Everybody is tired. Burnt out. But we all keep on going: same diet; same schedule; same routine. Always “busy”.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
— Albert Einstein.
Everybody is insane.
You don’t have to do everything all at once
Commit this to memory:
I will have to remember ‘I am here today to cross the swamp, not to fight all the alligators.’
— Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility
In work — in life — while you are not doing whatever you’re here to do, the alligators will perpetually nibble away at you. You feel busy but your attention is fragmented and your list of tasks becomes so numerous and cumbersome that you can hardly remember what’s on it, or what progress you’ve made in each of those tasks.
You don’t need to think so much
Let your undermind — your unconscious thought — help you out — allow your unconscious to catch up. Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind by Guy Claxton is a nice book on the subject of conscious vs. unconscious thinking.
Modern life perpetuates a mythical equation: constant active, analytical thinking = progress, effective learning and success. Negative. Mix this approach with play. Daydream, read, fart around, do whatever. Just take some time — a not-insignificant quantity of time — to stop thinking. This is the time your brain spends really learning, making connections, and generating ideas (those brainwaves you have when you’re on the cusp of sleep? That’s what we’re talking about here).
You don’t need to compare yourself to other people
Compare yourself to yourself. Are you still curious? still learning? still improving? making time for activities that you enjoy? Why, or why not?
Equating yourself to others is an easy pit to fall into — what are these people my age up to? The people I went to school / university with? Those people I haven’t seen in a few years? These seemingly unsleeping, hyper-productive twitter personalities?
Those people have different pasts, different goals and aspirations, different problems, different paths. Live, learn and evolve on your own terms, and at your own pace.
Nor do you need to worry about what they think
Here’s a growth sequence that many folks seem to appreciate a little late in life:
- You say that you don’t care what others think of you (you really do)
- You genuinely don’t care what others think of you
- You realise that, generally, not many people think of you at all
Isn’t that freeing?
Now,
Relax. Take it easy. Breathe
Cheers —
