Concussion

I am recovering from my very first concussion. It's a long and mostly boring story that ends with my head getting whacked on the corner of a door. Really really hard. Until that moment, I had never considered wearing a helmet inside my own home.

After a full CAT scan and a lovely time in the ER, I left with heavyweight pain killers and some wise counsel for all of us: "Take it easy and rest. When the body is involved, slower is usually always faster. Take the time now to recover. . . so you don't have to deal with this any longer than you need to."

Failing to take breaks--going too hard for too long, too often--can negatively impact performance in almost everything that we mortals involve ourselves in. It affects immunity and mood, depletes energy reserves, and sets us up for a slew of much more serious problems down the road.

Why do we feel so guilty when we stop "doing" things? Maybe because we put so much emphasis on our effort as a means to an end that we don't trust anything BUT effort--and lot of it--to get where we want to go. We forget that success is not an either/or proposition, where you have to choose between always pushing hard or quickly falling behind.

We are also creatures of habit. We get sucked up into the routines, and quickly forget our ultimate goals. We need to be reminded, often, to remember why we are doing what we are doing, and that strategic periods of rest and recovery are going to be the quickest way to get there.

Here are some of the most common indicators that suggest you need to take a step back and add recovery time on your list of to do's:

* You're feeling tired, strung out and crabby.
* You're sick. Again.
* You've hit a stubborn plateau.
* Things that used to make you happy don't anymore.
* You've knocked your head silly.