Removing your tree

A tree fell on my house after Hurricane Irene in 2011. As a first time home owner there was something about this incident that completely broke me. I had no idea how to tackle it, I had no idea how to remove it. This tree was figuratively and literally gigantic.

So I ignored it.

For a month.

I kept on with my life and my work completely ignoring it. This fallen tree just sat on my yard blocking most of my front porch and driveway…for a month.

But I got more and more stressed and irritable throughout the month at work. Simple projects felts burdensome, little things felt very hard. Until one day my boss asked me, what’s going on? Why are you still stressed?

And I said, “Because I have this stupid tree in my yard.”

Why don’t you have someone remove it?

We like to think of ourselves, especially those of us in leadership, as impenetrable work robots (at least I used to) with great work/life separation. I didn’t think this stupid tree would impact my work. Why would a tree on my driveway impact my work?

But it did.

Because none of us are robots (at least not in the year 2022). We are all human beings with different underlying anxieties, and irrational fears. And when we don’t confront those, don’t acknowledge them, they start to get bigger, to get overwhelming, they grow to become trees.

When I finally got the tree removed (with the help of my boss and friend), I instantly felt lighter. Those projects at work ended up being easier again, less complicated.

We all have different “Trees” in our everyday life, things that are obstructing us from tackling our work and life without emotional baggage. Some are easy to remove (like my actual tree in this case), others take much longer to find the root of.

The first step is always acknowledging that there is in fact a tree in the freaking drive way.

Need help? Let’s work together to chop down that tree.