Recently I’ve heard about and noticed an increase in the number of managers and partners who are losing their sense of professional fulfillment. They are tired, overwhelmed and generally aren’t happy. What’s going on?

If you’re like them, a large part is because you’ve given your life away. You aren’t in control. You live your professional career as if other people and situations are in charge and you’re just being led along.

Yes, there’s too much to do. Yes, people don’t cooperate. Yes, the expectations are great. But you have yielded to them as a victim to everything “out there” at the expense of being in control “in here.”

How you’ve given your life away:

1. You give it away to your inbox. It seems that more and more, professionals are simply reacting to whatever comes in front of them at the moment. You exercise little prioritizing, planning, or personal disciplines to protect yourself from being bombarded. You react as if everything’s important, succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent.

2. You give it away to others. You spent your early years learning the profession from professionals more seasoned; listening, learning, and following their direction. You aren’t a newbie anymore. You have wisdom, learned good judgment and have experience. You know what you should do and how to spend your time. But instead, you still yield to others’ expectations.

3. You give it away to doing it all. Over the years, you’ve accomplished much. You’ve learned much. You are capable of so much. However, you are now operating in complexity and nuance, which requires more of your time and attention. But you don’t have it because you’re trying to do everything. Rather than refine your focus and get deep in a few things, you take on everything at a surface level, contributing little.

You won’t take your life back in a week, but you can start—right now. What’s one thing you will do to begin the voyage of being happy and having fun?