3 practices for healthy work

Easing in to the new year

How do we hang on to the spaciousness, the perspective, the sharpness of our precious first days back from a holiday? Here are three simple practices I follow:

1. Pace myself. We exaggerate urgency and overvalue speed at the expense of quality. Every poor choice I made last year, I made in a hurry.

I can slow down. I can take a beat. Not only will it not kill me/get me fired, it will almost certainly make whatever decision/action/project I make next a whole lot better.

2. Find space where I am. Sure, it’s easy to feel expansive and creative when we have a day full of nothing to do. But we can also train ourselves to find space even in busy, productive moments.

Start by taking a breath. I sip my tea and actually taste it. I stretch my muscles and feel them ache. We can find space anytime, but we have to choose it.

3. Give grace to myself and others. We’re going to mess up. People will drop various balls. My practice is to watch how quickly judgment (of myself and others) floods in to “fix” things, and meet that impulse with kindness, generosity and grace.

It’s remarkable how productive this little shift is: When we aren’t bound up in blame, we can learn and grow. This is how mistakes become opportunities and bigger failures can be avoided.

Ease into this year, friends. May you find, as I am continually relearning, that ease is an essential part of great work.