Let's Talk Commitment (and Rest)

How ya holding up? How is your heart, body, spirit, mind?  Where might you need a little nourishment today?

I write this note as a reminder, brave ones, to stop for a moment. Pause. Breathe.
Check in with that small voice within asking for some care.

Is there anything you’ve been carrying that you’d like to set down for a moment?

I invite you to set it down here and let me hold it for you for the next little while. I got you.

Now, some real talk. How’s it going maintaining your fire for all of this social justice, organizational change, and/or personal transformation you may be working through? Are you activated as ever, or burned out?

If you’re like me, initiating change and action is often the easy part. It’s what happens in the middle times where things get hard.

I want to talk about how we can sustain our energy and capacity to deliver on what matters. Embodying our values when things get hard, boring, or exhausting. Let’s talk about commitment.

We know from social science research that sustained leadership (of anything) requires RENEWAL. In order to bring your best self time and again - to any opportunity for real growth - you must include micro-moments of renewal and restoration to see your commitments through.

Pushing yourself through, sacrificing your needs on repeat, and forcing yourself to carry on with only adrenaline, fear, caffeine, or grit will only burn you out, babe.   

Learning to rest has been my saving grace. As a chronic over-producer, the idea of being “unproductive” literally scares me. Well, it scares my ego/personality. (Hi, my name is Erin, and I’m a one-to-one Type 3. Sigh.)

On the other hand, just saying the word “rest” brings my spirit overwhelming relief and joy. Yes, I schedule naps on the regular and make sure my calendar has unstructured time to daydream and create. Not only is it fabulous, it’s also necessary.

We’ve all been socialized to grind at all costs, to earn our rest, and think we’re never enough. It’s all part of the great delusion of white supremacy and capitalism. Not only is it not true from our collective lived experience, it’s also proved false over and over again, study after study.

Truth: We need your WHOLE self to be well, awake, and centered to sustain the vital transformation we’re in the midst of - as a people, as conscious businesses, as a society.

So, how will you rest and renew yourself today, for us, good leader?

And last, some resources:

• Anti-racism isn’t a place to arrive, it’s active and ongoing. In my commitment to racial and gender equity, one of the many lifelong actions I’m taking on is to set up recurring donations to two great organizations. Please join me:

• The Loveland Foundation, supporting Black mental wellness, particularly women and girls
• Partners in Health, a social justice organization that treats patients and trains the next generation of local health care workers in some of the most remote and marginalized communities around the world

• For more anti-racism tools, check out Evolution’s Community DEI Resources toolkit. And, if you’re looking for a deeper conversation about how your organization thinks about, measures, and develops strong, integrated diversity, equity, inclusion and sustainability (DEIS) strategies, please let me know. I will proudly connect you with folks deeply experienced in this body of work.

• One of my favorite guided self-compassion meditations on learning to sit with big, often negative emotions: “Soften, Soothe, Allow”