SIGNAL 12. Oscillation

Energy comes between the push and the pause. In nature, nothing moves in a straight line. From ocean tides to your heartbeat to your breath, it is the ONLY condition that creates growth.

The Lightning Field, created by Walter De Maria in western New Mexico, is more than an art installation; it’s a physical expression of oscillation. Four hundred stainless steel poles stand in perfect geometric rhythm, not to force a strike, but to attune to it. They don’t chase energy; they wait for it. This is the essence of oscillation: the readiness to receive, the stillness before discharge, the structure that holds the storm. And when the tension between the two becomes too great, the field becomes the translator, a moment of release, clarity, illumination. It’s resonance. It’s what happens when a system is grounded enough to handle the voltage of its own truth.

Pulse of Nature

In nature, nothing moves in a straight line, so why do we expect leadership or parenthood to?

From ocean tides to electromagnetic fields, from your own breath to the rhythm of your heart, everything in life pulses. This is oscillation: the rise and fall, the surge and retreat, the quiet and the quickening. It is the process by which energy is built, stabilized, and renewed. Oscillation isn’t a pause from growth; it’s the precondition for it.

And yet, in our systems, in our culture, our companies, and especially in our leadership models and families, we’ve crowned linear progress as the only north star worth following. We chase momentum for its own sake, not really for progress. In this world, movement is only celebrated when it appears to be acceleration. Anything else… reflection, withdrawal, reassessment, is often punished or pathologized… ostracized.

At work, when momentum stalls and unhealthy feedback loops take over, I used to believe it was my job to get everyone back on track. But I’ve learned that “getting back on track” often meant minor tweaks to a path that was fundamentally misaligned. What was needed wasn’t more effort, it was a catalytic reset. A deeper audit. A willingness to question the entire narrative, not just the pace of it.

The same pattern plays out at home. When my children have a meltdown after I return from travel, it’s not irrational; it’s their storm. A pressure system of emotion that’s been building in my absence. They’re not trying to punish me. They’re trying to release something they don’t yet have language for. That same emotional turbulence shows up in co-parenting too, when conflict moves beyond words into actions designed, often unconsciously, to block peace, interrupt love, or create instability. It’s all feedback. But feedback doesn’t always mean fix. Sometimes it means feel, reassess, and rewire.

Business. Life. Parenthood. Nature. The rhythm is the same.
The lesson is the same.

Oscillation is not the problem. It’s the invitation.
To pause. To read. To trace what’s really happening beneath the surface.

When something doesn’t feel aligned, when the system isn’t generating the energy it needs, I pause. I recalibrate. I ask for more, and then I dig for more support, more creativity, and a greater willingness to evolve. And it feels like I pull back. I do. Sometimes I pull too far back to the point of no return. Sometimes I don’t pull far enough.

What follows in this article is a deeper exploration of how business and life windstorms form, of how energy destabilizes when its rhythm is denied, and how our misunderstanding of oscillation in both nature and business leads us into crisis. If we can learn to move with the pulse, not against it, we unlock a more intelligent form of growth, one rooted in resilience, not reactivity. We use a theme called Actionable Insights, which you will find in the resources section.

Alternating Power

In physics, oscillation is one of the most efficient and powerful states. I learned this recently through Larissa Conte’s Wayfinding.io group, and I fell in love with her thesis around energy and how we interact in the world and with each other.

Alternating Current (AC), the standard in power transmission, works by switching direction back and forth (60 times per second in North America) because it reduces energy loss over long distances. Without oscillation, much of the power we generate would never reach its destination. Nikola Tesla’s battle with Thomas Edison over AC vs. DC power was not just technical; it was philosophical. Tesla knew that oscillation wasn’t waste; it was the waveform of wisdom.

The same principles apply in sound, light, and even lightning. Sound travels in waves, vibrations between compression and release. Light exists as an oscillating electromagnetic wave, dancing between electric and magnetic fields. And lightning, contrary to its visual simplicity, is not one strike; it’s an oscillation between stepped leaders and return strokes, a negotiation between cloud and earth that builds until the arc collapses into brilliance.

This is the physics of how power moves. And it's mirrored in the way we build companies, relationships, families, and internal states.

In business, especially during the build phase, founders often internalize the myth of the 16-hour day. Sacrifice becomes a currency and output becomes identity. And for a season, it might be necessary. But what happens when the system you’ve built is entirely dependent on your output? That’s not scale. That’s extraction, from your body, your team, your nervous system. Burnout, then, isn’t failure; it’s a signal. It’s the body and the business that show you've designed something unsustainable.

I am realizing this in my own life. I have pushed and grinded for 25 years and I have collapsed into my current state. All systems have begun to fail.

Resonance, not endurance, is what separates the businesses that grow from those that collapse. In Harvard Business Review’s “The Making of a Corporate Athlete”, researchers Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz argue that energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance. Energy replenishes not through linear push, but through strategic recovery. Sprint and restore. Drive and integrate. This is oscillation in motion.

The same truth lives in the body. Trauma researcher Peter Levine describes “pendulation” as the body’s innate ability to move between states of activation and calm. It’s this rhythmic movement, not constant catharsis, that allows the nervous system to regulate and heal.

Oscillation is a pattern and a strategy for sustainable power.