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Hey Reader, I told you I was going to send an email this past Saturday to announce the winners of the 17th Anniversary Scholarship. I didn't send it… I had the concept ready to go. But when Saturday morning rolled around, I looked at Courtney and my son, Jagger, and I had a choice to make. I could either spend my weekend chained to my phone working, or I could actually practice what I preach. I chose my family. I chose not to give them the leftover scraps of my energy. For 17 years, I have coached high-achievers on how to stop being “Ghost Parents.” People who are physically in the room but mentally miles away, stressing over work. If I had spent my weekend worrying about a marketing email, I would've been living in the exact “Scraps Economy” that I teach my clients to escape. So, I unplugged completely. And we had one of the best Halloween weekends of our lives.
As for the scholarship, I spent this morning reviewing the applications, and I was completely blown away by the response. Because the submissions were so incredibly personal, I decided it didn't feel right to blast the winners' names out to thousands of people. Instead, I'm reaching out to the winners privately this week to get them set up in The Full Battery Home program. The 17th Anniversary Scholarship is now officially closed. But I want to leave you with this: If you struggled to stay present this weekend, or if you constantly find yourself bringing the “Office Virus” home to the dinner table, I want to give you one simple tool to use today. I call it the Body Throttle. Most high-achievers transition from work to family at 100 MPH. You close your laptop and walk straight into the living room while your brain is still red-lining from the day's demands. You're physically there, but your engine is still revving, which makes you snappy, reactive, and exhausted. Here is the fix: Before you walk through your front door tonight (or the second you log off your final Zoom call), give yourself exactly 3 minutes. Close your mouth, glue your tongue to the roof of your mouth, straighten up and take a slow, 4-second inhale through your nose. You cannot out-think your competing demands, but you can use your breath to manually pull back on the gas pedal. Slow the engine down so you can actually show up as the person your family deserves, rather than giving them your leftover scraps.
PS: If you want to take this one step further tonight, try this: After you do your 3 minutes of breathing, leave your phone in your bag or a drawer for the first 30 minutes you are with your family. The emails will still be there later. Your kids' excitement to see you won't… |
