Excellence vs Striving by John Richardson

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Wednesday, 16 May 2018

There’s a fantastic comparison for modern day life which is ‘Excellence vs Striving’. The thought of striving is to work hard and finding the rhythm to perform at a high level, but it also portrays one where you are straining and really working to accomplish your targets and goals. On the other hand, excellence is where you do the best you possible can in a given moment. It’s the best you had to offer at the time which is all anyone can ever ask of you. This doesn’t make excellence the easier route though by any means, but Striving and Excellence do work hand in hand. If you strive and strive without any rest, you are likely to burn out. If you strive and work hard but team that up with excellent technique and self-care, which puts you in a pretty good state to take on the world!

Today’s world we live in is fast, exciting and busy and this isn’t truer with many other places than London. In the U.K, we actually work the longest hours on average in the European Union, with Londoner’s sometimes working an extra three weeks compared to the rest of the country over the year. This coupled in with trying to fit in family, a social life and exercise can feel overwhelming at times and even feel a little bit impossible; especially when you get some extra work dumped on your desk at 5pm. Times like this is when you can run the risk of not prioritising yourself and it can take its toll on your body.

Another way of explaining this feeling is Stress Bucket. If you imagine that as you walk around in your day to day life you have to carry a bucket with you. In this bucket you add the stresses of your working and personal life; the more stress there is, the more full the bucket gets. Now, imagine carrying around this bucket when it’s full; it will be heavy, cumbersome and really get in the way of you going about your day. The worst case scenario is when this bucket starts to spill over which on one hand can make a bit of a mess but can also lead to you snapping and lashing out as things get too overwhelming. This will happen to everyone at some point in their lives and everyone has different levels of coping with stress, think about different sized buckets; the smaller buckets mean the stress can over flow sooner than with someone with a larger bucket. This is in no way a sign of weakness; it’s just how everyone is unique and has different ways of coping with things and everyone’s bucket will fill up at different rates. Instead of letting things get to the point where they over flow, it’s great to have a method of being able to empty that bucket in a controlled way, such as a tap, which means you can lower the stress levels and in turn making it easier to go about your day with a lighter or even empty bucket.

When we don’t self-invest in ourselves and look out for our wellbeing, that’s what can open the door to stress and tight muscles which can hamper our day to day lives even without us realising. An area we can feel this is in our neck and shoulders, which here at Fulham Massage and Wellness is a common complaint. But this can affect you in all areas of your body, including your back, hips and even cause headaches. You may find when life is a bit stressful or you haven’t invested in yourself for some time, work becomes more of an effort and you get tired more easily. Even your gym sessions or sports can take a hit with you not moving or performing in the ways you’d ideally want to.

If you strive and strive, the excellence you want to achieve will become very difficult to attain and in some cases you can burn out. This is where incorporating massage consistently into your life can help and in turn improving your daily life. A Full Body, Deep Tissue Massage every 4 weeks can decrease stress levels; relax tight muscles and relieve those repetitive movements and poor postures that come with so many job roles. The touch between therapist and client is alone proven to release feel good and calming chemicals into your body, most importantly though it allows you to have some down time for yourself. There is a saying where ‘time is precious’ and no time is more precious than your own. In today’s world where commitments can take hold and it’s easy to put others before yourself, it’s necessary to be positively selfish and take some time out just for you; and receiving a massage is an incredible proactive and powerful method to accomplish a more relaxed state and simply feel fantastic afterwards.