A Vortex of Your Own Doing — by Dan Lynn

By Dan Lynn

"A vortex of your own doing." I say it all the time — usually to myself but also to other driven professionals.

I hear the complaint constantly, from founders, executives, and friends: "I'm slammed." "I'm underwater." "There aren't enough hours." I get it — the feeling is real. But when I actually sit with someone and trace how their week got that way, the truth is almost always the same: they built the storm they're standing in.

They said yes to the meeting that didn't need them. They stacked seven calls back-to-back with no room to think, eat, or breathe. They committed to a deadline that was never realistic, then sprinted at a wall they drew themselves. They kept the project they should have handed off. Nobody did this to them. They did it to themselves — one small, reasonable-sounding "yes" at a time.

I'm not pointing fingers from a safe distance. I've spun up plenty of my own vortexes. The hard part isn't the work — it's admitting the chaos has an author, and the author is you.

And here's why that's actually good news: if you created it, you can uncreate it. The calendar you overloaded, you can protect. The meeting you accepted, you can decline. The timeline you set, you can reset. Control was never taken from you — you gave it away in little pieces, and you can take it back the same way.

We are all in the vortex of our own doing.