Welcome to the first edition of Field Notes – my running list of small discoveries that shape how I think, lead, and create. One idea at a time, shared while it is still fresh from the field.

Picture by me, 2019: Montreal skyline from the Jacques-Cartier bridge.

🔍 What I Noticed

On Wednesday, 11 minutes into a 30-minute session on the rowing machine, I was ready to quit. My back ached, the playlist I’d carefully chosen grated on my nerves, and the clock was obviously broken – why else had I just rowed 5 minutes, but it showed that only 43 seconds had elapsed? Rude.

Thursday, I tried something different: I synced my breath to the movement, exhaling on the push-off, inhaling on the glide back. Just like that, I had a steady, almost meditative rhythm. My strokes smoothed out, my back relaxed, and I rowed 500 more meters than the day before.

This reminded me of boxing class. Coach says lasting the round is less about pure cardio (although that helps!) and more about matching the punches to our breathing: punch-breath-breath-punch. Breathwork, as counterintuitive as it sounds in the ring, is what keeps energy level and delays fatigue.

I’ve seen this pattern in other places too. In competitive swimming, fewer breaths means less drag and faster times. In Olympic lifting, the sharp exhale drives the bar. In public speaking, steady breath is the foundation of clear delivery. Different applications, same truth: our breathing shapes performance.

🧠 What I Realized

Breath isn’t just some background bodily function: it changes the game. Done well, it makes effort more efficient and sustainable. Done poorly, it wastes energy we can’t get back.

Yet, my instinct is inverted: I inhale during the hardest part, exhale on the release. This means my muscles are straining while my lungs are still filling, so less oxygen is actually reaching the red blood cells and circulating to where it’s needed most. By the time oxygen is available, the peak effort has passed, and my performance has already slipped. I’ve trapped strain inside my body instead of letting it go, making the work heavier than it needs to be.

I catch myself doing this outside the gym as well. In moments of resistance – a tense meeting, a big decision, a messy problem – I tend to brace, hold tension, or rush. My default is to assume that resolution depends solely on my discipline or willpower, rather than pausing to assess the rhythm of the moment.

📝 Why It Matters

In sports, poor breathwork drains energy before the final round. In life, misaligned effort burns through focus, patience, and creativity, before we are anywhere close to the finish line. The solution isn’t always that we need to push harder; it’s often that our energy expenditure and recovery are out of sync with the moment’s demands.

And those moments of real exertion aren’t always obvious:

• In tough conversations, it’s in listening, not responding.
• In a presentation, it’s in the preparation, not the delivery.
• In a long-term project, it’s recognizing that it is a marathon, not a sprint, and pacing accordingly.

When we align the expenditure of energy and recovery to the true timing of effort, we stop working against ourselves. The load feels lighter – not because the work has changed, but because we have.

💡 How I’m Integrating It

This month, I’m treating breath as a diagnostic tool. Whenever I hit resistance, I’m pausing to check: Am I moving on autopilot – or am I aligning my energy and recovery to the timing of effort this moment demands?

If I catch myself inhaling at the hard part, holding my breath, or rushing, I take it as a signal that I’m defaulting to autopilot and that my approach isn’t aligned with what the moment actually requires. That’s my cue to reset my breathing, my pacing, and sometimes my entire approach. But mostly, that is my cue to get curious about what the moment demands and to respond to that, not to my first impulse.

📣 From Me to We

You might not row, box, or lift. But somewhere in your life right now, you’re pushing up against something heavy.

What if you got curious about your breath? Could it be you are working against yourself? What could you shift in your effort, focus, or environment to better align with the demands of the moment?