This Has to Stop

It's Friday - which means I am a day late with my weekly reinvention article. 

It was marked in my planner and mapped out in my notes, but I finished the workday past mid-night and simply did not have anything left in me to say.

In just 10 days we have to send my new book, The Chief Reinvention Officer Handbook: How to Thrive in Chaos, to the printer.

We also have the new class of the Certified Reinvention Practitioner program working on projects - reinventing their companies, their families, their community non-profits - and with COVID-19 still marching through our lives, that work takes priority.

Plus, there is cooking and cleaning and tending to the family. 


I have plenty of excuses. Still, I am late and feel horrible.

This is not the first time.

Just this past December I was on location with a client and pulled a few all-nighters, ending up in a local hospital missing my plane and getting home late for the holidays.

There were years with vacations missed, birthdays celebrated on Skype, and friends' messages ignored.

There was once a meeting run while a field surgent was putting stitches on my foot - I kid you not!!! - my laptop on my knees, the team around me, the doctor on a stool holding the surgical needle.

This has to stop.


Overwork has been glorified. Being busy is presented as a sign of coolness. Sleepless nights and long hours have been treated as a badge of honor.

I am here to admit that I was wrong. So, it stops today.

There is nothing cool about overwork.
There is nothing glorious about pushing ourselves to the limits.
There is nothing honorable in modeling that behavior to our teams, our partners, our kids.


Today I stop.

Are you with me?

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Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva helps companies such as Coca-Cola, Kohler, and IBM turn change and disruption into an opportunity.

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