That’s the question I put to my PSA (Professional Speakers Association) group yesterday.  Within seconds the renowned leadership expert Gordon Tregold and Caroline Dream, the humour and creativity expert suggested that it was a fantastic title for a blog.

What would you have done? What would you have done if you were working for someone else and not yourself? Would you have taken the week off, rest, and let your body recover?  I asked the question because I really wanted to explore what is our true relationship with what we do most of our lives: WORK. I touched upon this in one a recent blog HARD WORK VS EFFORT.

The short version of what happened. Yesterday as I woke up at the usual time of around 4 am, it was raining hard.  Four years ago we moved into an old country house (or Finca as we call them in Spain) and we have been refurbishing it ever since (another blog for later) however one of the problems we have had is a leak in a roof that no one has managed to fix.  I have spent an obscene amount of money with numerous contractors but the problem persists short of replacing the whole roof at 10% of the property value.  Anyway, while the decision had been made to replace the roof in the coming year, in the meantime we needed a short-term fix and that meant covering the area with a plastic sheet. Easy fix. Except that the torrential rainfall coupled with the wind constantly moves and the plastic slides down the roof.   You can more or less guess the rest of the story, but that’s not the point why I am telling you all this.  I climbed up the ladder, repositioned the plastic, slipped …  a few seconds where I actually cannot remember what happened and bang I was lying on my back on the floor. As I gained consciousness all I could think of was the pain. I could not move. Both my hands were screaming with pain and my back, don’t even mention it. I had somehow landed on a stone in the garden that had protruded right through the ladder and hit me between the shoulder blades. As the rain kept pouring down, I started screaming for help but with the sound of wind and the rain gushing down my voice was lost in space.  What’s more, my investment in high-grade double glazing windows had also paid off and no one in the house could hear me or the rain. I knew I was on my own, so with all the pain I turned myself around to at least be facing down. I rested for another few minutes in that position. I don’t really know how long but enough to pull together a bit more strength and stand up. It is amazing what your body is capable of. I walked the 20 meters to the front door, walked in and shouted for HELP.

I was shivering and unable to think proplery from the shear amount of pain.  All I could think of was how stupid could I have been. For a few drops of water damage I have done irreparable damage to my body. I was so worried for not being able to work, type, run as the pain took hold of my brain I was becoming paralysed with the thought of being bed bound, hospitals, broken bones and not being able to work. Did I say work? Why would anyone in my estate even think about work.

My wife came rushing. She helped undress me while I screamed with every move, pull on clothing and touch of the towel drying me, until with great difficulty I managed to drop myself on to our bed.  As she was getting ready to call an ambulance I managed to convince her to wait. I needed to get some rest and then assess the situation and the damage. Before I passed out, I told my body, this is of great importance, do whatever you need to do, to heel and fix  yourself (Don’t feel alarmed, it sounds crazy but ask Dr Joe Dispenza and he will tell you how he recovered from near complete paralysis after a cycling accident).

I woke up around 7:30am. My body still in pain but I was calmer. I could not really move but I could move enough with the pain to semi establish that I don’t seem to have any major broken bones, maybe invisble fractures but not more. I needed a cup of tea and a shower. Crazy again but I can’t function without these two in the morning. I save details of how I managed to take a shower but i did. Shower is power. By the time I was out and dressed I already felt 30% better.

I spent a bit more time resting and watching the news, but by 10 am I felt like getting down to my office. WHY? Well because I don’t consider it WORK, I love what I do and that’s what makes me happy. It energises me. It doesn’t kill me. I worked at my own page.  Only a few messages, whatsapps and posting one short article which I had half finished.  Voila by 12:00 I gained another 10%. I booked in for a massage with my phyiso and that gave me another 20%. I returned home almost walking normally, had a siesta, a short online meeting, few more messages and by 6pm I was feeling 80% better. Tired from all what had happened, I fell asleep and let my body carry on healing itself.

Today I am all energised. Believe it or not, the pain is around 15% and getting better. I woke up much later but have already had one productive meeting and enjoying another beautiful day of my life without thinking about HARD WORK. I just carry on doing what I love.