Give Me A Break!

Today I did something that I've been told to do, encouraged to learn to do, and wanted to do for a long time. I walked away from my e-mail.

So, you might ask, what's the big deal? Well, it was business related. And, like most e-mails, it usually means I have to jump to action and do something. But, today, I decided, I wasn't going to. I did not want to assume the consequences of taking on more duties for a project, that I am but one team member of. But, I am the most productive team member of that particular project. And, you know what they say about busy people: give them the thing you want done to do, and they'll get it done.

I decided I'd not only leave my desk, which is in a home office, but also to leave my home. I got in my car, wanting initially to go for a drive to a large grocery store a few miles away. I like going to that particular store because you pass through a regional park, with horse riding stables, and a nature center. Well, guess what I did? I got out at the nature center. And, I took a walk in the woods. I found a place to sit quietly, near a little pond. I watched the frogs and birds. I listened to the water as it ran into the little pond.

I just stopped.
No phone. No e-mails flying back and forth. No expectations. No brain storming. No thinking about what's on my list of things to do.

Silence,except for the birds, the water, the passing jets overhead, the children in the distance, and the sound of cars on a nearby road.

No conversation-outload, or internal.

I stopped.


Oh, I did go shopping. And, when I came back to my home with the groceries, I put them away, and made myself a sandwich before I checked my voicemail.

And, the task that I probably would have gotten myself to deal with, well. It's still not done. But, it's not my problem.

And, it'll probably wait until next week anyway.

You might ask, what's the big deal? Well, to me it is a big deal. Pushing back. Not doing something as fast as humanly possible, and still being successful. That's a big deal.

I gave myself a break.