You know that spending half the night mulling over possible to solutions to work/family/life issues is definitely not the best use of your sleep time. You wake up tired; you don’t handle things as well and your worry and grumpiness just compound. You are caught in a negative stress spiral, being sucked down and it’s hard to break.

2. Recently I spoke to a group of real estate leaders about
high performance leadership. After I spoke, we had a
brief Q & A. Completely out-of-the-blue, one of the
leaders in the room asked “How do you stop the 2AM
meetings with yourself?”

3. You know that spending half the night mulling
over possible to solutions to work/family/life
issues is definitely not the best use of your sleep
time. You wake up tired; you don’t handle things
as well and your worry and grumpiness just
compound. You are caught in a negative stress
spiral, being sucked down and it’s hard to break.

4. So what if you could shorten those 2AM
meetings? What if you could sidestep that agenda
of “what if?” Maybe just briefly turn up and then
disappear back to the land of nod.

5. To avoid going the distance at the 2AM meeting you
need to stop taking your minds’ agenda seriously. You
mind is going to throw out endlessly problems and
possible solutions, and the more you listen, the more it
will talk.

6. The trick is to tell your mind “Shut up! I don’t want to
hear from your now” and then refocus on the warm, soft
sheets, your comfortable pillow, your slinky PJs or the joy
of spooning.

7. It’s not going to stop your mind from wanting to
interrupt again, and it’s OK to let your mind keep
chatting, but you just need to make sure you don’t start
chatting about it’s agenda. Focus on the present, not a
possible future and the 2AM meeting will be over in no
time!