Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Monday, July 29, 2002 Why work is tougher than schoolBack in May, I wrote about work getting in the way of training and I got a comment:Easier? to train?? when a student??? what a college. Enjoying my well-deserved (permanent?) work break from studies... Back in May, I was writing about how my work schedule was getting in the way of training. I find work schedules much less flexible than school. I could always skip a class or put off studying. But, I can't skip work. The bigger problem with work is stress I think stress is a bigger reason why work can interfere with training. When you're stressed, it is hard to concentrate. After a stressful work day, it is tough to pay attention to training. It can be easy to get out and jog around. A bit of excercise is a great way to relay. But, it is not so easy to get in some quality training (a tough run or some good technique training). For me, work stress is almost always related to supervising. Supervising people is tough. People are complex. Managing people is complex. Over the years, I've gotten much better at managing people and much better at managing my own stress. But, it can still be difficult. You shouldn't get the idea that I don't like my job or that I am super-stressed. I just find it a good bit more stressful than school. I find combining work and training much tougher than combining school and training. How work stess is good Every cloud has a silver lining...and the silver lining of work stess is that I've become much better at managing people. That can pay off for an orienteer. At the World Champs last year, I was better prepared to deal with the strange interpersonal issues that show up when you put a bunch of individual competitors together. "Team dynamics" are a lot like work place dynamics. The stress I've dealt with on the job gave me the tools for dealing with stress at the WOC. That's good. I think one of the real difficulties a national team has is that it puts together a bunch of individuals who aren't likely to be good at getting along as a team. Orienteering is an individual sport that attracts individuals. It attracts people who are sharp. But, it doesn't necessarily attract people who have skills at managing. This is especially true because at the top level, competitors don't usually have much work place experience (and the work place is where you really learn how to deal with people). There are a lot of people who try to use sports as a way to train business people. If you poke around, you'll find business books by or about sports like Peak Performance. I don't know if there are business types pushing books to a sports market. I wonder what Warren Buffet would have to say about training for orienteering or organizing the U.S. team? posted by Michael | 7:28 PM 
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