5 things we explored in office hours today (and why sometimes you just need to burn it down)

Sometimes you just have to “burn it all down,” and make the hard choice to step back from your career and a job you love to find a better path.

That’s just one topic we explored during Security Catalyst Office hours today.

As we do every Friday, we came together to celebrate the good, help each other solve challenges, and find our best next steps.

This week, our discussion covered 5 major topic areas, each ripe for more discussion and exploration.

1. How to manage your energy

Helping others is both a boost and a drain, depending on our situation.

What drains our energy?

• Financial stress is debilitating, and it affects people around us, too
• Belief system clashes with reality
• Fighting against reality (and things out of our control)

What boosts our energy?

• Feeling good about our work (and keeping commitments)
• Connecting to our purpose
• Seeing (and feeling) our value

It’s a reminder to “put our oxygen mask on before helping others.”

2. Create your own “speed bump” to regulate decisions

There is a space between stimulus and response. We explored ways to recognize the space and slow yourself down — in all situations — to get a better perspective and make better decisions.

We also discussed possible tattoo ideas based on this theme.

3. We need more slack in our schedules (and lunch)

I admitted I didn’t have time for lunch most days.

We agreed that the lack of slack means we don’t get time to make sense of the meetings we attend, handle notes, and stay focused on what matters most.

4. How do we make time-blocking work?

You might block time, and it’ll probably get scheduled over.

We touched on the power of ritual to help us figure this out. I’ve got some ideas I’m testing and look forward to sharing.

Stay tuned for more here.

5. Sometimes you gotta burn it all down

We learned about the hard decision to “burn it all down” to find a better path forward that included stepping back to half-time and pursuing an educational goal.

Key takeaways included:

• The importance of visualizing the change you want
• You need to change the structure if you want things to be different
• It took about a year to experience the positive benefits

Our discussion reminded me of a favorite quote, “A burning blaze makes bright of all thrown into it.”

If you were there, chime in with your take-aways and insights. And if you weren’t, jump in the comments today and join us next week!