Relaxing Your Muscles (힘빼기)

I recently picked up my golf clubs again. I hadn't been to the driving range for a few months due to various inconveniences, big and small. However, thanks to my athleticism, I was able to maintain my old skills.

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When I played golf after a long time, I decided to try hitting the ball with less force. But surprisingly, I was hitting the ball much better and farther than when I was actively playing golf! I was amazed to see myself hitting the driver over 205 meters, when I used to struggle to hit it over 200 meters.

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The secret was to relax my muscles. In the past, I used to tense up my entire body to hit the ball as far as possible. I had often heard that golf should be played using the core and less force, so I decided to try that approach. And it worked! I started hitting the ball properly and consistently.

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Similarly, at work, trying too hard can often lead to mistakes. When we strive for perfection, we can easily experience burnout. And when we see our colleagues who seem to be putting in less effort, we might get angry and create conflict. In such situations, we might become even more tense and unable to perform to our full potential.

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Moreover, if we put in a lot of effort but don't get good results – for example, if we work extremely hard on a proposal but fail to win the bid – we will likely experience stress and frustration.

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It would be great if we could quantify the right amount of effort to exert, but… we can probably sense how much effort we're putting in.

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When running a long distance, we can sense when we're overdoing it. Similarly, if we feel like we're overworking ourselves at work, we need to take a break. Just like how a race car needs to go to the pit stop if it overheats, perhaps we should also take a break and step into a relaxation zone?