Could we just blame January?
You know how when you buy a new car, all of a sudden you see that new car everywhere? This month has been like that, but not about new cars – about New Year’s blues. I noticed it first when I was in a session with a client the first week of January (you know, that week that feels like 15 weeks ago). He had closed a deal literally on the last day of 2021. So when the new year popped up the next day, it felt like whiplash. He hadn’t had time to reflect, or perhaps more importantly, recuperate. He had planned to close his deal early, but it didn’t happen. He had plans to go to Florida to celebrate, and they got botched (COVID). He had things he was looking forward to but they too got riddled with hiccups.
He had that disappointing cocktail of end-of-year exhaustion, a boatload of “shoulds” about how he should feel, or things he should do to kick off the new year strong, all doused with a giant bucket of botched plans that we’ve all been carrying around for two years.
Fast forward to the end of that week, and over a dozen clients had echoed similar sentiments: They simply didn’t feel recuperated, refreshed, or ready.
And honestly, neither was I.
Even with a decent amount of downtime at the end of the year, I felt like I needed more. That old (hilarious) Onion piece about the mom who found peace doing dishes 50 feet from the shoreline felt painfully apt. A bunch of the plans I had laid in preparation for my annual case of the Januarys had been – like my clients’ plans: botched. Balancing that oft-present feeling these days of frustration and awareness of how lucky I am, I dipped into my adrenaline bucket and stuck to my tried-and-true approaches to get me through.
And then came a session with a client who was refreshed and ready. She had relaxed, recuperated; she had even set a word intention for the year. CONNECTION was her word. To get the ball rolling, she had scheduled a series of meetings and other efforts with her team to set that connection in motion. With intention set and plans underway, she was feeling great about how her year was kickstarting. Then a serious personnel issue emerged from nowhere. Feeling a little bit blindsided, she too felt heavy, worried that the time and energy this issue required was going to derail her, take her off course.
As we worked through her situation, I was reminded of a friend who once enrolled in a Weight Watchers program. The program assigned her a successful graduate of the program as her coach to help her on her weight-loss trek. My friend was about to head out on vacation, and confessed to her coach that she was worried about maintaining discipline on vacation. Her coach said: “Listen, there’s no vacation from your life. The world keeps spinning. There’s no magical reprieve.” It seemed that even on vacation spinach and squats were part of the experience.
The reality is life (even before COVID) has always included botched plans and frustrations alongside adventure and success. Life can’t be a completely smooth soak of sunshine anymore than leadership can be all about the perfect execution of a shiny vision. Even on vacation some clouds roll in, and even with a clearly articulated strategic plan, other team needs spring up. For me, the key is to remind myself that these things don’t take you off course; they are indeed, the course.
And if that doesn’t help you, maybe just blame January, and find relief knowing that February is only a day away.
