Swimming in Peanut Butter?

"For the last 7–8 months, maybe longer, I haven’t been on my personal game in the way I want. I feel like I’m swimming through peanut butter. The spirit (mind) is willing and active but the flesh, or at least my follow-through, is weak. I procrastinate more than normal. I see exciting opportunities around me, but lack the energy to finish what I need to do. I’ve talked with doctors and friends about this. It was really getting to me."

I pulled this out of a newsletter from a notable investor and fund advisor.

I said, "That's me!"

He went on to talk about a meeting he attended in person. He was asked to speak at the meeting. He said he was not enthusiastic about the invite. The people in the meeting weren't really his audience. They were entrepreneurs.

Engaging with these men and women showed him what was happening to him.

Entrepreneurs are

• Visionaries.

• Creatives.

• Full of hope.

• Passionate.

• On fire!

My kind of people.

This pandemic has had this effect on all of us. I've talked to many of my angel investor peers and others who were active in our startup community. We all feel the same way.

It is depression.

I am just not myself. My pace has changed, but more importantly, my attitude has changed. And this is all caused by isolation. By lack of contact. By lack of relationship. By the absence of in-person interaction.

Stuck in this negative reinforcing loop, I even contemplated quitting.

I was thinking thoughts like, "Getting restarted will be too difficult."

Then I attended an in-person meeting for the table hosts of the 2021 High Tech Prayer Breakfast. There wasn't an empty seat in the conference room. Close to eighty people attended.

They were shaking hands, hugging, and fist bumping. Most importantly, they were excited to be together, to be with people again, in-person and live.

I walked away from that meeting thinking, "I have to do more of this."

Not long after, I was back in isolation. The cloud started to role in on my mind. I was back to the very place I was redeemed from. But the difference is this.

I now know how to recognize the cloud.

And I now know how to escape it.

• People.

• Contact.

• Real conversation.

• Listening, talking, and serving.

This is my prescription from the pandemic depression.

I gotta go. Time to meet with an entrepreneur.