If you put me on a boat, my whole demeanor shifts. Obligations and life’s concerns tend to roll off my shoulders, my brain shuts off, and almost instantly my breaths get deeper. For me, there’s something about floating on water that just changes things; I can’t recreate the same effect anywhere else.

So if my rational brain tells me it might be healthy to work a bit less, or to shut down for the evening a few hours before bedtime instead of a couple of minutes, I’ll agree with the sentiment but kep working anyway. And yet, if you invite me out on your boat, I’ll quickly rearrange my schedule to join you.

This brings me to a simple question: what pulls you away from your desk, in a good way?

For half a century, Tom Brokaw was one of the most trusted news anchors on television; it’s safe to say that role kept him extraordinarily busy. But for many years, Brokaw would go away with the “do-boys,” a small group of friends who all had demanding careers. They would get together once a year to climb mountains or run rivers. The outdoors pulled Brokaw.

That leads me to a few more questions…

How do you make sure you expose yourself on a enough of a cadence to new things that might pull you in an energizing and healthy direction?

What sparks in you what I call “the slow reflex,” the willingness to back away temporarily from the fray and give yourself time to recharge and gain perspective?

We all know executives and business owners whose bodies quit on them suddenly and shockingly; many of these individuals “successfully” worked 24/7/365 until they hit a wall at far too young an age.

No one wants to be one of those people.

The wisest among us make time to step back, take some deep breaths, and allow themselves to be pulled away from work. They understand that sometimes we all need to have time for ourselves and to back away temporarily from the seemingly never-ending series of complex and difficult problems we all face.

If you have something that tugs at your soul, that lights up your life, honor it with sufficient time and resources. Go to the mountains, spend time on the water, ski, paint, ride your bike across a few states. Whatever it is, please make sure you *do* the thing(s) that re-energize you.