There’s a moment that doesn’t look like much from the outside.
You’re at your desk. Maybe it’s late afternoon. You pull up your calendar for the next day, and as you look at it, you feel your energy drop. Everything on it makes sense. These are things you agreed to. People who are counting on you.
And still… it feels like a lot.
You take a breath, maybe shake it off, and keep going. Because that’s what you do.
Arianna Huffington was living inside that same pattern—just on a much bigger stage. She was building The Huffington Post into something incredibly successful. Her days were full, her work mattered, and everything pointed in the right direction.
Until one day when her body decided for her.
She collapsed from exhaustion and woke up on the floor of her office. Thankfully she wasn’t seriously injured, at least not physically.
But something inside her had definitely shifted.
She started asking what success really meant if it required that level of depletion. Surely, she thought, success didn’t require this kind of sacrifice.
From there, she made a decision—to put herself at the top of her to-do list. She added time for rest and well-being. Sustainability moved into the center of how she lived and worked.
Hopefully you’ll never reach such a fraught moment like that. Fingers crossed that your signal is quieter.
But these quiet moments require us to pay close attention. – It’s that drop in energy when you look at your calendar. – It’s the pause before you say yes. – It’s the feeling that your days take more effort than they used to.
That’s the moment to stay with.
The next time it happens, give yourself a second before you move on. Ask yourself, Does this support the way I want to live – today?
Let the answer be simple. Let it come from you.
You may still move forward in the same direction. And now you’re doing it with yourself included.
That’s where the shift to success on your terms begins. Right there, in a moment that almost went unnoticed.
See you next month.
With gratitude, Ann
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