Reflecting on the journey that’s led me to found Aurra brings a lot of mixed emotion.
There are so many career highs and lows that have laid the foundation for this business.
For as many milestones that I reflect on with pride--there are also moments that I've come to question in how hard I pushed myself to attain those goals.
For years, I was caught in a cruel and nonstop cycle of drinking entirely too much coffee in the mornings, grinding through the day terribly anxious and on edge–but getting sooo much done!--to end the day still so caffeinated that the only hope of coming down was happy hour wine pours.
The hours I put into my work were crazy. I would often be the first at the office and the last to leave–using the weekends to “get ahead” on the week’s projects. Sleep, nutrition, and physical fitness were afterthought priorities to what I was driving for.
A definite low point came when I was traveling to deliver a presentation to a women’s group, in an area of Cleveland I wasn’t too familiar with.
After stopping briefly to fuel up on gas, I pulled up to the station’s exit, preparing to turn left. Sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated, and already nervous for my presentation, I peered out as the traffic before me slowed for a red light that had just turned green.
Still, the driver in the car in front of me signaled to let me pull out before him. Without hesitation, I waved to him eagerly in thanks and accelerated, whisking past him only to be immediately t-boned by a large truck pummeling through a second lane I didn’t realize was there, crushing in my driver’s side door.
My memory’s blurry, but I know that there were multiple fire engines and a legion of policemen called to the scene, all in the peak of rush hour traffic. They had to cut me out of the car, which was completely totaled. By some miracle, I ended up with just a minor concussion.
After answering the officer’s questions and passing the EMT’s checks, I didn’t think twice about asking a policeman to give me a ride to where I was scheduled to present.
Laughing in disbelief, he obliged and dropped me off. Without skipping a beat – even with my body still shaking from impact trauma – I walked into the event and delivered my talk.
It wasn’t until after the presentation that I went to the ladies room.
I wish I would’ve realized at that moment that putting my work above my health wasn’t something I could afford to do anymore.
But years continued on like this: using caffeine and alcohol to force-regulate my energy, neglecting my sleep and nutrition, and–ashamed as I am to admit it–prioritizing work above my relationships.
It was only until I started my own business that I began to learn that driving so relentlessly in my work just wasn’t worth it, and honestly? It wasn’t even effective to work like that.
Slowly but surely, I started to see that the state of my business actually only ever reflected the state of my nervous system.
I began to connect dots between how much I rested or spent time in nature on the weekends, and how productive the following week was.
Between how much sleep I got, and how steady and confident I felt on that sales call the next day.
Between how well I was eating, and how much my energy sustained throughout that day.
I began to see that compartmentalizing work and life into neat, separate categories for the purpose of “balance” held little utility, because it’s all really one thing, actually. (What we experience at home, we bring with us to work – and vice versa.)
And while I know that most people don’t share my maniacal level of work drive, the data stands to show many of us have had similar realizations in the past five years.
We’re realizing that we have to take better care of ourselves if we want to sustain a good quality of life. Salary is only one piece of a rapidly expanding definition of career success.
I created Aurra in deep conviction that wellbeing is the future of how we work.
The difference felt in our work caliber, career sustainability, and sense of meaning and purpose is far too significant for us to continue disregarding our health. For some, this is a genuine matter of life and death.
Everything that the modern workforce is in dire need of, wellbeing can provide a solve for--amply.
Whether it’s stagnating employee engagement, or peak levels of burnout. Rising rates of attrition, or healthcare costs.
The leaders who invest in the wellbeing of their people–who show genuine care for their experience of work and quality of life–are the leaders poised for advantage in our wildly weird future of work.
And as I continue to execute against the Aurra founding vision, wellbeing will underpin everything we do as a team.
We’ll move in respect to our humanity.
With esteem for what has us feeling our best.
And above all, in dignity for our health.
It’s all we’ve got.
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