Hi Reader,

For one year, I have been preparing for the marathon that is scheduled for this Sunday. I put the mileage in, watched my diet, cross-trained other muscles, invested in the gear and invested the time and energy.

And then my body sent me a sign. My back went three times in one week (in German we call it a Hexenschuss, a witch’s shot - how fitting!), which meant days of immobility when I couldn’t even tie my own shoelaces. Each time it got better and I tried to get back on my feet, literally, it hit me again the day after.

Last weekend, I took the decision to cancel my run.

I spent Sunday and Monday grieving, feeling the sadness and the anger, feeling let down by my own body and not knowing what I could have done differently.

And still, I believe I would be letting my body down if I had pushed through, ignored the signs and ran the 42.2 km anyway.

It’s “only” a sports event, I know. But I can think of numerous moments when my body set me a boundary and I decided to ignore it. Stopping work is often more difficult than cancelling a marathon. But when we push to hard, we might end up cancelling it all....

So what does it actually mean to give up?

On Sunday, I’ll be at my niece’s tenth birthday party.

🎤 Waiting for you on the Unprofessionalism podcast:

Marilyn Zakhour talks about another kind of giving up: handing our agency over to a system somebody designed years ago, and following it even when it creates the wrong behaviour.

Marilyn was chief marketing officer of Emaar, where her team produced Dubai’s New Year’s Eve celebration. So when she was told to cut a third of her marketing budget, she suggested cancelling it. The room froze, and for Marilyn, that was exactly the point. Sometimes an absurd demand needs an equally absurd response before everyone stops hiding behind the process and starts what she calls a “mature adult conversation”.

From there, we talk about why we complain about leaders in the town-hall side chat instead of speaking to them, and how Marilyn brings a hard truth to someone senior so that, for that one issue, she becomes their thinking partner.

🎧 Click here to listen to the interview

📥 Download my 1-page summary

​UP_037_Summary.pdf​

Watch us on Youtube

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💡 New on Substack

I finally wrote the blog post I promised about our festival wedding. It’s called Bring your own moustache (to our wedding), and it’s about how the most personal day of our lives became one of the most professionalised.
​Click here to read it​

That's it from my side. I hope to see you in two weeks!

Myriam