Being Off Your Game: Coping & Recovery

You ever have a feeling that you are out of synch and feeling slightly off. I believe the term is discombobulated. I’ve felt this repeatedly since 2020. But especially from June 2023 through to most of 2024. A feeling of going through the motions but barely awake. A fugue state. Basically I was operating like all the zombies I see around me. 

Why? I think the setbacks in my family life compounded with frustrations in my business led me to do what I criticize others of doing. Hiding. Not behind drugs or alcohol but keeping super busy with conference speakers' life, random consulting projects and such. Activities that look like you are doing stuff but things that make zero difference to fix the core business or your family. Confusing activity with achieving results. It’s a dangerous form of escapism so you don’t have to face the truth. 

That as smart as I hoped I was, I still ended up making many decisions that were suboptimal and taking actions that were just 5-10% off. This adds up overtime. I’ve realized I’ve lost a lot of momentum in all aspects of my life. 

But life kicks you hard and wakes you up eventually. It’s like a cold painful blast of the Baltic ocean after a hot sauna to jar you to reality. It was not until I faced up to reality that I was able to start taking small actions to fix things. Bit by bit. 

So I finally cut most of my non essential trips and conferences outside of one's I previously committed to. Limited to the top events and just a few a year for 2025. 

I focused on the small 20% of things that matter in my life and business. Really doing more exercising and training. More reading and writing. Trying to spend more time with the family. Taking care of my portfolio companies as well as my present and future fund & hold co investors/LPs. Anything not additive to these activities, I cut out of my life. Essentialism. Back to basics. Focusing on the core. Focusing on what is important. 

This was how I got my life back on track. Or at least in the right direction it seems. That’s a good start at least.