The meeting you keep canceling on yourself. (It's not about time. It's about who you think deserves it)
Apr 10, 2026
I sat in a four-hour session this week with a client to better understand how a new sales methodology we built together is being applied.
I was fully engaged the entire time. Watching reactions. Paying attention to engagement. Taking notes. Thinking about how I would refine things for the next rollout. I was present and focused on helping them improve.
At one point, my attention shifted.
I realized I can't remember the last time I gave myself four uninterrupted hours like that to work on my own business or my own growth.
Not reacting. Not responding. Not delivering for someone else. Just thinking, building, and improving for me.
We are really good at investing in others. We show up, we prepare, we care, we overdeliver. But when it comes to investing in ourselves, it becomes optional. Something we will get to later. Something we squeeze in if there is time left.
This week on the podcast, Shawn Dill said something that stayed with me. When I asked him if protecting his time and being intentional about who he surrounds himself with that can help him was selfish, he didn't hesitate.
He said, "Of course it is. But it allows me to serve."
He explained it simply. You are a self. You have to take care of that self if you expect to be of value to anyone else. If you are not operating at your best, you are not being generous. You are being limited.
Then he said, "If I'm not in optimal health, I'm of zero use to the world."
Zero.
That is the part most people avoid saying out loud.
If someone hires you or depends on you and you show up exhausted, distracted, or burned out, that is not sacrifice. That is a broken promise.
So I started paying attention.
I upgraded my Apple Watch and began looking more closely at sleep, recovery, energy, and stress. Not because it is interesting, but because it is honest. It does not care about what I planned to do. It shows me what I actually did.
And it led me to a tougher question.
Why is it easier to spend nine hours on a flight building something for a client, but harder to spend even one focused hour building something for myself? Why does a movie win over a book? Why does scrolling replace learning?
At some point, that is not about time. That is about choice.
When your energy is depleted, your thinking slows down. Your patience shortens. Your standards slip. Your impact quietly declines. And most of the time, you don't even notice it happening until someone else does.
So maybe the shift is not about finding time. Maybe it is about deciding that your own growth deserves a place on your calendar.
Block it. Protect it. Treat it the same way you would treat a meeting with someone you respect.
Because that is exactly what it is.
Shawn also shared something from his own philosophy that has stuck with me since we recorded:
"History only remembers people who had a conviction stronger than their desire to please." Do what you know is right and what is needed. Everyone else doesn't need to understand. The people that are meant to will get it and you're not compromising your values or ideals.
This is not selfish. It is service.
The better you take care of yourself, the better you show up for everyone else.
Most people won't do this. "Most People Don't" do this.
But you don't want to be most people.
