Career, job, family, taxes and insurance … life can get downright difficult to juggle.
With such a crazy pace and heavy load to carry, it’s not a matter of whether or not you will face burnout, it’s simply a matter of when. And for many of us, that burnout is something that builds up and hits us in the face on an ongoing basis, lurking around every corner. We may have even learned to live with it in varying degrees, tired and uninspired, assuming that’s just the way our life turned out.
So is all lost? In a word … no. As Mr. Churchill advised, “Never, never, never give up.” Burnout will always haunt you, but it can be recognized in advance and guarded against. Fight back. Take a vacation every single day. Just little one.
Unless it becomes a lifestyle (purposely goofing off) and something done consciously, it won’t really happen. We work too hard, have too much on our plate and far, far too many e-mails to return. Unless you make a concentrated effort to release a little steam, it will simply build and before you know it, the Devil will quickly move into your house bringing his oppressive friend Burnout along with him.
So learn to “give yourself a break.” Have a cup of coffee away from your desk, outside on a bench. Sit somewhere quiet in the office for 15 minutes and doodle unimportant stuff. Stand by the window, watch people walking by and make up horrible stories about them. Go see a movie at lunch. One word of caution, stay away from Facebook. The Devil lives on Facebook, too.
Make your mini vacation 100% about you. And allow yourself to enjoy it, guilt-free. You deserve it. And, when it comes right down to it, you need it.
Every single day.