Howdy!
Today’s issue: something I learned dealing with stress.
The last 12 months have been the hardest year of my life, both personally and professionally.
But it taught me something important to shrae. I wish I’d learned it sooner.
I’m going to keep it brief on the negativity. But here’s a little context.
Personally, we’ve had a ton of family stress. One of my sons has not been in school for 3 years due to chronic health issues. We’re hopefully working through it, but a sick kid is something I don’t wish on anybody.
It’s been rough professionally too.
We closed down a business where the tailwinds had all turned to headwinds.There have been multiple companies I’m invested in where the CEO has moved on. That creates work and stress for the investors (like me) and the board members (also me).
Combine that with raised interest rates doing their job right now. The economy is slowing down, and people like me aren’t investing as much (or at all) in new stuff.
A recession also forces businesses to spend a lot of time playing defense, fixing things that broke when interest rates went up.
This stuff all adds up. It’s impossible not to get anxious or stressed. For someone who’s been perpetually chill, feel-it-in-your-stomach anxiety is not good. After awhile, you can feel yourself stuck in that mode, doom-scrolling on your phone.
(The upside: I’m hitting my weight loss goal for the year easy peasy. Stress is bad for your health, but great for losing pounds.)
And look, I'm a nearly 50-year-old guy. I know that when there are good times, there will also be bad times. I’m not afraid of the grind. But things just sucked. Until one conversation turned things around for me.
It was a conversation I had with my chief of staff Robyn. She said, “Hey, you don't seem happy in your work right now. What do you need to do differently?”
As we talked, we realized that for almost an entire year, we’d only been playing defense. I’d been spending all my time:
- Trying to make the best of a bad situation
- Trying to build what I thought other people wanted
Doing this stuff full-time, the stress had crept up on me like a frog in boiling water. I was totally miserable and didn’t even realize it.
And I realized that, even though this was stuff I HAD to do, it had basically ZERO overlap with the stuff I LOVE to do.
- Creating cool stuff that’s going to help people
- Teaching people
- Turning insights into reality
And because I wasn’t doing anything at all that inspired me, the stress just kept ratcheting up. Robyn helped me see that I need to put fun back in the mix.
Of course, it’s a balance. When you own a business, you can’t just walk away because it has problems. But I asked myself, how can I work on something inspirational, while still meeting my responsibilities?
Even if it’s just 5% of my time.
Notice I said “inspirational,” not “fun.” Because you can have fun in lots of ways. I could ignore my problems and just ride my bike all the time. I’d have fun. But it would only numb the anxiety, not actually heal it.
It’s inspirational work that gives us purpose. And for me, inspirational work is probably the most fun I can have.
—
I had that conversation a month ago. Then, I experimented and allocated a small amount of time towards inspiring projects/hobbies. It’s made all the difference to my well-being.
What I can say is, having at least one project that reduces instead of increases my stress makes a world of difference.
—
This was a big lesson learned for me, and I think it’s valuable to anyone: if you’re going through hard times, you still need to save some time for inspiration.
If you’re really pressed, just carve out 5% of your time. If you can, make it 10%, or even 20%.
Because the less time you have for inspiration, the more you need it.
Have a great week!
Michael
