I failed at almost everything I set out to do

It took me twelve hours to notice we were driving on the wrong side of the road.

We'd flown overnight from Brisbane to Saigon, the start of a month in Asia. A combination of work, holiday and conferences. Before we left, I'd set myself three projects to finish, including my book, and worked myself into the ground trying to beat these self-imposed deadlines.

I finished one of them … and it wasn't the book.

I landed so exhausted I was, quite literally, absent from the world around me — including which side of the road (and car) my own driver was on.

This is what tiredness does. Not just to your energy — to the quality of your attention. You stop noticing things that are right in front of you. The bleeding obvious. Even worse — you have no idea it's happening, because the thing that would tell you — your own awareness — is the thing that's gone missing.

I wrote an entire book on leading people well, and I still did this to myself.

I pushed. I didn't rest. I told myself the deadline mattered more than the state I was arriving in. Which is exactly what I tell leaders not to do to their people — except I did it to myself, and my body eventually made the decision I wouldn't.

I got sick in Vietnam. Days of forced stillness. Failed deadlines and the monumental task of finishing the book still ahead of me — the very thing I didn't want to bring with me to Asia. But I did, and in week three, in Thailand, in one of the most beautiful settings, I finished the book I'd been writing for twenty-one months.

Despite missing the date I thought I wanted, it was perfect — and in that setting, I was capable of delivering quality I couldn't come anywhere near accessing in the chaos of trying to get a million things done before leaving.

It seems too obvious to write down, but I will, because most of us overlook the obvious in its beautiful simplicity: you will always perform better from a place of feeling well than a place of grinding through.

And yet most leaders — including, apparently, me — will run themselves and their people straight past every warning sign, convinced the finish line is worth the cost.

It never is.

Where are you currently pushing through, or pushing your team through, instead of noticing what's right in front of you?

The book is finished. This time, I knew exactly which side of the road I was on.

I'll let you know when you can get your hands on it.