Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

How many of you are controlled by your calendar?

How many of you double, triple, quadruple book your time?

How many of you are courageous enough to block out time just to think? …and actually do it…AND feel good about it?

In my last CEO role where my calendar was slammed continuously, it felt odd if I had a break in it. It made me uncomfortable.

•Was it lunch time? Nope, I’m supposed to be networking over meals.

•Was it a dentist appointment I forgot to go to? Nope, my business partner would have prompted me and my dentist was very proactive.

•Was it a mistake where I fat-fingered another appointment and deleted the one that should be where this blank spot on my Outlook calendar stares back at me now? Nope, I was meticulous with my schedule.

So how did that white space get there?Was it, perhaps, deliberate?
Hmmmm.

What’s that law about an object in motion tends to stay in motion? Newton understood.

So what do leaders do to overcome what seems to be inevitable? We defy gravity. We push back against what people say is “natural”. We stay vigilant and don’t give up until we’ve achieved what we said we would.

So how does that apply to your calendar?
*Be selective

*Honor your values

*Learn to say No (professionally, respectfully)

Why?

So you can get comfortable not being on the phone, on a video conference or in a person to person meeting all day long? No.

Clearing your head starts with clearing your calendar.

•Take a walk to restore your being.

•Spend some of your new found time to observe your Team functioning without you being an integral cog.

•Rise above the fray and spend some time praising people doing the right thing and making a significant difference.

•Think strategically, not tactically.

•Do something special on an ordinary day for a loved one.

Start today and begin to reap the rewards that come from stepping off the hamster wheel, if only for a brief moment.

Have a blessed weekend!