Transcript:
We've all been through a lot during Covid-19, including some incredible challenges and amazing opportunities. One thing that I found during this global pandemic is that it has almost been like a cleanse in many ways. The pandemic has brought a lot of things to the surface that previously may have been hidden. One of those things is a fundamental law: as entrepreneurs and leaders who are creating exciting futures for ourselves, our team, our clients, our families, and our friends, there's truly only two things in our lives that are finite.
The only two things in our life are our time and our energy.
Everything else we can make more of. And so, during this time of great uncertainty and unprecedented opportunity, how we take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally, are obviously paramount. This self-care really centers in many ways around our time and our energy, which are two of our greatest and yet most limited resources.
Starting with focusing on recharging, we are making sure that, as great leaders, we are scheduling downtime - fully away from work. We should be spending this time either alone or with the people we love, like friends with family members. It is so important that we schedule our recharge time first. That can look like making sure that every month we take a long weekend, every quarter we're taking as close to a week off as we can. Taking that time off is not only critical for us as great leaders to recharge, but it also provides a window for our teams to step up and take on new responsibilities. With this time that you are not in the office, your teams will have a better sense of whatever processes are working and what ones really aren't fully developed yet.
There's no more important time to have a tool to help us to rest, recharge, and focus on those things that truly matter to us.
As you look at this PFD resting and recharging tool, please take the time to schedule these activities that recharge you. When you do take that time to do these activities, give yourself the gift of being fully present with whatever you choose to do. For example, don't bring technology that's going to distract you into these super critical times.
There’s an example I would like to share: when I am teaching someone to fly an airplane, we talk about the notion of “the Power Curve”. Typically, many student pilots, as they’re learning to fly an airplane, get behind “The Power Curve”. They get too slow on Final Approach - they have too much drag out with flaps and the landing gear. The engines in the small airplanes can’t overcome that. The only way to recover: to lower the nose and gain airspeed if you’re getting too low. I think that is the perfect analogy for many of us as leaders. With Covid-19, we've been working almost non-stop and we've allowed our batteries to get too low. The only way to recover is to recharge - it's to slow down and to intentionally push that nose forward. That is the way to not only take care of ourselves, so we can not only enjoy the journey, but to truly make the impact to which we are committed.