Hi Reader,

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Welcome to Rev Up for the Week, where each week I give you one productive or positive thought for the week ahead. I always write these emails in the week leading up to their release. I don't spend a day batching up four or five weeks' worth. I don't employ anyone else to write them for me. And no, they're not written by the robot version of me. I like the discipline of the Sunday deadline - it keeps me writing regularly, and also, because of the deadline, it keeps me curious during my working week, too ("what's going on out there, that I can write about?")

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I noticed something this week. Something of a trend. Something that ordinarily might be considered bad news, but I want to reframe it...

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It seems that we are struggling, collectively, to kick-start 2024 into life.

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No one is off to a flyer. No one is 'crushing it'. And despite Instagram, no one is actually living their best life.

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Stuff sucks for a lot of people right now. Our economies are poorer, and many people feel that so noticeably in their pockets that it saps motivation. We are living through a long war on European soil, apathy towards war and genocide, and a gnawing sense of climate breakdown and decay. We are all still processing the weird shit that happened in 2020 - a collective trauma that we've seemingly decided just to try and bury and forget about.

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My parents were supposed to come down to visit me this weekend. They're both too sick to travel. My niece just started nursery so that my sister can go back to work after maternity leave, but within a week, the nursery's petri-dish of germs has sent some nasties home - but because my sister is only just back from maternity leave, she feels like she can't phone in sick and has to battle on. One of my sea swimming buddies is down with something worse than covid. Another is struggling with her daughter having to move schools mid-year. Another friend had her child's school literally burn down last week and she's back to covid-style home-schooling. The waiting lists for hospital appointments and autism assessments are frightening. A fellow author told me they're sick of publishers being rubbish. A coaching client of mine is struggling to motivate his team. Another friend who freelances just told me last week "I'm just sick of the work I do".

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Personally I've started the year with a tropical skin infection, a dodgy electric car battery and builders disrupting my home. There have been some flurries of feeling in flow, but also plenty of struggles, too.

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But here's the thing. This is life. Sometimes we get sick. Sometimes we don't feel motivated. Sometimes our friends and loved ones need our focus more than our work does.

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So here's what I want to tell you this week:

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It doesn't matter if you're not 'smashing it' so far in 2024. As far as I can see, no one else is either. You have no reason to feel guilty. You're doing your best, and this year is twenty one days old. It's still a baby!

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We have time.

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And we have skills, and plans. We're blessed with amazing people who can help. You don't lose a marathon in the first mile. And hell, most people don't 'lose' a marathon at all - they complete it. There are medals wherever you finish.

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So if you've been fast out of the blocks this last couple of weeks, then well done. We salute you. But for the rest of us, we're coming. There's a long road ahead and we're just getting warmed up. Let's do this.

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Have a great week,

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Graham

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PS - My company, Think Productive, has recently launched what I think will be a game-changing workshop. It's all about how to get your team making the most of all those Microsoft products you've already paid for - building a 'second brain' in Microsoft ToDo, using Sharepoint properly, working out what goes in Teams and what goes on email - that sort of thing. We're really proud of it, and we've already got more interest from clients than we can currently service. So if you want to be on the waiting list as we roll it out, then hit reply and I'll make sure someone gets in touch. You can find more details here.