Have you ever had a day that started off on the wrong foot and it went downhill from there. As you woke up, it was cold and dark, and you were tired from not getting enough sleep.

You check your phone, only to see a string of stressful headlines and a number of emails already piling up.

You spent the day reacting to urgent requests and never quite get to the one thing you wanted to get done.

And then perhaps you said to yourself that you will work some more that night. But by then your energy levels were low and you wasted the evening on social media or TV only to get to bed late again.

These kinds of days happen to all of us.

Focus seems to be something we are all seeking. Yet, it often seems so elusive.

Growing up and watching cartoons, there was an iconic plot line that included the main character (like Fred Flintstone) having a ‘devil’ on one shoulder and an ‘angel’ on the other.

The two sub characters of Fred’s mind would proceed to argue their choice of action, trying to convince poor Fred that their perspective and suggested action was best. Fred would become dizzy and confused amidst the arguing, not sure what to do.

At times, I’m guessing we all feel like this today. The voice of our better self, our inner ‘angel’ suggests we focus on X, only to be immediately drowned out by

At the beginning of 2017, I posted a LinkedIn article entitled “2017 - A Year of Less.” It was inspired by a holiday period where I had fallen off the wagon on some good habits and consumed more than I needed – more sweets, more drinks, more news, more movies. It revealed an interesting paradox, one where I noticed that the more I consumed after a point, the less satisfied I was with my consumption. You may have experienced something similar over this past holiday?

For me, this most recent holiday experience was more balanced. It felt closer to renewal than excess and numbing out.

Yet as I look to the year ahead, there is still something attractive about intentionally planning a year around letting go that which no longer serves and having less packed into the year.

For our early hominid ancestors, paying attention to the good in their lives did not have the same evolutionary advantage as paying attention to the bad.

In those harsher, less abundant times, humans developed a strong bias for the negative, a hyper-sensitivity to threats and scarcity; and this bias served them well, keeping them alive and allowing them to pass their genes on to us.

But today, it is far less important that we pay fierce attention to every little threat or discomfort. In fact, this tendency to notice what’s not going well…

As I check in with people, I ask them “How are you doing? I mean really?”, I increasingly hear people say they are tired, sometimes exhausted or having trouble staying motivated. It isn’t everyone, but it is more so than before. So if you are feeling something akin to this yourself, you are not alone.

This has been a hard year and one that continues to be hard for people. While we have adapted well in many ways, I think the background stress is catching up with people and it is hard to keep running a race where we have no idea where the finish line is. And while there is promising news of vaccines for 2021, even the experts recognize we will be working through this for some time.

The Risk of Burnout is Real

For some reason, many people find that work is busier than ever. And this busyness is now combined with Zoom fatigue and the challenges of staying productive for those working from home. My worry for people is that,

Whether it is ancient wisdom and or modern neuroscience, one thing that is clear is the importance of being intentional. Our 'survival' brain gets distracted by our worries and troubles, and it over-processes the past, or over-imagines the future. When our brain is running on Autopilot, lost in the past or the future, we completely forget the power of clear intention in the present.

Think of intention like a magnifying glass in the sunlight. Intention clarifies, focuses and concentrates the mind. On a deeper level, it synchronizes the various networks within our mind, unifying them around a clear goal. This is why any time that you have been very clear in your life you likely experienced a sense of seeing through or cutting through the noise and obstructions (both in your own mind and the world around you).

Being Intentional is Being Present

If Autopilot is how to not be present, being intentional is one way that we can become present again.

Do you ever feel like somehow you don't have 'enough'? Or that you aren't 'enough'? Despite having a lot and having accomplished a lot? This is a common experience. So, what's going on?

We live in a world of 'more'. Almost every where you look you see it. Progress, faster Internet speeds, more streaming TV options, more megapixels, more up to date on what is happening. More productive, smarter, fitter, sexier, happier, richer... on and on it goes...more, more more! There is this background hum of needing more, or needing to do more or be more.

A lot of what you are feeling is simply your biology doing what it was designed to do - but in an era long ago. Our 'survival' brain grew out of a time where

Talking with clients over the past while, it is clear how easy it is for us to drift from our healthy habits, have an unproductive day and feel crappy about ourselves at the end of it.

One young woman commented on how even though she knows better, there have been days where she picks up her phone upon waking, climbs back into bed and frustratingly finds herself there an hour or more hour later. Her brain started "with we just need a quick look at..." and soon she had lost and hour of her day.

Or how other people aren't as productive as they'd like to be during their day, so they choose to work late into the evening to make up for it. Only to feel tired and deflated at the end of it all. These are some of the many challenges of #WFH.

At times it is a noisy and chaotic world out there. Long weekends and holidays remind us how much we need downtime and space to renew. We have always looked forward to our long weekends and breaks, but I think we need this renewal more than ever these days. And unfortunately, our ability to come together or enjoy our usual activities is limited.

One of the common complaints I hear from the CPAs and the leaders I work with is that many don’t seem to “have enough time”. The same goes for managers as they look around at how people on their team are doing.

It can feel like the day has been hijacked even before it begins – a growing inbox of unread messages, voicemails and texts to respond to. Which can throw us into a battle mode, trying to hack our way out, get things done as quickly as possible, all the while defending against new threats to our time.

Living this way is completely draining, and often deflating. It often gets in the way of what was most important, or our ability to produce our best work or go to bed at the end of it all feeling “that was a great day!”