At multiple points in your life, you are going to feel overwhelmed:
Sometimes it will be work related, other times it will have to do with your personal affairs.
Despite this, it can be all to easy to fall into the trap of running on fumes anyways all in the spirit of being able to get just a few more things done.
The next time you’re tempted to push through the myriad of mental and physical alarms that your body is sending you to take a break and recharge, remember that it’s unlikely to end well.
Having the discipline & courage to take rest when you need it is what enables you to sustain the work you care about while feeling good about it.
Sometimes it will be work related, other times it will have to do with your personal affairs.
In either case, it’s important to understand that you cannot be effective in any sense of the word if you are not feeling well.
Despite this, it can be all to easy to fall into the trap of running on fumes anyways all in the spirit of being able to get just a few more things done.
More often than not, this leads to burn out — a condition officially recognized by the World Health Organization that involves feelings of energy depletion, increased mental distance from one’s job, and reduce professional efficacy.
The next time you’re tempted to push through the myriad of mental and physical alarms that your body is sending you to take a break and recharge, remember that it’s unlikely to end well.
Part of being a consistent high-performer is recognizing that rest is not a synonym for lazy — it’s power.
Having the discipline & courage to take rest when you need it is what enables you to sustain the work you care about while feeling good about it.
I think that these huge long term breaks most people need is a consequence of not taking enough short term ones habitually.
Does this mean I'm against long breaks in general? No long breaks are awesome too. But I am against thinking long term breaks are the only solution. It's a sad excuse to tell people to just wait until their 3 weeks off or whatever and just suffer until then.
I also think that people should stop trying to feel like or appear like or even be a high performer. Being a high performer is a good thing objectively, but most of us don't have the clarity to even know what high performance means. Instead we'll probably just act in accordance with some cartoon-like standard of what high performance means which then leads to