Because apparently, it can kill you.

It’s easy to shake your head at stories like these, where people work so hard at their craft that they keel over and die from exhaustion, and/or the effects of ignoring personal care, healthy living and the very necessary act of chilling out occasionally, so they can keep their vocation running at high speed. The flip side of that is “well, they died doing what they loved.”

No judgement here. I’ve read both of these guys’ work and it’s really good. Sorry they’re gone.

I remember working with a guy several years ago who died of a heart attack while bike riding. Really nice guy who was really out of touch with himself. Biking up a hill, he started having chest pains, and told his companion he was just going to “push through the pain” and get to the top. Well, he did, but then collapsed. Sometimes knowing when to quit is the difference between life and death.

Penelope Trunk is an amazingly brave blogger. She writes about both personal and business issues and has a book about career development that’s probably pretty brave too, but I haven’t read it yet. Her latest blog post about dealing with her post-partum depression is, as one commenter says, “breathtaking in (its) candor.”

Boy, is it ever.

Then, one night, the baby was screaming and our three-year-old wouldn’t go to bed and my husband was telling me that I needed to get the three-year-old some milk and I was saying that he should and I’ll get the baby and he rolled his eyes, and then I took a knife out of the dirty dishes and stabbed my head.

I don’t actually remember doing it. I remember my husband saying, “Oh my god. There’s blood everywhere.”

The vast majority of people who make their living giving advice would never in a million years spill a story like Penelope did (and has in the past with other issues by the way) because doing so makes her look vulnerable and lots of people don’t think vulnerable people can help them, because they’re…well, vulnerable. Misguided souls who are looking for a Superman or Wonder Woman to offer them quick fixes don’t want flawed heroes. The irony is, every hero is flawed, but in real life, what “saves” you isn’t the hero swooping in to catch you in mid-air, but rather the reminder that you’ve got an emergency parachute strapped to your back, or a helpful tip about how to grab a branch as you fall past a big tree. Okay, the being saved from falling metaphor is a little weak, but you get it, right? Superheroes, if they existed in real life would probably be pretty useless, because they’d have a lack of empathy for us normal humans. Say you’re falling. Superman, who all his life has been able to effortlessly fly, run faster than trains, etc… would probably just say “jeesh, all you have to do is FLY, you moron!” Little help there. After a while, saving us weak, helpless mortals would get pretty old.

Penelope Trunk can help precisely because she understands what it is to need to find a creative way out of a problem. She’s done it, so I know I can do it too, and that makes her much more valuable than Wonder Woman.

Technorati Tags:
Post Partum, Depression, Career

Great episode of House about change. Can people change? Ever?

With no apologies (at least from me) to Stephen Covey, a great blog post for Sci-Fi fans of all ilk…7 Habits of Effective Spaceship Captains.

BTW, though I’ve mellowed a bit, I’m still a solid Picard man.