Three months ago, I was tired. Tired. Winter in Beijing is a cold, dark time, and I can say now that the season didn’t do much for my mental or physical state.

Every day, I’d come home from work, drop my backpack on the couch, hang up my coat, and go to bed.

At 6:00.

Every. Day.

Perhaps the problem here is obvious, but I could not see a way out of this sleep-work-zone out-sleep cycle for the life of me.

My coach asked me about what my non-work time looked like, and I told her exactly the above. There was more, but in the end, my homework assignment was simple: what if I didn’t drop my backpack on the couch and go to my room (the only warm room in the flat in the Beijing winter)? What if – wait for it! – What if I…..

put my backpack away?

I tried it, with a mind and heart full of skepticism, thinking that at least I’d have an empty couch to lounge on if nothing else.

And then there was revelation.

You can see it now, there in the corner next to my boots, patently not on the grey couch. I took my computer out and put it on my desk. I put my lunch dishes into the sink. I put my backpack away. And it changed my mindset completely.

That little step of putting my bag next to the door rather than on the couch to be dealt with later allowed me to close the door daily on a job I didn’t enjoy, firmly draw a line under the work day, and release me to use the evening as I saw fit.

Now, did I still usually use that time to curl up in the corner of my bed, under layers of blankets, kitted out in thermal socks and wool sweaters and fleece-lined leggings? You bet. Beijing didn’t get any warmer because I put my backpack away. But I felt free!

In the months since I started putting my backpack away at the end of the day, there’s been some growth in the rest of my life as well:

• I completed my coach training and some additional coach training
• I got some coaching on my post-teaching direction
• I made it through my final Beijing winter
• I read some books
• I watched some TV
• I learned some stuff
• I wrote a business plan
• I meditated
• I released my responsibility for the Future Of A Nation and just enjoyed a cup of tea and my rocking chair (because yes, I am your meemaw)

…And when spring and now summer came, and my apartment turned into a place of coaching, cleansing, and packing, I was already ready. My mindset was already shifted. Work doesn’t follow me home, and when I’m home I get to think and work and be and feel and do wholly for me.

That backpack isn’t next to my boots anymore. The boots are in a suitcase, and the backpack has gone on to better things (the donation bin). And now that space is empty, and my bags are packed, and new adventures in the universe away.

There’s a new backpack. It’s lighter. In every way.