Please Don't Die

Your ambitions and purposes need you alive.

And I say this with the sincerest of hearts and most profound of thoughts. Don't die. It is not a rhetoric, nor is there any big, hidden second meaning to it. It is me, in all its literal terms, begging you not to die.

It is easy to ignore the little pain on your back from all the working out, all the sitting through hours and hours of meetings, the bags under your eyes due to lack of sleep, because you've got to get things done ahead of deadlines. You need to have a check-up, but you keep pushing back because you don't want your fulfilling work to suffer. All of that is easy.

It is good, too, to try to be productive no matter the odds, to go the extra mile, to show up Monday to Sunday, week in, week out, 365 days a year, no breaks, no going on leave, just so you can be dubbed the most productive Founder, CEO, employee, business person.

In fact, in some sects, it is considered necessary if you want to get ahead of your peers. To work now and rest later, but then when the later comes, it catches you working, so you push the rest to later.

Yes, you'll hit the goal. You'll get the employee of the year. You'll receive the award for the most productive CEO. You'd get that bump in your salary. You'll be promoted. You'll be recognized. But what shall it all profit you..., if you die?

Please, don't die.

Ask everyone who knows me, they'd probably tell you that I don't joke with productivity. Ask me about my one core value, I'd tell you it is growth. And growth is a lot of work! My God! Especially when you take responsibility, not just for your growth, but for the growth of others. I am always working.

All that I do for work is fun and fulfilling. I am happy and feel lucky that I get to do it, but it is work regardless; backbreaking, tireless, mind-boggling work. There are times I have had to think hard about improving a process or creating something new for work, and I get severe headaches.

Yes, headaches. I've been getting these terribly, incessant headaches, which I have checked out, and tests came back normal. I got some drugs, and the headaches went for a couple of months, only to come back worse.

They are intermittent headaches, but clearly not normal headaches. I've ignored them for the longest. Ignored all the advice I've gotten to get some rest, to go to the hospital for further check-ups. I've ignored them because there's just so much to do that I have erroneously told myself that I cannot afford to spend time thinking and tending to my health, and that I'll be fine. I even caught myself one time saying, "I'll rest when I'm dead." It made me sound like a serious, hardworking person. I have too much to accomplish, I cannot afford to spend time worrying about drugs and whatnot.

I was meditating this morning, and the Holy Spirit quietly whispered into my heart to “not die.” That was the strangest thing I've ever heard. Why would I want to die? Why did the voice sound like it was in my power, and I was choosing to die?

The deeper into my meditation I got, the more I understood. Every choice I make, consciously or unconsciously, that doesn't put my health first is me choosing death. And what's the use of all the growth and work if I die?

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Please, don't die.

You've got a lot to accomplish. So much to do, so much to become. It is counterproductive if you work at the detriment of your health. I'm not even saying this from the angle of being replaced by your boss or your company if you give all of yourself and end up dead. No. I am saying this from the standpoint of how dead people don't fulfil anything. To fulfil your purpose, your ambitions, your aspirations, you need life.

This is why you cannot put your health and concerns for it in the backseat. If it fails, the vehicle will crash, and all that you have achieved or wanted to achieve will have been for nothing. To enjoy your growth, to experience your purpose, you have to be alive. Only those who are alive can grow.

Your dreams need you alive. All the work you want to accomplish requires you to be alive. There is a reason why the graveyard is the wealthiest place in the world. It is because there are people who died too young without fulfilling all the dreams they dreamt and the purposes for which they came.

Please don't die.

And this doesn't only apply to your physical health. It applies to your mental, emotional, and spiritual health, too. Don't die.

Take the necessary break you know you need. Sleep enough. Go to the hospital when you know you need to. Disappear for a while if that's what you need. Visit a therapist if you require one. Your body, your feelings, and your mind are the licenses you need to operate in this world. If you lose them too early before you build a legacy, it'd all have been for naught.

Since this newsletter is largely for me, from now on, I'll take all the steps I need to make sure I am around for a long, long, long time, long enough to see Africa grow through transformational leadership, of which I would have been a part of making in the next decade. Take the same steps too.

Peak and legendary performance at work requires peak and legendary performance of your body, your mind, and your spirit.

Please don't die.

To Your Growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya

Handzinspired. ✨