A little over 3 months ago, I announced to my followers that I was going to take a summer hiatus from publishing my newsletter. I had decided that I needed to take that time to uber-focus my energy on some new efforts with my essential oil product line.

And to do that, I needed to have more space, more bandwidth.

So I took a good hard look at what was taking extra time in my life that didn’t need to, and the decision was made.

And what has come from these last 3 months is this:

A new understanding of both the beauty and the trap of multi-tasking.
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When I was in my 20’s, freshly out of college, I was standing firmly on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder, ready to scramble handily to the top, change the world. I had been hired by an up-and-coming publisher in the world of fine art greeting cards and gifts to manage a rapidly growing product line.

And I quickly came to understand that my ability to multi-task was prized.

I could slice and dice spreadsheets, redline a dozen proofs, sketch out next season’s product plan without breaking a sweat. I could call up important details on-demand in meetings and review multi-page legal documents without missing a step.

I liked it. It fueled me. It helped me climb that ladder.

Even when I left the corporate world 9 years later, I relentlessly applied those same skills to build my own business. It was what I knew. How I had learned that things “get done.”

And so, when I publicly claimed my hiatus 3 months ago, I was certain that it was temporary. That I would enjoy a few months of singular focus and then dovetail myself right back into the necessary juggling act.

That idea has now been completely obliterated.

Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do. I love that my work has many facets and takes many shapes and forms. However, I have come to see quite clearly that the skill of multi-tasking that once buoyed me, gave me definition, made me feel worthy … is no longer any of those things.

More often than not, it has become the thing that takes me away from what I am here to do.

A stealthy agent of distraction that falsely convinces me that more is more.

Because the funny things is, when I took a few balls out of the air, removed the stack of self-imposed deadlines, and slowly started to remember what it looks like to take action from the place of authentic inspiration, I became more productive, more creative and … dare I say it?

More settled.

I’m now having renewed, meaningful conversations with myself and with Spirit about what comes next. I am being shown how the juggling has obscured my vision, kept me from moving forward with clear, undiluted intention.

I’ve have wondered many times what has brought me here. Age? Experience? A flash of divine intervention and insight? Probably a little bit of all of that.

Perhaps it’s also the exhaustive nature of multi-tasking that has graciously unveiled this conclusion.

And that conclusion is not that I’m begging off multi-tasking for good. That I will now become a holy, ascetic practitioner of singular focus, please-don’t-distract-me-from-this-one-task-at-hand. Because really, I think I would shrivel up and die with too much of that.

However, I can say that I will bask in this new perspective. Remember that my capacity to remain aligned and in conversation with Spirit is directly correlated to a healthy conversation with the multi-tasker of me.

And that I don’t have to do more to be more.