I posed the following question in my blog, Giving Thanks, a couple of weeks ago: Have we, as a culture, lost the ability to pause?
For the past week or so, I have been struck down with the flu. I mean STRUCK DOWN with the kind of sick where you can’t get out of bed, the kind of sick where your fever makes your skin and hair hurt, the kind of sick where, no matter how old you are, you want your mom to be there.
As a business owner, missing work for me is cruel and unusual. I don’t like it, and in my mind, I can’t afford it. Oh, I know deep down that my staff can handle the day-to-day affairs without me, but it’s my business, and I want to be on top of it.
When I called a business associate to croak out an apology and push off our standing weekly call, I learned that she, too, was ill; and she, too, was in her bed, some 300 miles away. She said, “Do you think this could be a sign, Clifford? A sign that we need to slow down?”
Her question, though delivered in passing, was profound for me. The body and the mind can only take so much, and after throwing up a few red flags (fatigue, mental strain, headaches…), I am convinced that they will conspire to bring a man down. We can push ourselves to a point where we are unable to stop, unable to relax, unable to pause. It is at the peak of those times when our body and mind scream ENOUGH! They literally gang up and block us from pushing anymore. They render us unable to do the very things that took us over the edge. We find ourselves physically unable to do anything but rest.
It’s sad that it takes the flu to slow me down. I would love to say that I’ll be more deliberate about slowing down in the future. But I try not to make promises I can’t keep. So for now, I will focus on a reasonable reentry into the fray.
May the holiday season bring you good health and happiness.
Clifford Bailey
re-S.H.A.P.E. your mind.™