Sometimes you do and do and do and nothing seems to get done. You know that feeling? I think there is an invisible threshold that we all experience (and it is different at different times) beyond which point, there IS no point. No point in continuing to work. You hit the wall. ok, then why don't we stop at that point? WHY DON'T WE STOP!
I think the answer is that most of us are quite attached to confusing activity with productivity, and the irony is we don't even stop long enough to realize that we are experiencing diminishing returns on our energy investment. We just keep on going and going and going.
I just came across one of those twenty-something blogs that I am fascinated by (probably because the twenty-something mind feels like another culture to me). The author, a Romanian woman (close to my heart because my mom was a real live born and raised Romanian), Mirona Iliescu, journals about her life in a blog called Cheezy Cheeky (ask her why?). I was astonished to come across a recent posting where she was talking about burnout and disenchantment. Already? That's depressing.
In her post, she quotes Peter Drucker, author, Wall St. Journal columnist and management consultant: there is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.
True. So what would happen if you asked yourself if what you were doing was actually worth doing? Are you spending too much time on details that are not essential to the outcome? Have you past the point where dotting the i's and crossing the T's will make it better?
Ideas:
- STOP. Stop and ask yourself, if I called myself 'done' with what I am doing right now, could that be good enough?
- Take a real break. I covered this in a previous post, but I am talking about a REAL break---not one of those 15 minute deals that are designed to refresh you before you get back to work. I am talking LEAVE THE PREMESIS. Go to the park, the beach, the hiking trail, whatever. Just leave work behind and remember why you are doing what you are doing. In your life, in your heart. In your soul. What are you doing?
- Cry. Laugh. Scream. Really hard. (your choice) Get it out, and get it all out. Clearing the slate of the emotional stress locked in your body will give you a new lease on life, I swear.
- Let me know what happens. (comments below, please, I really want to hear!)
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Jessica -:¦:-
