08 Mar An Open Letter To My Friends & Family

Sorry. I apologize. Please forgive me.

It seems as if the demands of navigating the pandemic, changing my business model and responding to new challenges and opportunities has meant that I haven’t been fully present in the way I’d like to be.

Here’s my plan going forward:  I’m going to try to be more of a human BEING, rather than a human DOING.  You probably know what I mean by that. For all the tragedy and trauma caused by COVID it has also opened some possibilities and shone a light on issues that we have all been ignoring or sweeping under the rug.  For me, the limitless opportunities presented by these times are irresistible. I am easily distracted and very much an instant gratification junkie.

Wait! What’s that bright light? Let’s ride bikes!

This constant urge to learn more, discover more, do more is all well and good and likely keeps the muscle in my skull limber but it comes with a price.

Maybe you have been paying it as well, and didn’t really notice?

Do you let your attention stray during a conversation with your partner, child, or friend, and sneak a peek at your phone?

Do you read and answer emails during a Zoom call, personal or even work related? Are you obsessed with taking on more projects even though the ones you have already cost you hours of lost sleep?

If so, you are likely a HUMAN DOING, not a HUMAN BEING.

For those of us with a long history of working from home, the blurry line between being “at work” and “at home” has always been a struggle. At one time I would change my clothes to signify leaving work and turning back into mom.

There have been several posts recently, extolling the virtues of taking time outs, giving us a chance to regroup and refresh. I’m thinking of these breaks as a hard reboot of my systems which run fine most of the time but whose performance suffer when too many mental windows are open at once.