Hi Reader,

When was the last time you ran into someone who wasn't tired? Or busy? Or had something really profound to say?

Yeah, it's been a minute.

I spent a lot of time thinking about that (and living it out) this summer on my five week summer break.

I thought I was running into my summer holidays refreshed... you know, with some gas in the tank.

What I discovered surprised me. Usually after a week or so into my summer break, I find that I've hit 'baseline' - that point at which you've stopped being tired and feel like you've finally slowed down. Despite thinking that I went into my summer break with fuel in the tank, I found myself "decelerating" for all five weeks.

It was kind of like driving a car and thinking 'wait, there's a lower gear' over and over again for over a month.

Exhaustion is personal (you need to rest and sleep), but this summer left me wondering if there's a kind of ambient exhaustion, too.

Between a news feed that is rarely to never reassuring, trivial and outraged social feeds, and a culture growing more de-personalized by the day, it's like exhaustion is in the air. Breathe in a little and you're sure to inhale it.

At the same time, I found myself drawn to spiritual formation resources more so than I typically am, finding myself reading Dallas Willard, Henri Nouwen and Ronald Rolheiser among others.

I came back to work a few weeks ago definitely rested, but it left me wondering about ambient exhaustion, how we're best formed spiritually, and what that means for those of us who lead.

I emerged from my five week break with a conviction that if the culture is moving faster, getting louder, and is more divided and more trivial, I need to do the opposite.

In other words, my best posture as a leader is to slow down, to get deeper, and to live at a pace so that I can bring something of substance and weight to the dialogue we have in leadership. Even more so than I'm doing today.

So, next year, my aim is to take two full months off, not because I'm tired, but because I'd love to know what a slower, more contemplative pace looks like, and to recalibrate my life, work and team so we can make a hopefully more valuable contribution in a culture that's running around on fire, exhausted and depleted.

What would it take to lead out of a place of deeper rest and a quieter and more grounded soul?

I'm wondering what you learned on your summer vacation, and if this is something that resonates with you.

After all, the alternative of competing in the attention race by getting louder, angrier and shallower is probably not going to help any of us.

One More Thing About Ambient Exhaustion

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Steps to grow this week

Cheering for you,

P.S. While this is a much deeper discussion, find one thing you can do starting today to help quiet the noise and toxins around you. (Hint, it could as simple as silencing your notifications, cancelling some unnecessary meetings, or unfollowing a raging maniac who triggers you.)

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