Thursday, November 7, 2013

Can you bounce back?

I’m asked often how do you do what you do? You seem to have boundless energy and never seem to need sleep? I have to be honest that often I surprise myself when it comes to the impact that passion has on your ability to stay focused, finish well and be ready for more! I was listening to a discussion on talk radio about the ongoing issue of being burnt out. What surprised me, not really, was to have this person being interviewed be honest about their inability to disconnect at times with their work or passion. Is it possible to turn off your iPhone or Droid and actually do nothing? The ultimate issue for this successful gal was she couldn’t sleep at night.

It is easy for me to get a high from dealing with emergency life issues that are around me. Too often we define our lives by a checklist, possessions, positions and your ability to be an influencer.  Is it possible to be the energizer bunny but also the slug that finds that favorite couch and actually lays horizontal? I confess to the fact that too often I only get 6 hours of sleep. My wife is an early riser, like 5am, so we can walk the dogs before the crowd comes out and be ready for our day before 7am. I also like to stay up late on occasion. So at some point you hit the wall and need some real rest and downtime.

What I enjoyed about listening to this one talk show program was the fact that the leader decided to change the work paradigm in her company. She saw the need to detach and not be controlled by a smartphone 24/7. My wife is reading a book for her clinical studies on the same topic and focuses on how to be in the middle of crisis and not be overwhelmed. I know that most want a 1-2-3 approach to handling real life issues. What comes across through personal experience and the influencers around me is to first admit that you are too busy doing things that aren’t important. Yes, I might not be the best at managing my time or seeing through the tyranny of the urgent. So I do need to take a step back and catch my breath.

I work with youth and adults in tough neighborhoods where most live in crisis and believe personally everything is always an emergency. So the expectation usually is that I should drop everything I’m doing and help. I react to this a lot and usually don’t do knee jerk reactions out of principle. Yet, I am beginning to understand the impact of always living in broken situations has on an individual where you don’t have the skills to bounce back or rethink your view of circumstances. So what are some practical steps in learning how to bounce back and rethink your paradigm of how you do life?

I admit that I’m addicted to my high tech tools or toys. My goal each day is to spend down time reading. I love using my iPad to read and rest. Yes, I actually go home and get on my bed and read with one of my dogs next to me. This might be as much as an hour or just 15 minutes but it always energizes me for what is up next. I know it would be so much easier if there were a pill to pop or some type of self-hypnosis but I need to take ownership of my life and not allow circumstances to control me. So it is possible to take time whether that is in your office, at home or driving in your car to catch your breath? Maybe it is listening to music instead of hearing about the latest tragedy or actually doing nothing.


This CEO type of person on the talk show admitted that it was totally their choice to be controlled by their high tech toys and trade sleep for a few more e-mails. I doubt any of us will wish on our deathbed that we had spent more time at the office or stayed up till 1 am responding to e-mails.

No comments:

Post a Comment