notes from the universe.

I believe the universe sends us messages. And if we're open to it, eyes and ears alert, we can see or hear whatever it may be. Sometimes, the message comes as a massive, life-changing event or revelation. But more often, I feel it comes in the most mundane little one-liners, lacking fanfare or even envelopes, easy to miss if you're not paying attention.

But boy, was I ever as I read through a weekly e-newsletter, and laughed aloud. See whether this "Marketing Minute" (from "Master Marketer" Marcia Yudkin) rings a bell for you, too:

In Deep Survival, author Laurence Gonzales writes about a U.S. Air Force Survival School instructor who pushed a group of pilots too hard out on a strenuous winter hike. Exhausted, the group suddenly lost the will to continue and sat down in a snowfield. As darkness approached, the instructor realized the pilots could die of hypothermia. Deeply fatigued himself, he managed to get a fire going, which awakened the group from its apathetic stupor.

"A survival situation is a ticking clock: You have only so much stored energy, and every time you exert yourself, you're using it up," writes Gonzales. "You should operate at about 60% of your normal level of activity, and rest and rehydrate frequently. The trick is to become extremely stingy with your scarce resources, balancing risk and reward, investing only in efforts that offer the biggest return."

That's a profound statement about stamina, that applies to any sort of long slog in business, too. When you're working hard at something day after day after day, don't push yourself to the limit. Creative, high-quality work requires resting and keeping some energy in reserve.

Seriously － sixty percent?? And to think, I've spent my Type A life trying to give the proverbial 110%!! No wonder I feel like I'm barely holding on sometimes － I'm not giving myself the necessary resources to survive.

Is this an epiphany moment for anyone else, or is it just me?