Yeah, that's how I feel.
Sometimes, life just beats the crap out of you.
For me, the last few months have been like that. Not in a necessarily bad way, just everything coming in at once.
As I took some time to relax and enjoy my family over the Christmas holiday, I just realized how tired I was. When you’re on the treadmill and you’re running to live, you sometimes just forget how tired and what a wreck you are. That’s where I am at today.
After moving my family across country for a new job, I’ve been going non-stop both personally and professionally since the day I landed. I’ve literally been going and going. The Energizer bunny has nothing on this boy.
The time over the few days I had off all caught up with me. Like a road-weary traveler finally in his own bed, the body just finally called in its debts. I didn’t get sick mind you, instead it was just calling “uncle.” I’ve never been this tired or mentally drained. I felt like a 90-year old the past week and it doesn’t feel good. That’s why my gym bag followed me to the office and why I’ve gone back to my good eating habits versus scarfing down barbecue at the million joints here in the Kansas City area.
There’s too many people counting on me. I can’t keel over sick or die of a heart attack. My kids, my wife, my job all are looking to me to have a good 2011. But how often do we do this to ourselves? We get so caught up in the day-to-day we don’t realize we’re slowing killing ourselves and distancing ourselves from the people who love us most. Is it worth it?
I don’t think so.
As we go into the new year, many of you will make resolutions. For many, it will be losing weight. For others it may be finally quitting smoking. For me it’s going to be better balance between work and home and taking better care of myself. That means managing stress differently and finding ways to channel stress into healthy activities.
Christmas is always a time that leads me to reflect on how well I have it. I have a beautiful family that loves me for who I am – my strengths and my glaring weaknesses. I figure I can’t go wrong if I do more to make sure I am there for them and lean on them when times get tough.
As much as we love our jobs, careers, hobbies and passions, without health and happiness what good are they?
Make 2011 about prioritizing. Prioritize the precious and not the ambitious. Put family always first and keep yourself healthy.
As the Director of Social Media at tax giant H&R Block, Scott Gulbransen recently returned to the tax business after previously spending 1o years at rival Intuit working on the TurboTax & Quicken brands. He brings 16 years as a marketing communications professional, and 11 tax seasons, with him to H&R Block and was responsible for the launch of many key social initiatives at Intuit before leaving in 2010. A strategic thinker and business problem solver, Gulbransen has worked for some of the world’s top brands including TurboTax, Sony Online Entertainment, and Applebee’s.
In 2010, Gulbransen became the first Director of Social Media & Digital Content for Applebee’s, creating the first-ever social media strategy for the world’s largest casual dining chain. While at Applebee’s, Gulbransen lead a small but nimble team responsible for creating a robust and far-reaching social engagement channel for Applebee’s and its franchise community.
In addition to his professional accomplishments at the corporate level, Gulbransen is also a prolific blogger recently named as one of the Top 50 Daddy Bloggers in the US by Cision. Gulbransen was ranked #21.
As a member of the TurboTax communications and social media team for 10 years, Scott helped the TurboTax team launch and sustain the brand’s social media platform. He also drove and was responsible for the launch of TurboTax’s successful content strategy, including the launch of the TurboTax Blog. Recently, he launched one of the most significant social media campaigns in the brand’s history with the @TeamTurboTax Twitter project.
Gulbransen was instrumental in reinvigorating the Quicken brand almost entirely through the use of social media and, particularly, Twitter. By engaging with customers and influencers who talk about personal finance on Twitter, he and his team helped Quicken Online grow from just 200,000 users in October 2008 to over 1.4 Million in just 10 months. This led to a more focused look at the personal finance space for Intuit and, ultimately, the acquisition of Mint.com.
A former print journalist, who, after realizing his paychecks from the newspaper industry weren’t going to get much bigger, turned to the Dark Side – public relations. After working in both college athletics and inside mid-size agencies, he joined Intuit in 2000 and Applebee’s in 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and is the married father of five kids.
Despite his busy personal and professional life, Scott is a digital native who never strays far from social networking. To hassle Scott, or to tell him how great you think he is (or not!), email him at scott@scottgulbransen.com, add him to your Circles on Google+, or ping him on Twitter at @sdgully. Scott also is an editor and writer for Technorati.com.
Couldn’t agree with you more Scott. Family first and the priority list always starts and ends with them.