When life takes a dump in your inbox!

If you have read my newsletters this last year you’ll know mine has been, well, to put it mildly, it little cr@p on the personal front, way better on the business front. But that is the reason for asking the question, what do you do when life takes a dump in your inbox.

Now if your like me and have old-style in trays in you office, you may have more than one try – several inboxes:

Business
Personal
Family

So when one of these inboxes is overloaded what does this do to the other boxes? Or more importantly, what does this do to your mental health?

House move, losing my Dad, then a good friend to cancer, and then one of my best friends to suicide took a real deep-level hit to my mental health. But the thing was the business inbox was also getting full of referrals from other clients, colleagues in the Professional Speaking Association AND more work from existing clients, I couldn’t and wouldn’t let these people down and I had to step up. Did I just put on my mask and go for it? NO, because I needed time to ensure my mental health was in balance. Now in personality terms, I am very much the outgoing – people style (High I or High Yellow referred to in my masterclasses) which means when it comes to life I am out there, seeing people, doing things, being amongst it all BUT, I recognise this and I also recognised that I couldn’t keep all 3 inboxes going because of the personal and family bereavements – I have never dealt with this much grief. SO, I decided that I would take time back personally because my business must flourish. I have no regrets about saying no to social events and yes to work this year because it was the space I needed to be in.

It was also the space I had to be in this year.

What about you – where is the space you want to be in? Are you spending enough time in that space?

Do you know your own personality style and those things in life that cause pressure, which may cause stress factors or exhaustion?  Often our work and personal life can change and put different demands on us, but do we recognise when these different demands cause us to work in a different style that is not natural for us, now I am not saying we can not work in these different styles but if certain tasks do not come naturally (public speaking / project planning / managing new team members / house move) they can cause stress and exhaustion and this is not a sustainable place to be in, it is not good for our mental health.

So I want you to look back over this last year 2022 and write down your highlights and also your low points. Then look again and ask yourself the questions “why did this make it to the highlights / low points” – really dive deep and find those areas that made it go on either the high or the low and then ask, how could I change this if it happened again? What parts could I delegate / outsource?

What we need to plan as we go into 2023 is that there are way more Highlights than low points.

And also that if life takes an unexpected dump in your inbox, how do you manage your own mental health?

I hope you have had a wonderful 2022 and that 2023 is looking prosperous.

And please if you ever need to reach out, know I am always here for you.

Best wishes

Queen Vic x