[Alicia Davis] Stacie, I want to share something that has been helpful for me today. Are you ready?
[Stacie Watson] I’m ready.
[Alicia Davis] So I got a new card deck. It’s called the Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture.
[Stacie Watson] Okay…
[Alicia Davis] Here’s what I pulled today. It says, “I will unravel from urgency.”
[Stacie Watson] Uh huh…
[Alicia Davis] So I don’t know about you. So I just got back from vacation. I had an amazing vacation, as you know, and literally within two hours on Monday, I just fell back on the wheel, like, right?
[Stacie Watson] Right.
[Alicia Davis] Like I had so many things to do and feeling so much pressure – and just the urgency of, like, getting caught up and doing all the emails and getting back into the rhythm of things. I’m like, we were just talking about this with a whole group of leaders. Like, what is this about, and how can we shift it?
[Stacie Watson] Well, yes, we were just talking about this with a whole group of leaders. And first of all, I’m glad you had such a great vacation, and I’m sorry it was only two hours back. And I think what you’re describing is just, I think it’s a shared experience by so many folks who watch our videos and that we get to work with every day. And you know, I think this idea of grind culture is something that’s worth thinking about. You know, I think many of us, including us at TLS, can find ourselves in grind culture on the regular. And in that space or in that mindset, I think it is easy to just imagine that what we’re doing and how we’re doing it is the way it has to be done.
[Alicia Davis] Right. And no choice…
[Stacie Watson] Truth is… that’s right, we have no choice. The truth is, we actually do have choice. We forget, though, right?
[Alicia Davis] Oh, for sure. Like, it just takes over, we just get on the “getting things done, getting things off the list” and looking at all the things that didn’t get done, right? As opposed to pausing and really acknowledging and celebrating what is getting done, what is successful, as well as sometimes even setting boundaries.
[Stacie Watson] Right.
[Alicia Davis] We were also just talking – I was just coaching a leader – about it’s okay to close your door for one hour a day to focus, right? That doesn’t mean you’re not available to your staff. What it means is you’re sending a message that time is, time is important. Focus is – you need to have focus – and being interrupted all the time is not an effective way of doing that. You don’t have to be available 24/7/365 – that it’s okay to step back. It’s okay to take a pause. It’s okay to reset. It’s okay to set a boundary. Right? It’s okay to take time, to prioritize right, or to do something a little bit different and those are the little moments of agency that we have that sometimes we just forget.
[Stacie Watson] Yeah, you know, I mean, I might even say beyond it’s okay, it’s really important or imperative that we do those things. You know, one of the leaders that we just talked with earlier today was talking about sort of being in crisis mode all the time. And I think, you know, whether we call it grind culture or crisis mode, you know, it’s a lot of words that describe, I think, a very similar experience. So we would just invite you, as you were considering your own culture and how familiar the idea of being in a grind culture might be, to just really think about what are one or two areas where you could just maybe make a little bit of a different choice, use a little bit of agency to close the door, step away, whatever it may be, just to sort of preserve your own sense of groundedness, right?
[Alicia Davis] That’s right, and I’ll just share one inspirational quote from the back of this card: “I deserve patience, grace, mercy, and care.” You deserve that if you’re listening to this. Thank you so much for listening. I’m Alicia Davis.
[Stacie Watson] I’m Stacie Watson.
[Alicia Davis] And we are hopeful that you will be able to find a moment in your day where you can breathe and make a choice for yourself. Take care.
[Stacie Watson] Thank you.
