This exercise is incredibly powerful no matter how old you are and no matter what you have or haven’t done so far in your life.

Here’s what I’m reading and watching during my time off.

It’s a ritual I started a few years ago: I take three weeks off at the end of the year to unplug, reflect, and recharge.

For years, my happy place was planes, hotel rooms, and lobbies. I did my best work while I traveled. But then, in March, everything changed.

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We talk about what we’re grateful for often, but there’s one gratitude exercise we do that takes the cake.

The goal isn’t to dim my light or be someone else; it’s to play up my amazing qualities. I just need to be more disciplined and intentional with how I use them.

I just left an incredible meeting with my team where we chose to do something you aren’t “supposed” to do in business: We lowered our financial goals for this quarter.

A couple months into the pandemic, I had a sobering moment with my fiancé, Spiros.

I imagined what it actually felt like to be coming from their viewpoint. I thought about the solutions I had proposed and asked how those solutions would make me feel if I were on the other side. What was missing?

Suddenly, his chemistry brain clicked with my leadership brain: He doesn’t want to be the leader who slows things down for his team.

I looked into my camera at the virtual audience and said, “Remember how I told you at the beginning of today that I might screw something up? Well . . .”

Our leadership team had our quarterly review last week, and together, we got to wrap up and celebrate the best quarter we’ve ever had.

I believe that it’s possible to make every single decision with intention, but few do. It requires knowing our values and operating from them.

For many years, my leadership journey looked like a constant search for consensus. It made other people happy, but for me, it was exhausting. I thought it was the right thing to do, but it actually hurt us.

One of the greatest sources of stress and disappointment is when our expectations don’t align with reality. So what if we changed our mindset?

So far, our bonus experiment is working better than any structure we’ve had. I thought I’d share how we approached this new system in case you too have struggled with how to best create rewarding, meaningful financial incentives.

Have you ever heard of a “you are allowed to” list?