The Word Is PUSH

This series is inspired by the "Words From
Unity" public service announcements
that ran on television (particularly in
Kansas City) in the 1970's and 80's.

Earlier in this series, I talked about falling in with an international folk dance group here in Tucson. It has definitely broadened your servant's horizons and helped me stay fit. It has also been a exercise in humility: the more I learn, the more I see how much I have to learn. The feet don't want to follow the body, and the body sometimes doesn't want to move period after a long day in the newsroom. Still, I push myself to go. Why? Because I feel like I'm cross-training, just as I attend Scottish dancing to help with my English dancing, which in turn helps for my annual pilgrimage to Williamsburg and the George Washington Ball.

Pushing myself has paid off. It's easier for your servant to get through the two-hour "boot camp" ball rehearsal that precedes each Williamsburg Ball. Difficult figures don't throw me like they used to, and your servant has even had a chance to school some newcomers -- fulfilling that Colonial fantasy of being a dancing master.

It's not much different at work -- having to push myself to make deadlines, rewrite, do a lot of things in a little time to get a newscast on the air. But different from my dancing life, I have found myself guilty of trying to do too much at certain times, and I had to step back and realize I need to ask for help every now and then.

I bet a lot of you don't feel like you're doing your job unless you're taking it to the max. While that's fine, ask yourself if you really should be doing all you're doing. You may find -- as a former boss once told me -- that you have the world on your shoulders when you don't need to be holding it up!