I hope you enjoyed some well-earned time off last week.  Before we start back up and get lost again in the daily grind, I wanted to share a thought I had over break about hiking, backpacks, and carrying weight on our shoulders.  Last week my family went on a few hikes, and we took a backpack with us filled with the things we thought we needed.  One day we realized the backpack had all the stuff we needed to carry plus other unnecessary junk like trash, toys, old changes of clothes, etc.  We removed those things from the backpack, because they were adding weight we didn’t need to carry.  Instead, we made sure we were only carrying the things we needed.

What does this have to do with anything?  During the summer shutdown I realized I was carrying around an invisible backpack filled with extra weight that didn’t serve me, extra weight that I didn’t need to carry.  That extra weight was from COVID, recent events, unnecessary pressure I was putting on myself at work, the anxiety of navigating a new normal in all the roles I play in life (husband, dad, friend, co-worker), and the ridiculous expectation that I should be able to play all those roles while performing at a level like the external events weren’t happening.  I had been carrying around this extra weight, and I had not been carrying it well either.  I know over the past two months I haven’t been the best version of myself.  I have been tired, short on patience and understanding, low on motivation, and I could feel this negatively impact the different roles in my life.  In many ways, I hadn’t been taking the best care of myself.

My wife and I were about four days into summer shutdown when we realized we both felt lighter, as if someone had taken a huge weight off our shoulders.  We talked about this and realized that as we unplugged, we had also decided to let go of things.  We had removed some of the weight we were carrying around in our invisible backpacks, and that made all the difference.  Summer shutdown came at a perfect time for me.  It gave me an opportunity to drop some of that weight and reset.  It gave me time to reflect on the weight I’ve been carrying, and realize that while I will need to pick some of this weight up I do NOT need to pick up all of it.  I can choose to leave behind unrealistic expectations that created stress and anxiety.  I can try to do a better job of understanding what is in my control and what is outside of my control.  I can choose to take better care of myself.  As work resumes, there are some things I’ll pick up and put into my backpack, and other things I hope to leave on the side of the road.

The challenge: As we start to ramp up again, what weight will you pick up and what will you leave behind?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry