The Pipeline Will Be There Monday

"Love yourself first, and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world," Lucille Ball.

Let's be clear about what she meant. Not the ego kind of love yourself, the narcissism that you are right and others are wrong. It is the self-reflective understanding of who you are and what is important to you without the need for others' approval. 

Because somewhere along the way we got the definition of success backward.

We started measuring it in one more client, three more sales, one more email answered at nine at night. And we told ourselves that was love: grinding for the people we care about.

But success isn't selling three extra books while you miss your daughter's performance or booking one more client call instead of grabbing coffee with your friend you have not seen in six months. That trade never balances; the client will forget...while you can't get meaningful moments back.

Loving yourself means knowing when to close the laptop. It means the walk, the dinner, the thing you do just because you love it. It means giving yourself permission to reboot so you come back sharper than the person who never stopped.

So this weekend, take some real time off, not as a reward you earned, but as a requirement for doing any of this well.

The pipeline will be there Monday. Go be somewhere else until then.

What's the one thing you're going to do this weekend just for you? Tell me in the comments.