Hi Reader,

​

Welcome to Rev Up for the Week, where each week I send you an idea to help set you up for the week ahead.

​

Let’s talk about how busy you are right now.

​

There’s loads happening. Perhaps some big projects getting stuck in the sticky middle, perhaps a list of new things to start. You feel tired and a bit fried. But more importantly, you feel busy.

​

As you sit there staring at that long list, the inbox and the notifications, you tell yourself about a distant land.

​

It’s a world where the work has calmed down. Where you’re over the hump. And it’s a world where there will be time for exercise and more important work. In this distant land there's time and inspiration for your own creativity and time for rest and getting back to your friends’ messages. This distant land of plenty is known as “in two weeks’ time”. And great news! It’s just two weeks away. Not so distant at all. Just got to ride it out for the next two weeks...

​

In two weeks’ time, we’ll be over the worst of it.

In two weeks’ time, so and so will be back at work to help us.

In two weeks’ time, we won’t have this big thing to deal with anymore.

​

Except... hang on... We said all that two weeks ago, didn't we?

​

And then two more weeks will come and go, and we’ll still be telling ourselves about this distant land. We’re still as busy as ever. That project ended or that person came back to work but all that meant was more meetings and there are still things on the to-do list that have hung around so long now that we’re numb to them, or have forgotten how to start them.

​

This is the busyness fallacy.

​

It’s so easy to think that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, yet more often than not, it turns out to just be a bastard with a torch bringing us more work.

​

But there is a way to get to that distant land – the land that we tell ourselves is just two weeks away. And here’s the secret. The way to make space for what matters - whether that’s rest, or better work, or the time our most important relationships need).

​

The way to create that feeling of calm is NOT to wait.

DON’T be patient for it. Go there today, because there is no mythical arrival in two weeks. Go to it now, don’t wait for it to come to you.

​

And how do we get to it? To this place of purpose, clarity and balance?

​

We create it, right now.

​

We get clear.

We renegotiate some of the things that are in the way.

We turn our phones off for a bit.

We sit with a blank page and design it on our terms.

We create the map and the territory so that we can put a flag down and claim it for ourselves.

​

It’s not coming to you, so go to it. Now.

​

Have a great week,

​

Graham

​

PS - Thank you to everyone who came to the book launches, has been sending me LinkedIn messages and Insta DMs or leaving reviews for 'KIND'. There's a lot of love for this book already, and I'm so, so grateful. If you haven't yet bought a copy, then it's available here and also from all good tax-paying bookshops. It's also out on Audible if that's your thing. It's the first of my books that I read the audiobook myself.

​

​Order KIND: The quiet power of kindness at work here​

​

​

Preston Park House, South Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​