Avoiding Longshore Drift

It seems fitting that, living in Cincinnati, OH, our family vacations at Hilton Head Island almost yearly. It is rare to meet someone in Cincinnati who does not go to Hilton Head and even rarer to not meet someone from Cincinnati while at Hilton Head.

One of the best things about Hilton Head is the beach itself–it is an enormous playground for young kids and affords parents ample opportunity to relax while the kids frolic in the waves and tidal pools. Of course, in our family, it is usually me frolicing in waves while my kids look on in surprise at the grown man splashing up and down and yelling with glee.

Inevitably, this frolicing leads to a strange situation–after about twenty minutes of boogie boarding and wave jumping, I will look up only to see that our gaggle of beach chairs and umbrellas is nowhere in sight. I have drifted so far down the beach that I can longer even see my family. I have, in effect, become a victim of longshore drift.

This term was first introduced to me by James Lenhoff, author of Living a Rich Life, who uses it as a metaphor to describe the inertia of the everyday that pulls us away from our course and causes us to slowly drift away from our intentions. I, for one, can relate–both to the experience at the beach AND to what this means in my daily life.

If I’m not careful, I’ll be two, three, even four months into the school year, only to look up and realize I am far from where I intended to be. I have somehow managed to drift, carried along by the urgency of the everyday, toward an entirely new beach with entirely new lists of urgencies and action items. And as I navigate those, I am pulled further and further away from where I originally set out.

How, then, do we guard against longshore drift? First, we accept that it is inevitable–life has a way of pulling us off course. Second, however, we can calibrate more often. Rather than looking up every few weeks or even months, we can check in weekly regarding our goals and priorities. Third, we can consider an accountability partner to help keep us on track with regular rhythms of checking in on key, specific areas of our life.

Some may say that the best way to avoid longshore drift is to stay out of the water, but I deeply protest this–we have to get in the water. We have to splash and enjoy and ride the boogie board of life, but we just have to move against the current enough to stay on track with where we are supposed to be.

Let’s Go!

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