks, and police officers.
Another observation: many hourly-paid jobs align with the Life Rhythm of
Daily People.
Monthly People – some people are wired up to think along the lines
of that week or month. They wake up in
the morning and a voice in their heads says, “It’s August… what do I do when
it’s August?” Then they go about the
things that make August “work” for them.
Monthly People are great at working on projects that take a great deal
of time and energy to complete but have a longer time span to complete. They can work on something for multiple days
at a time as long as they get a good break and reward at the end of the
project. Monthly People are
comparatively obsessed about their schedules, and will often be seen organizing
the upcoming monthly or weekly schedule to prioritize the most important things
coming up. Daily People might think Monthly types are wasting their time with such
business. In watching Monthly People
you’ll note that they are less concerned with how that day is going and more
concerned with accomplishing overall goals or quotas. These people can be extremely spontaneous and
sometimes no day in their week will actually look like another day in that
week. They may take a very long time to
do something on several days in a month and not do it at all on several other
days that month. They value their
weekends, monthly breaks and extended “down times” more than most people.
Off-Beat Issues for Monthly People: Asking a Monthly Person to do the tasks a Daily
Person would do well will often “cramp their style.” While they are driven to achieve goals or
complete big tasks, they sometimes struggle with what getting to the daily
processes that get them there. Monthly
People might be able to grab a project “on the fly” and spontaneously complete
it even with a lot of other things on their plate. They may also be better at committing to do a
project than they will be at actually doing it.
Likewise, they might communicate what they did better than it actually
was done. Monthly People often wow us
with reports and in meetings where Daily People do not. However, if a Monthly Person gets rolling,
they are hard to stop. In this way, they
are like a locomotive. Get them on the
right track in the right direction and much force is applied to the goal. Mangers: if you want to hand of a big project
with a bit more risk and bit more reward to someone, find a Monthly Person on
your team to do it
Spiritual Parallels: Monthly People often love Sundays. The worship service itself is a reprieve from
the rest of their life that is often forced into daily routine, which is
off-beat from their Life Rhythm. They
can pause and reflect and think forward.
Often frustrated with inconsistency in their daily Time Alone With God, they should instead put their efforts into longer
weekly or even monthly times with God. More
than just their spontaneity affects this aversion, because in part a short time
with God doesn’t feel like “enough” for these people. It feels like a “check in” where they hear
little and merely stop time a bit. Instead
of taking 30 minutes a day, a Monthly Person might grow more by taking 90
minutes twice a week, 4 hours on the weekend, and a full day every month to
spend with God. Adding the “touch in”
can’t hurt on top of this, but it will rarely help the Monthly Person feel like
they are growing spiritually, and they will spend much of their time in
frustration as they miss half of their “times” with God. The key question for a Monhtly
Person to ask about their spiritual life is: “What longer scheduled weekly and
monthly ‘meetings’ with God am I using to grow closer to Him?”
Monthly-Style Careers: While not all people in these occupations have this
kind of life-rhythm, many people in the following occupations were drawn to
them because they are Daily People or these jobs may be more conducive to those
who know they are Monthly People: Nurses, medical doctors, construction
workers, civic officials, lawyers, hair stylists, banking professionals, ministers,
salesperson, realtor, and car dealer. Another
observation: many client or commission-based jobs align with the Life Rhythm of
Monthly People.
Seasonal People – some
people are big picture thinkers who are driven by the season or year they are
in. They wake up in the morning and a
voice in their heads says, “It’s Winter… what do I do
when it’s Winter?” or
it says, “It’s 2005… what am I doing in 2005?”
Then they go about the things that make Winter
or 2005 “work” for them. Seasonal/Yearly
People are great at long progressions that are sometimes never truly
completed. They are often less task-oriented
than they are process oriented. They are
more concerned with development and culture than with the nitty
gritty details of life. They are more
interested in living “the life” they are leading than in what that looks like
on a daily or even weekly basis. They
look at the ways people live and they question how much others waste their time
doing things they don’t need to do or
that don’t need to be done at all. A
Seasonal Person will often take very long vacations or even mini-sabbaticals
from their line of work. They may also
go into a feverish season of productivity on a nearly annual basis. For a long stretch of the year they may work
65+ hours a week. For another long
stretch of the year they may get little to nothing done at all—even if they are
in the office. Seasonal/Yearly People
are often very resistant to do something they don’t want to do or that doesn’t
align with their training and competencies.
They are often very good at
long-range planning and creative thinking.
Often communicators or artist at heart—Seasonal People want others to
see the bigger picture they wake up seeing every day.
Off-Beat Issues for Seasonal People: A Seasonal Person works will have trouble doing any
task, even a large project a Monthly Person might excel at, unless they see the
connection to the bigger picture of life.
While always at risk of being paralyzed by the trivial, the Seasonal
ones among us can make gigantic moves and apply near super-human effort with
monumental risk if it fits into their view of the year ahead. A Seasonal Person is never more in their
element than when planning for the future or making big moves to affect the
future. They are also never more out of
their element than when forced into a repetitious rhythm of life. Often gifted with an extra ounce of
creativity or more, Seasonals will often enter
(fittingly) a season of amazing
productivity or creative delivery, followed by a season of little to no creative production. This can be immensely frustrating in the down
time for the Seasonal Person who is unaware of their Life Rhythm, for they
can’t seem to force themselves to do what they recently did so effortlessly. However, a Seasonal Person fully aware of
their Rhythm can anticipate these ahead of time and take advantage much like a
person works during the day and sleeps during the night. Managers: If you’re looking for someone to
take the biggest risks and do the most creative projects but who you won’t need
to count on every day, find a Seasonal Person on your team to do it.
Spiritual Parallels: Seasonal People can often times reach a closeness with God that feels so much stronger than other
times in their lives that they can’t explain it. They often have a roller-coaster spiritual
life. High times with the Lord are
sometimes followed by frustrating dry spells.
However, during the high times they “draw neigh unto God” in a way that
a Daily or Monthly person would have trouble relating to. Longer seasons practicing intense spiritual
disciplines (such as 40 Day fasts or nightly prayer meetings) will grow a
Seasonal Person well when others might not be able to pull them off. If a Seasonal Person comes to grips with
these spiritual intervals and does not get too down in the “meantimes”
of life, they can engage well in their spiritual journey and pass on insights
the rest of us would have trouble attaining.
The key question for a Seasonal Person to ask about their spiritual life
is: “What season am I in right now and what can I do to stay afloat in the down
times and take advantage of the high times to grow closer to God?”
Seasonal -Style Careers: While not all people in these occupations have this
kind of life-rhythm, many people in the following occupations were drawn to
them because they are Daily People or these jobs may be more conducive to those
who know they are Seasonal People: Managers, artists, musicians, actors, CEOs, travel
agents, school teachers, college professors, inventors, writers, builders,
investors, large business owners, professional athletes. Another observation:
many salary-paid jobs align with the Life Rhythm of Seasonal People.
It seems possible that some
more extreme examples of Life Rhythm may be found. Some people may be “5-10 years” people. The later types may be hard to even assess
because their whole lives have the kind of “mood swing” chart that some people
have in one week! These even keeled
types may not change much in their rhythm until something comes along that shifts
them into a multi-year season of high-productivity. And then another event shifts them into a
multi-year season of rest and re-charging and learning. One observation: in examining the biographies
of the most gifted national leaders, genius thinkers, master artist and even biblical
characters I’ve noticed a great many of them appear to have this kind of Life
Rhythm. I’ve wondered if this extremely
spaced out rhythm that includes a frenetic period of output enables some of humankinds
greatest achievements that the rest of us (non-geniuses and non-artist people
like me) get to reap the benefits of.
The monastic way of Saint
Benedict established an externally imposed Life Rhythm for the lifestyle of his
spiritual adherents. Often termed the “Benedictine
Order,” it organized monks around an Hourly Rhythm, as many monastic circles do. Every hour of every day would be scheduled
out the same way, 365 days a year, with only slight variations for high holy
days. So they wouldn’t ask what they do
“that day” – every day would be nearly identical for them. That voice in their heads would instead ask,
“It’s
PART THREE – NEXT STEPS IN LIFE
RHYTHM
Significant parallels related to the Life Rhythm
Theory that will continue to play out in the future:
Applications of the Life Rhythm Theory for you to
start with today:
(INCOMPLETE)
© 2005 by David Drury