Doing what you love… It also gets you tired!

Nonetheless agreeing with the quote of Confucius, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”…

I changed my life, and dedicated all my energy and time doing what I love. Though after nonstop stepping from one thing to the other, as a habit, I started wondering why I was at times feeling so tired…

feeling even guilty thinking there must have been a reason why I was not having more energy and thinking that something is wrong, that I should maybe drink coffee, but it actually crashed my nerves and I had to step down to green tea, which has always worked well rising my energy and focus. As an entrepreneur, reading one to two hours a day, writing fiction and blogs, practicing and teaching yoga, being involved in politics, learning to/building my website and SEO’ing it, cooking, etc. It makes me feel like I don’t ever need to take a day off, which was the case for a few months straight without a day break. At some point I started feeling a crash and the need to take ONE day to slow down the rush of work, even on things I love working on.

There is a thought that brought me to a truce with the fact that it is O.K. to feel tired from time to time without feeling guilty about it, and giving myself permission to rest from time to time without thinking that I should be hands-on something instead; I love swimming and running, and after swimming  or running for 90 minutes I am exhausted. Although it seems common sense, I was under an unconscious auto-pilot drive and did not stop to consider anything, and instead just pushed myself to the borderline of exhaustion. I did not understand what the whole entrepreneurship “burning out” concept was about, until I felt it. When the body is tired I can push it forward with the mind, but when the mind and body are tired altogether… oh if the poor lonely soul could speak it would say “Give me a F,F break!”

There is a story on a book with Gestalt therapy short stories (Recuentos Para Demian). It is namely about a man that would work every single day cutting wood without a break, but he would notice that his neighbor, who would take breaks, was be able to cut more wood than him. This he found unconceivable, until he realized that while he kept on cutting, his neighbor was not only taking a break, but sharpening his axe as well… the moral of the story is that we sometimes need that time to take a break and sharpen our axe. Hence taking a break is as well a part of doing your best.

After three months(although they might have been 5, who’s counting?!) I crashed down and took a 14 day break, I used my birthday as an excuse, but I really needed it, so assuming 3 months have 12 weeks, divided by the number of days my body pretty much forced me to rest… 14 / 12 = 1.16 days a week I could(or should) have rested. And…. hence… “The middle way” of the Buddha… voila!

All my best wishes to all the workaholics out there working hard to make a difference, resting is a part of the hard work as well…