When you want to quit...
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Hey Reader, It has been about a week and a half since my last note. You noticed. The Daily Anchor did not show up in your inbox, and I am not going to pretend it was a scheduling thing. I wanted to quit. Not one thing on my calendar. This. The videos I create, the stuff I write, all of it. I let the thoughts in my head get way too loud. Am I too far behind? Am I actually gonna reach my goals? Is it all worth it? When there is a gap between what you are trying to build and where you actually are, that gap talks. Any journey has it. Some days it is quiet. That week it was not. So I got rooted. I went back to my faith first, because that is the only place that answer actually lives. [what did that look like in that stretch? worship music in the car, in the kitchen, quiet in the morning? one or two specifics is enough] And out of that quiet, I remembered something I already had. A few weeks before all this, people came up to me in person. At church. A neighbor who follows my content, of all people. Just reminding me how much it matters that I keep making the videos and writing the words. Some of your replies to the notes I have written about grief, about the parts of this I am still walking through, sat in the same pile. None of it arrived on the day I needed it. It was already there, and God knew I would need it later. That is what I want you to hear before anything else. As much as I am showing up for everybody else, I am also showing up for me. This work matters. I know it does. So I could not quit. There was too much on the line. But I could pause. And when overwhelm sets in, my rule is simple. Remove the things that drain your energy, not the things that fill your cup. The mistake most of us make under stress is backwards. We cut the movement, the quiet, the thing that gives us life, and we hold onto the heavy obligations that are actually costing us. So here is what I actually paused. I paused working out. But I did not pause moving. I hit my step count, I stayed on my active movement, and I closed the rings on my watch every single day without one workout. That was my minimum viable version of moving, and I have not missed a day. I simplified the meals I was making. Nothing elaborate, nothing that required planning I did not have in me. I moved a couple of meetings. I pushed my nutritionist catch-up out about a week, not because it drains me, but because I would have walked in with nothing to work with. I want to maximize that resource, not waste it on a week I could not show up for. And I protected sleep. Actually getting to bed. That was the big one. I also paused this. And I want to be honest about why. Not because it stopped mattering, but because I would rather give you nothing for a week and a half than hand you something I did not have the capacity to be thoughtful about. You deserve my all when it shows up in your inbox. None of that is quitting. Every one of those things is still standing. Just smaller. That is what I want you to hear today. The smaller version still counts. The rings still closed. The meals still happened. And this note is back. If you are on the edge today, do not throw in the towel. Look at your load and find the thing that is actively draining you. Pause that one first. Then protect what pours back into you, even if all you can protect is the smallest version of it. Today's 5 Daily Anchors: Protecting Your Energy Filter today's pause through your 5 pillars:
Are you feeling tempted to quit today? Hit reply and tell me what you need to pause instead. Talk soon, Enjoying these emails? Creating Anchored by LCJ is a total labor of love. If these notes bring you clarity, comfort, or encouragement, consider dropping a tip in the tip jar right here. Your support keeps the coffee flowing and helps keep this work going! |