I don’t get sick much, but this morning it hit me like a semi-truck doing 70 mph.
While meeting some smart folks at Skyline of Ohio for a final planning session, to get ready for a sold out Exhibitor Exchange event on Thursday morning, my stomach suddenly flipped.
Jacob had been sick over the weekend. Poor little guy. His mom, and my partner in crime, Sarah, woke up this morning with that age-old look on her face. She was infected. I suppose it was only a matter of time before it got me, too.
After the meeting, I came home to get ready to leave for the first session in a series of trainings at Incept Corp. Right before leaving for Canton, the bug laid siege on me and I was down for the count.
Guilty
Like some of you, I’ve been reading Chris Brogan’s recent posts on the concept of Anywhen. Chris is a robot with extended battery life, and yet people demand so much that sometimes, even with all of his efficiencies and twilight hours, even he can’t handle the demands.
I stayed in bed all day today. And now, I feel guilty. I feel guilty that I’m off schedule with Incept. I feel guilty that I have an inbox full of important messages from you, eagerly waiting for my response. I feel guilty that my entire week now needs adjusted. That alone is one more task I must begrudgingly add to my plate.
(Please bare with me, I will get back to you!)
I’m guilty that I still feel like roadkill and all I want to do is lay on the couch, staring aimlessly at box set episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (Really entertaining series from 2006, if you’ve not watched it.)
In the back of my mind, I keep thinking to myself: “This is stupid! You are being ridiculous. People are allowed to get sick and take time to get better.”
And yet, I still feel guilty.
(P.S. I’ll be back tomorrow.)
Chasing Linchpin
I’m two-thirds of the way through what I believe is one of Seth Godin’s best books, Linchpin.
In the book, Seth lays a framework for how we got…well…here. By here, I mean smack in middle of a Henry Ford-style corporate machine that has brainwashed people into thinking they are not special enough to have good ideas. Seth comments on how we’ve been trained by the education system to fit in to the mold and report to our 9-to5 jobs as cogs in a giant machine. We humans have been bred to be expendable.
And then there are the Linchpins – those who break that mold and do things differently and better. The Linchpins are so passionate about their art, they they stop at nothing to beat the odds and make a living doing what they love, everyday.
I’m trying to be a Linchpin, just like Chris and Lewis and Gary V. There’s a long road ahead but I’ve decided to travel it willingly, and never look back.
What Sucks
I think one negative of choosing to be a Linchpin is the guilt you feel when you have to admit that you are still only human. Humans get sick. Humans have bad days where they just don’t feel like pushing. Humans get stressed and buried and annoyed. In Chris’s case, humans sometimes need more than 24 hours to reply to your question or request.
Enter the guilt.
Are you trying to be a Linchpin too? What causes you to feel guilty? Why is that?
Photo credit: Icanhascheezburger
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