The world is packed with overachievers competing for – and winning – accomplishments.

A helpful escape can be as simple as an afternoon at a park, a dinner someplace new, a day at a lake, or a weekend hiking the hills of a national park.

​​It’s easy to feel that we “have to” go to the grocery, meet with the finance team, plan our vacation, etc. 

Lying in the emergency room, I moaned (seriously, I can be a little dramatic) that the driver’s apology wasn’t enough… he’s a complete idiot who should have his license revoked!

Really? It’s not safe to go in the water anywhere on your summer vacation?

It turns out that 97.5% (made-up statistic) of the professionals I’ve met over the years don’t regularly take the time to slow down and appreciate their accomplishments. 

“Forty-four percent of employees said they experienced a lot of stress daily, repeating the record high in 2021 and continuing a trend of elevated stress that began almost a decade earlier.” – 2023 State of the Global Workplace

This approach leads to the belief that stopping to be grateful is a waste of time when there’s so much left to accomplish.

There are times when it’s OK to respond out of fear. For example, if you’re being chased by a grizzly bear, it’s completely appropriate to run fearing for your life.   

Our next jerk reaction to a problem (especially a big one) is to throw lots of effort and energy at it.