Effort.
I don’t know about most people, but between our household illness, Amy starting freelance full-time, and soreness from CrossFit, I’m feeling a little burned out. I thought this might be a good time to address ‘effort’, since it feels like I’m lacking it lately.
The first time in my life that I took a massive leap of faith was becoming a freelancer. As many of you know, I brag about my hours and freedom constantly, in truth this is more of an exuberance that I have for being my own boss. I love it, hands down. However it did not come without a considerable amount of effort and discipline. Throughout the majority of my life I have known only physicaly effort; doing chores, playing football, lifting weights, etc.
When I started my own business I realized what it meant to be an adult and to prioritize my efforts. Hiring freelancers, client relations, and more importantly juggling my marriage with it all. I’m finding more than anything that concentrating your efforts more effectively coincides with the elimination of stress. So, following Amy’s orders, I’ve been trying to put more time aside for myself for reading, exercise, and spending time with the ones I love.
Doing things for myself and often ignoring the needs of others (I know that sounds heartless) has helped me sleep better and function daily without fatigue. I really like taking breaks during the day to pick up a good sci-fi book or to take time to color drawings like Yoda. So, my advice to all of you is to try and step back from your lives and take a break.
I know this particularly difficult for you work-a-holics out there, but trust me. I just had a really great talk with J.D. at GetRichSlowly.org this morning about spending more time living instead of working. His advice to me was ‘having a lot of money can lead to more work, which is a lack of life’. I agreed and decided that wealth was inherently relative to the needs of the individual. Amy and I lead a very simple life which allows us to set fairly reasonable financial goals. This is a double edged sword: we have more time to ourselves and our financial goals are pretty reasonable.
I suggest to everyone reading this that you take a look at your priorities and try to make more room for your life. If the stress comes from work, try to find a way to work more efficiently or work less. If you stress is family related either try going on some play dates in the park or spend some time reading a book alone.
Whatever it is that you need to do to relax, I whole heartedly recommend you do so. Don’t be like me and get burned out!
July 24, 2010