What happens when you have more drain than gain in your day to day?

I recently had a session with my client Barbara who, quite frankly, is worn out. She works for a large tech company and is overwhelmed by and frustrated with how little time she has to do her own work because her calendar is filled from morning until night with meetings, meetings, meetings.

What’s that, I hear you say? You can relate? ??

Well, this client summed up what she’s going through versus what she wants in one succinct sentence:

“I want to minimize the drain, and maximize the gain.”

Boy, is Barbara SMART!

It got me thinking about how much of my life I have dedicated to DRAIN vs. GAIN.

Honestly, it’s almost embarrassing when I think about:

?? All of the meetings I attended when, in many instances, other members of my team could have easily represented, allowing me to get some time back.

?? The number of requests I took on without business context in order to please the client.

?? The emails I answered late at night, on weekends, and even on vacation for fear I’d fall behind when returning to the office.

See a pattern here?

MAJOR DRAIN.

By acting in what I believed to be a helpful, can-do manner, I ultimately sacrificed my GAINS.?

I… was.. EXHAUSTED.

Fast forward to this session with Barbara, and based on our experiences along with the person I’ve come to know as a motivated, skilled, productive leader, we worked together to unpack how she can bring more GAIN into her day to day.

??She is digging into what does and does not align with her values, and operating with those at the forefront of her mind as the bases for decisions.?

??She is assigning certain meetings to other members of her team in order to free her up for bigger picture work.?

??She is even signing up for gym classes right after work a few nights a week so that she can a) leave on time and b) replenish her energy.

I’m honored and excited to see the shifts that are happening for Barbara.?

What can you commit to to increase the GAIN and decrease the DRAIN? Send me a message and let me know!

Here’s to upping our gains, Tracy

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??? Exciting news! ???

I will be a Keynote Speaker at this year’s Digital Analytics Association’s OneConference, the premier educational and networking event for analytics professionals. Held in Chicago Oct 10-12, this year's event’s theme is “Back to the Future” - for early-careerists to experienced executives, this year’s conference is one you won’t want to miss.

I will be talking about the challenges of - and how to be successful at - keeping up in an ever-changing industry, something about which I am intimately familiar.

More information can be found here - if you are interested in attending, let me know and I’ll give you a discount code. Hope to see you there!

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