Are You Actually Set Up to Succeed for this Season?
What's draining you isn't what you think.
Many of us live in the urgent. Always thinking about what's next. The next meeting. The next email. The next pitch. The next…
If you wake up way too early thinking about what's coming … keep reading.
If you get one bad message on a good day and you spin out … keep reading.
If you keep telling yourself after this project, after this season, after this problem, I'll focus on my family, I'll make things right … keep reading.
Living in the urgent — without fuel, without recovery, without strategy — leads to leading while overwhelmed. Burning through everything you have. Everything you need to succeed at work and at home is within reach. But without the right foundation, it stays there.
Here are three things to remember if you want to lead and live consistently at your highest capacity at work and at home.
Remember to Fuel
Have you ever met a leader who had everything they needed to succeed, but instead of finishing strong, they struggled? Their focus, energy, and discernment didn't match how they started.
On June 7, I finished the Ironman 70.3 in Omaha. I started training in October … a true couch-to-70.3 experience. After almost drowning the first 400 yards and thanking God for the giant skintight floaty (wetsuit), I finished the swim and started the bike section completely drained. Forty miles in, my energy was shot. Not because of my training — because of my fueling. I got into a groove and forgot to eat enough carbs to stay in it. I finished the bike. Somehow managed to put one foot in front of the other for a mile. I accomplished completion. But not at my highest capacity.
The problem was not capability. The problem was fueling.
Here are three ways to fuel while you're running the race every day:
Breathe. Something remarkable happens when you take a moment to intentionally breathe. A few weeks ago, my 8-year-old, Alice, saw me stressed and said, "Daddy, do this." She breathed in slowly for five seconds, out slowly for five seconds. We did it together for about five minutes. My tone shifted. My conversations improved. My whole day brightened. There's real science behind breathwork. Try it when you wake up, when something hits heavy during the day, and before you go to bed.
Journal. Write with a pen what you're thinking and feeling. When we write, our bodies process emotion, and we come out the other side a bit healthier and more energized for what's next.
Move. Walk, stretch, lunge, get your blood flowing. Twenty to thirty minutes a day.
Lock Into Strategy
During the Ironman, the key advice was simple: keep moving, don't sprint, and make sure you have enough left in the tank to finish.
The same logic applies to how you plan your day, your week, and your month.
Start and end your day digital free. Read, stretch, pray, breathe, sip a good coffee. Don't rush to work. Here's the thing about cortisol — your stress hormone hits your system within 90 seconds of a trigger. When you check email the moment you wake up, you're sprinting straight into stress. You'll have plenty of it all day. Don't rush toward it in the morning. Don't finish with it at night either.
Create margin. Build time to think and process before rushing to what's next. Own your schedule instead of letting others own it for you.
Be wise with your energy. Know what you need to own and what you need to hand off. Understand the difference between what's urgent and what's important.
Build & Schedule a Recovery Plan
The mantra for many of us when we entered the workforce was hustle and grind. And honestly, that's a great mantra for players competing in the World Cup during a match. But watch what happens after each game: every player follows a strict recovery protocol to make sure they're ready to compete again. They don't just play and play and play. The recovery is part of the performance.
Many of us don't have that. We push through a long day or a rough week with no plan to recover let alone a strategy to stay strong for an entire season.
Here's what I want you to hear: vacation is not a recovery plan. Vacation is the reward. Recovery is what makes you ready to enjoy it.
Schedule recovery during the week. That might look like:
A date with your spouse
A workout where you actually break a sweat
Putting the phone down and picking up a book
Hosting friends for dinner and forgetting about the office for a few hours
If world-class players don't rest, don't recover, don't build margin into their season, then they won't perform at their potential. Neither will we.
Many of us live in the urgent. Always thinking about what's next. The next meeting. The next email. The next pitch. The next…
Begin fueling, strategizing, and recovering, and set yourself up to love life at work and love life at home. That's not a distant dream. That's a reality you can live in now.
