Good morning from New York City. What I want to talk about today is something that popped onto my Instagram screen. You know, we try to wean ourselves from Instagram, but I have to say my Instagram feed does have a lot of things that inspire me. A great one came across the other day. It was the woman, I think her name is Rashma or Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code. She’s a relatively young woman – I would think she’s in her 40s, I don’t know, it doesn’t matter – she’s a young, vibrant, accomplished woman. And the first line of her story was, So my coach told me.

That stopped me because I love this idea that the most accomplished people in the world, the best athletes in the world, for example, have a coach. And coaches have coaches. I think this is a really important thing to remember (and by the way this is a note to self).  I don’t have a coach myself but when I saw that, I was reminded of how important it can be to make that investment in ourselves.

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked there. That’s not the point that I wanted to make. The thing that really struck me that Reshma was sharing was that her coach had reminded her that the most successful people manage their energy, not their time. I love seeing this share because she’s a young, vibrant woman. This is something that people are talking about as they’re aging. My friend group talks a lot about, for example, We need more recovery time after a lot of activity or after even a weekend away. We need more recovery time as we age. I guess what I want to say is I loved seeing someone vibrant and successful and in the apex of their career talking about the value and importance of managing your energy. It truly is a superpower.

You know, I always say rest is our best friend, and we know all the data about how multitasking doesn’t really work, how we go further faster when we’re well rested. Yet somehow it remains something that we know intellectually but don’t put into practice. And I really do think it’s a superpower when you manage your energy. This is something that doesn’t just happen. right? We have to make a deliberate, conscientious choice that we’re going to shift our calendar and time management to value managing our energy because no one’s going to do it for us. I guess it all comes down to valuing our rest and valuing our free time, valuing our hobbies.

There’s of course a big element to having an awareness, and the wherewithal to question ourselves when we’re overbooking. When we’re saying yes to too many things. When we’re overscheduled, because setting those boundaries or goalposts or whatever you want to call them really does come down to matters of priorities and values and a sense of agency. We’re not the victims of our calendars. And yes, I do get that busy people with big jobs or business owners often don’t have the luxury of making as much time for themselves as they might like to. But I also think it always surprises us when we shift there and we make a choice that we want to carve out more time how it magically happens It really does come down to getting clear about it.

You know when they talk about meditation, for example, a lot of people will say they don’t have 20 minutes to meditate. Well, the joke is that the people that don’t have time to meditate are the ones who need it most.

I’ll leave you with that thought for today until next time, from my heart to yours.