Look, you don’t have to shame or should yourself into doing something right now.

I’m subscribed to Brendon Burchard’s e-newsletter.

He’s the guy who wrote “High Performance Habits.” I learned a ton from that book. I ended up buying a years’ worth of his high performance planners because I was supercharged on getting a lot of shit done. I think he is a well of knowledge and it’s inspirational reading through his posts.

But then he did a thing I didn’t appreciate.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email with the subject, “In this chaos, here’s something to help.” I thought, I’ve been feeling pretty anxious lately. I wonder how he can help me.

After the 8th sentence, I decided he was an asshole.

“We are leaders and influencers and high performers! High performers prefer progress over pause; we remain committed to being our best; we use downtime to our advantage, knowing that THIS is the time to deepen relationships, build new skills, and inch forward when everyone else is trapped in fear.”

And then he said,

“Instead of watching some lame Netflix fantasy show, do the WORK to master your mind, body, spirit, and energetic force in this world. Inspire your family to healthier mindsets and habits with my wellness course. You can show your family that you retreat into entertainment and distraction during chaos, or you SKILL UP BABY. Just saying.”

He ended his email selling a course “on-sale” to “skill up” because god fucking forbid you take some time to just retreat inward.

I think it bothered me so much because I’m coming off of a really stressful 2019 and all I wanted for 2020 was to do me and just relax a little. I honestly don’t know how to relax. I feel like if I’m watching Netflix, I need to do something productive at the same time. If I sit down and watch Netflix with Chris (which is his favorite thing to do to decompress), without multitasking, I immediately feel lazy.

It’s because I read emails like Brendon’s all the time. I felt guilty because I wasn’t maximizing my time during a pandemic in acquiring new skills and selling e-courses and e-books and making a profit off of peoples’ fears. And you know, it’s bullshit.

Sure, we have goals. To reach these goals, we have to put in the work. I get it. I do this. I have done this. I’m tired.

A pandemic is not the time to guilt-trip people into buying your skill-building course and making them feel like losers because they chose to binge-watch Tiger King. As a digital marketer, I know that business must go on but do it with a little class ffs.

If you’re reading emails shaming you for not maximizing your time (which, not all of us have been laid off and are still working full-time), just stop. Delete them. Unsubscribe. Stop following social media accounts that do this too.

It’s not every day we deal with pandemics and 10 million people unemployed. We have never had to deal with physical distancing or closed restaurants, bars, venues, etc. This is a unique (read: scary) time in history. Shaming people for not producing 100% right now is shady.

Some of us will take this time to learn new skills, to journal, and to be “productive” (however that looks to you). Others, need to “Netflix and chill,” read, draw, play video games, or find some other way to zone out.

I write this to give myself (and you) permission to not feel guilty if I decide to watch a movie that will not teach me a new skill nor move my business forward. But I do hold space for those times I feel productive and want to teach myself more Adobe Photoshop skills or write a new blog (like now) or network or what have you.

Productivity waxes and wanes and so does uncertainty. Go with the flow. Listen to yourself and trust that you know what you need – not the Brendon Burchards of the world.

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