Today I had a day planned at my home office to catch up, relax, and then have an early evening with friends.
As often is the case in our professional and personal lives, things didn’t go quite as planned:
- I had to answer unexpected questions.
- Phone calls that I waited for were put on hold because one person wasn’t present. I had to postpone the call even though I had set aside the time in the middle of the day to participate in it.
- Information I was to receive didn’t arrive.
- People needed me to make decisions I wasn’t expecting to have to make.
This is all part of my work, and I am typically very willing and able to be flexible, just go with it. But today, well, I was expecting to have an abundance of uninterrupted time! Didn’t work out.
I could feel the tension building up inside, and my ability to handle some of the issues that came up during phone calls diminished as each hour passed.
One of the things I had planned to do today is finalize the weekly blog. It is now 3:00 p.m. and, honestly, I believe trying to finish the piece I started will not be productive. All my good ideas are zapped out of me.
Could I push on waving the unflagging EXCN banner and produce a blog—sure I could.
Would my spirit, body and mind (as well as those of the people around me) benefit from my taking some time for myself – YES! I am saying yes loudly!
So, with your understanding and acceptance, I am going to “live” what I preach and STOP working this early Friday afternoon so that I am fresh and ready for Monday.
For me, knowing when to STOP is just as important as knowing when to START. This is a hard lesson for me to internalize—I want to be all things to all people all of the time. I have learned that no one human can do that.
Are there times when you should have stopped and rested and didn’t?
Do you know when to stop?
