Physical Capacity - The Foundation

by Joan Friedlander

I started toying with the idea of capacity as it relates to growing a sustainable, thriving business. In the article Introducing "The Capacities," I list 11 capacities. You can read the article by clicking here. Further consideration of the 11 capacities revealed that there is a hierarchy of sorts, something like Maslow's hierarchy of needs; 3 are foundational, 3 are intermediate and 3 signify potential for full self-expression. The 2 remaining capacities will either be integrated, added on or eliminated. We shall see!

Physical Capacity - The Foundation

Physical Capacity - one's real ability to carry out the tasks at hand. Furthermore, the ability to understand the current limitations on physical capacity and act accordingly.

Physical capacity refers to your body's ability to support and execute the tasks of living life. I chose this as the essential foundation for all the other capacities because without health and physical strength all of the others are more difficult. I know this all too well.

If you have not known me for years you'll not know that between 1992 and 2006 I was periodically but significantly impacted by symptoms associated with an intestinal illness, Crohn's Disease. (I wrote about this in my book, "Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease" with co-author Rosalind Joffe, MEd., Demos Health, 2008)

When I was in the midst of a severe Crohn's flare up, my ability to engage with the various activities associated with building my business was severely compromised. Fortunately, even when at my worst I was able to cozy up in my bed under blankets and work with clients and lead teleclasses. In truth, "being" with people this way offered relief to the persistent presence of pain and discomfort.

However, my ability to engage with the more energetic business activities such as marketing or innovation and business development were limited to nonexistent. Furthermore, I was emotionally and mentally compromised (constant pain and a bit of fear mixed in will do that). In other words, my mental/psychic and emotional capacities were diminished in the face of my significantly reduced physical capacity. Thus, my assessment that physical capacity is foundational. My work with clients and stories from many friends confirm the same.

We know that through exercise, nutrition and other health-building practices you can increase your physical capacity so that, at a foundational level, you are better able to regularly engage more effectively with the routines and circumstances in life. What seems less clear is our understanding of how to modulate one's engagement when physical capacity is less than optimal, or to prevent deterioration in the first place. In the face of loss of ability, or under the pressure to perform, physical limitations tend to get swept under the rug like an annoying clump of dirt.

The solution seems to be twofold:

Mindfulness - to be sufficiently aware of your body's real capacity to do whatever you ask it to do. To ignore its warning signs, or to be shut off from body-awareness completely, is a real issue in an always engaged, 24/7 world. Mindfulness means that, regardless of the potential imposition, you would be able to detect when you are moving away from homeostasis towards imbalance, and then alter behavior in response.

Inner strength or courage - to heed the signs that enough is enough. It is typically not a good idea to "show" the outer world your limits, but if you are to maintain and/or build physical capacity, you do have to summon the inner strength to say, "I can't do any more," or "this is enough for today."

A friend who came to visit this past weekend has found himself in a very physically and mentally demanding situation. He and his wife were hit by a double storm in the last two years. The economy erased much of their savings and investments, and at the same time members of their family became ill, needing financial and medical support. My friend, who was doing quite well financially running his own businesses, suddenly had to return to his original profession as an per diem (part-time) employee. He suddenly found himself working for three different companies, working 10-12 hours/day, 6-7 days a week. While he is grateful for his health, knowledge and strength, (his physical and mental capacities), the magnitude of this challenge was unexpected, especially at retirement age!

I know him as someone with a big heart and can-do attitude. I can see, too, that though his spirit is strong his body is tired. A short vacation has given his body a chance to remind him that it's stretched a bit too much. His body really wants to nap and rest much more than work time allows these days. That's what our bodies do when we push their limits. In the down time they celebrate by showing endless tiredness, unwanted illness, or worse. But the cost of the body exceeding its capacity is even greater, especially for someone who is as creative as my friend, because the lack of energy also limits creativity and effectiveness.

What makes it difficult to notice our body signals? Adrenalin.

Good old adrenalin. Having served us well for centuries on end when physical survival was an every day event, it has become the culprit in tons of physical ailments in our less physically demanding lives. Adrenalin gives you that push you need when you are required - or require yourself - to engage for hours and/or days on end in activities and projects for which you have run out of energy. It doesn't take much of a push for adrenalin to kick in. Any time you are surprised or spurred to activity, a little adrenalin gets pumped into your system.

There is nothing inherently wrong with adrenalin, either. We need it; we are equipped to handle it. It is the excessive engagement with adrenalin-producing behavior that has the potential to cause significant problems. With ongoing over extension you can, quite literally, blow your adrenal glands. Additionally, there are many, many other physical ailments linked to excess adrenalin production: heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity, as well as a number of "stress ailments."

What is a business owner to do?

I share all this with you, not to tell you that you can't do what you want to do, that you have to stop engaging in the activities of business - and life - that stretch you physically and mentally. Striving, growth and hard work are not inherently wrong. BUT - and this is what motivates me - I see many, many people pushing themselves in the face of external pressures and internal misconceptions of success, and suffering. How do I know? They tell me.

 

by Joan Friedlander, © 2011. All rights reserved.