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Writer's pictureNiki Adams

Musings : 14 June 2021

I got flashed today.

Not the trench coat, waving bits everywhere kind of flashing. Although I did when I was 15 years old in Paris after the Junior World Championships.


There I was with my friend Laura B, eating a mille-feuille on a bench in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. People and tourists bustling around on an unseasonably warm April day. I had won 5th at the Worlds which was alright and I was full of it, just taking it all in.


Suddenly, in front us was this older gentleman. He stood a bit, so long that we started looking around him as he was blocking our view. And then there he was, in all his glory, hands on the lapel of his coat, spread eagle wiggling his hips. My guess is to give It more….how would you say….pizzazz!


Puff pastry spewed from my lips in a confetti of confectionary. I looked him in eyes (plural) and started to laugh. It started as a giggle, gained momentum into a chuckle and then crescendoed into a full belly howl. I’m thinking it wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for as he snapped shut his coat and walked away indignantly as if I was snubbing his performance art.

I guess I was, really.


No, I got flashed by a speed camera. I least I think I did. I was going over the limit in my rush to get to my selected walking location, to get it in before teaching my ball class. I was hustling.


It took me a few minutes to calm down and get into my meditative rhythm on the path as I self-berated for being so careless and now I’ll most likely get a ticket.

‘Was it worth it?’ I inwardly screamed.


And it got me thinking - hustle.

I’ve had a difficult time with that word. I hear it a lot in podcasts and read it in entrepreneurial blogs: Side-hustle, main-hustle, you gotta hustle….but in the next post they would tell you to take a break, take time for yourself, breeeeeeeathe.


It’s all pretty confusing. Akin to which diet is best for you: carbs, no carbs, protein but not necessarily meat protein, graze, fast, so on and so forth.


To me, to hustle means you’re behind, so instantly there is this pressure to catch up, never mind getting out in front.


Don’t get me wrong, we all need a fire under our butt from time to time and I believe that the most effective use of the hustle is like interval training- burst of activity and then rest, to be ready to take on the next challenge.

And always evaluate.

It is in this rest, that we grow and honestly answer, Was it worth it? 🤔


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