Sometimes you have to check out
As agency owners and leaders — we live in a pressure cooker. There’s always an endless list of To Dos. Deadlines constantly loom. Someone is always in our doorway, needing five minutes that quickly turns to twenty. Clients call with emergencies, employees have personal issues and we seem to be the focal point where all of these demands gather. Truth be told, most of us like the controlled chaos. We thrive on the challenge, the pace, and energy that comes from our daily demands. Until we don’t. I’m a high energy person as a general rule. I juggle multiple companies, work long hours, produce a significant amount of new content, and am constantly working to create something new and valuable — be it a course, writing a book, launching a conference or guiding a client through a thorny issue. So when the holidays wrapped up, I planned on jumping right back into the fray, going at 110 mph and getting back into my usual routine. But I couldn’t. This past fall and early winter were packed with some colossal challenges and demands in both my personal and professional life. The specifics don’t matter but suffice it to say, I have not been stretched that thin in many years. I was emotionally, physically and mentally spent. I went on a trip that I had been looking forward to all year. I thought that it was what I needed to re-charge my battery. But instead, it just exasperated the issue. I am not an apathetic person. In fact, I am sort of the opposite. I care about everything. But, when we got back from our trip, I was pretty much apathetic about everything. I didn’t care about [...]