Get better by doing NOTHING.
The final draft of your novel is in your hands. Your Medium account has thousands of views and you’ve stopped caring about the dollars because there are too many to count. But the happiness fades away instantly when you look at your dead body with the angel of death behind you.
Don’t work yourself to death.
In the ever-growing hustle culture of the 21st century the word “break” is oftentimes treated as a bad word. If you’ve already got momentum and you keep improving and growing, why take a break?
Some would attribute the word break to the word vacation, taking it to the extreme. And vacation would usually mean flying or going somewhere different to experience that place.
The issue is that the world is black and white now more than ever. You either work or you don’t. You’re either on vacation or you’re not. You either succeed or fail.
We’ve lost the middle of the road.
There is a rising tide of people experiencing burnout in the world, and I’m one of them. We work hard to express ourselves and build a better version of ourselves we’ll be proud of tomorrow. We know when our bodies are tired physically, especially when it comes to pain, but we never listen to our minds.
Don’t take a break
Take a pause. It’s a gentler word with fewer negative connotations.
If you look at my medium post history you will see an abrupt pause between this one and the previous ones. I was just starting on Medium and gaining momentum, growing my audience organically rather nicely. And then I took a pause.
At first glance, it sounds stupid.
But life isn’t a small enclosed bubble. Apart from writing here on Medium I was pursuing other creative endeavors and working a full-time job that left me burnt out each day.
Then I quit. And luckily I’ve found a new job rather quickly. But instead of hopping on the employment train right away, I took a two-week break in between.
But wait. That means you had more time. How didn’t you write during these two weeks?
I was writing since I was in my teens, on and off, and mostly in the capacity of narrative writing. I’ve done some more technical stories during my job as a software developer, but only until starting this account, did I really express myself outside of narrative writing.
Just as I paused from writing my novel to express myself here, I paused from writing here to return to my novel. I listened to my mindset and correct state of mind because I knew that I love both. And because I love both, I will continue writing once the drive is back, because that’s how I was writing for two decades.
We’re all afraid of losing momentum once we gain it. Most of us view it as a wheel we cannot stop, otherwise starting it and turning it until it gets to the same speed would take time.
But we should look at it more like an engine.
Just like a wheel, turning on the engine might take time and fuel. But unlike a wheel, an engine can overheat if it runs too long. You could say that taking a pause is like providing the engine with some cooling fluid. The longer the pause the quieter the engine until it shuts down.
The point is that it is not an abrupt stop.
Stop lying to yourself
We’re all caught up in succeeding so much, some of us are doing things we don’t even like. Maybe the fear of taking a pause is not to lose momentum, but to not continue at all.
Be true to yourself.
If you take a pause but don’t return to your hobby then it wasn’t meant to be. There is a reason why I don’t sculpt anymore but I’ve been writing for two decades already. Some hobbies are engraved into us.
And the ones that are truly ours, will never go away.
I was back to writing my novel and I am back to writing here. I was true to myself and when it didn’t feel like it I allowed myself to consciously stop. I told myself it was okay.
And as the old saying goes, “life isn’t a race but a marathon”.
If you’ve enjoyed this story, give it a clap or fifty. You can also read my previous story where I had belief in who I am instead of myself and how it propelled me to be happier:
