This week I’ve been sick. The couple of windy rainy cold weeks here in London really affected me. The heavy cough seemed to not only take most of the “life mana” out of me, but also disrupt my sleep and because of that I’ve had to endure constant headache during the day.
But I still work!
Hour after hour in front of the laptop. Attending meetings, catching deadlines, discussing new projects - everything remains as normal.
Not only that - my personal projects as well: listening to podcast, reading books, and, of course, writing - every day.
But you know what, I’m really surprised to recognize that there’s also a sense of pride of myself for being able to do that.
Reflecting about it in my weekly review, I can’t help but have to ask:
“Isn’t it a bit too much?”
It reminds me of “The pathless path”, a very interesting book about career guidance, in which Paul Millerd shares that only until he got a severe health issue and had time to reflect that he realizes he had suffered from burnout for a long period of time.
I don’t know. The urge to work, learn, work, study every single minute of our lives does come from inside,
but is it not because of this modern world we are living in, where things move so fast that we always feel we’re behind, we need to hurry?
It seems one of the most successful achievements of this modern world is that feeling of insecurity and ‘not-good-enough’.
In “The burnout Society”, the Korean-born German philosopher Byung-Chul Han discusses further about this topic. What is very important to recognise is:
And:
...
So maybe you, like me, should slow things down a bit, and make sure that our personal development doesn’t dominate our lives, that we still dedicate enough time to other important things, such as self-care, family, friends, and other societal activities.
Because: