One of the most common refrains I hear as a corporate coach is: I’m just too busy.  What used to be called overworked is now crazybusy, slammed, swamped, jammed, maxed-out – or God help us – no more "bandwidth".

Anyone who owns a car understands that it takes regular maintenance to keep it on the road. You don’t ignore warning lights or drive it with the needle in the red all the time – or if you do, you won’t stay on the road very long. Chances are you change the oil every 3000 miles, rotate the tires, maybe even take it for a tune-up now that Spring is here. Yet, we think nothing of driving ourselves this way without any fuel whatsoever – and then somehow act surprised when we end up in the ditch with our wheels spinning.

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Gina slumped into the chair in my office and unloaded all the things that were bothering her – things she wanted us to work on. It was not a short list either. Her boss had overlooked her for promotion several times. At 45, she felt there was an age bias toward younger employees in the company that she that been with for 15 years. She was, she told me, “too old” to go back for an MBA. New neighbors had recently moved into the apartment above hers and every night sounded like they were rehearsing for Riverdance. On top of all this, the dating pool for a single over 40 year-old woman in Manhattan was slim. All the good men were either married, gay, or only interested in 20 year-old hotties.

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