A simple question for more energetically sustainable days

'Am I asking more of myself today than I can recover from tomorrow?'

Photo credit: Unsplash

I came across this quote from Greg McKeown recently and it stopped me in my tracks.

“Don't do more today than you can recover from by tomorrow”

That’s it, I thought. That’s exactly how I think about work, business, and managing my energy and capacity in a way that works best for me.

And I’m not surprised that this resonated with me so much - it’s a quote from Greg’s book Effortless and his previous book, Essentialism, was one that I read back when I first started my business and deeply shaped my perspective on opting out of the idea that more, more, more is always better.

I was on a call with a client this week exploring her goals and intentions for this season of her business and an exciting new project she wants to bring to life.

As we explored her next steps her concern was finding time and energy to follow through on her vision when she was already feeling stretched thin and overwhelmed.

And as we dug deeper into where this overwhelm was coming from we started to uncover that it was all rooted in her boundaries and how she wasn’t protecting the space and flexibility she needs each week to live and work at a pace that works best for her.

Instead she was bending her boundaries over and over again to try and keep others happy - when in reality honouring her boundaries wouldn’t negatively affect anyone else, it would just make her a little less available than she currently was allowing herself to be.

But by taking back control of her schedule and time she would be able to navigate her days at a pace that works best for her and, like Greg says, not do more each day than she can recover from during the next.

And that conversation was a beautiful reminder for me of one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my business: how deeply impactful it is to plan and manage our time in a way that honours our capacity and humanness each day.

Because overstretching ourselves and asking more of ourselves each day than is sustainable is a recipe for burnout, exhaustion, and disconnecting from our magic along the way.

And this quote feels like such a gentle and grounding way to check in with myself each day: am I asking more of myself today than I can recover from tomorrow?

Especially as a human in a chronically ill body, I have to usually take my days at a very slow, steady, and gentle pace.

I plan my workload deeply in alignment with my desire to work below my capacity so that I can steer clear of burnout in my work but this question also feels deeply relevant to managing my capacity in my life outside of work too.

If I cook dinner tonight will I ask more of myself today than I can recover from tomorrow?

If I stay up and watch one more episode of Virgin River will I ask more of myself today than I can recover from tomorrow?

If I walk all of the way home from the other side of the city instead of getting the tram will I ask more of myself today than I can recover from tomorrow?

It’s such a simple question but one that feels so grounding to check in with myself throughout the day so I wanted to share it with you today too in case it can be supportive to you in your work and life right now too.

And I’m not saying that it’s always possible to completely navigate our days within our energetic capacity - sometimes I do need to take a day or days extra slower to recover from ones that were more energetically demanding and that’s okay.

But as often as I can I try and live and work within these energetic boundaries and it’s how I’m able to stay in the arena as a chronically ill human and working mother who also has a business to run as the breadwinner for my family too.

Let me know in the comments if this question resonates with you too ✍🏻

And if you’d love more guidance on moving forward towards your goals in your business at a pace that honours your humanness every step of the way you can get my Gentle Growth Planning Toolkit for just £22 this way.

Until next time,

Jen