What do Arianna Huffington and I have in common? We both did a face-splat that served as a
wake up call that we were doing too much.
As I heard Arianna, when she was in Toronto, describing the
scene of her fall, so much of what she was saying was similar to what had happened to me. Apparently she fell in her office and was
found in a pool of blood, so was I, but I was outside in the dark of the
night. She’d had a cut on her head that had
to be stitched, I had a cut that was glued together. She broke some cheek
bones, so did I.
But it is the wake-up call part that truly struck me. Now I don’t have a big empire or the
resources to support my business, however, when you have an accident or fall,
you do have to look at why it happened, and I suspect in both our cases, we
were running on empty.
She made some life changes and advocates having a break from
technology and some alone time. My break
from technology has, I admit, been more forced upon me as for the past week, I
have not had access to the Internet.
Now my email has been working – thank goodness – but no
sharing great information on social media which is part of my morning
routine. No posting events or checking
member information for our website. And
on a personal level, no checking on potential gifts for the holidays.
Like anything else, it is not until you don’t have
something, that you realize how integral a part of your life it is. I feel I have lost a friend.
On the other hand, my freed-up time has enabled me to do
other stuff – like work on our book Enough,
planning new programs for 2015 or … wait for it, just reading a book.
It has made me realize that I need to build this time into
my life on an ongoing basis, and delegating out the website posting to someone
else has been less painful than I thought.
You know what… I am not the only one who can do it. Now there’s an eye-opening discovery.
I often believe things happen for a reason, we just have to
look for the lesson to be learned. So
like Arianna, I am seeing this reprieve from life in the fast lane as a gift - something
I need to do more often, especially now winter is here, because I don’t “do” winter. I tend to hibernate. So finding more work
that I can do from home quite suits me.
And what am I choosing to read – Thrive – by Arianna Huffington – after all, we’re now kindred
spirits.
5 comments:
I really like the serendipity of your message. Life gives us lessons that we so often ignore. Glad you are listening.....and reading a book!
Glad you are doing ok after your fall, Anne. I just won Thrive last week. And I've even started reading it...to avoid my own fall, hopefully.
Hi Anne,
I agree with you--life is too fast. Unplugging seems to be a difficult and painful lesson for super achieving, busy women. I recently heard Arianna's Ted Talk on sleep. I think it's great that she's so vulnerable in sharing her story, much like you here, blogging about this topic. It's a great service to women to hear stories like this! Thx Anne!
From one kindred spirit to another... so glad to hear you are recovering well Anne. I have to remind myself often that life is not a race, it's a journey to be lived one day at a time. Hope to see you soon.
I really loved this post! Thank you so much for sharing. You're right - we don't have to do everything ourselves. It is a challenge to give up control ( I am struggling with that now), however it can be liberating. There is nothing wrong with seeking others, to support you. Wonderful things can happen; when you are open to change!
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