I’m getting ready to go on vacation, so my calendar feels extra full and my to-do list extra-long.

Cue overwhelm. Cue anxiety.

So, I followed my own inner coach advice: deep breathing first. Then I went for a walk around my favorite lake. While walking, I stomped my feet a bit and did some quiet screaming—just enough to move the anxious energy through and out.

I picked up my pace and tuned into my body. I wanted to connect with it—feel my muscles, be in the present moment, and not the future worries of work.

I put my hands on a tree, letting its presence meet mine.

That all helped. But what happened next really did the trick.

The Sweet Smell of Career Success … I mean marijuana

I smelled it.

That smell that seems to be everywhere these days—not just at a rock concert or your high school friend’s basement.

For someone who grew up in the “This is your brain on drugs” fried egg-in-a-skillet era … when everyone I knew was hiding their weed in zipper baggies inside coffee cans … I’m still a bit shocked when I catch the scent walking down a Chicago street … or outside in a restaurant parking lot.

Today, mid-walk, mid-anxiety-release, I got a whiff.

A man sat on a lakeside bench, fishing pole in the water, joint in hand.

Now, pot was never my thing. But as I watched him—relaxed, calm, with his small, satisfied smile—I thought: I want me some of that.

Not the pot.

The feeling.

The calm. The ease. The being in the moment without a hamster wheel of to-dos running his mind. His body loose, his face open.

A New Coaching Tool to Get You “Feeling Good”

Right then, I invented a new coaching tool. I call it: Feel Good Career Tool.

Here’s what I did. Feel free to try this on your own:

• I sat down on a bench.
• I pretended to put my fishing pole in the water.
• I pretended to roll a joint. I had an imaginary tray with imaginary rolling papers and sifted through my imaginary weed choosing the best buds.
• I pretended to smoke it. I inhaled deeply, held it in, and then fake-coughed … because as the old line goes: “If you don’t cough, you don’t get off.”

Because I wanted to get off.

• Off the hamster wheel of productivity.
• Off the pressure to always be on.
• Off the endless “what’s next?”

I let myself imagine that all I had to do today was sit here, breathe, and look at the lake. I was pretending to light up in order to lighten up. That was enough.

And if you had walked by and saw me, you would have seen the same thing I saw on that fisherman’s face: my small, knowing smile.

The one that says: I’ve got the secret to life. I pretend my way to a great day.