I consider this topic overrated. Today. Not so a couple of years ago.
I used to get really burnt out. Which was followed by a depression. The problem with me is that it didn’t show for several months, however when it came it lasted for months. Typically my cycles were 15 months, roughly 12 months of productivity followed by 3 months of being in a body and mind that resemble prison more than, well, body and mind.
Today it’s different. I hope. I never know. Actually, I even think I’m still prone to these shifts of energy vs. lethargy in me, yet I think the cycles have changed. Somehow I reach faster. So I think. There can be a day I feel down, then there are days of elation.
The change from the old to the new state mostly comes from a better life work balance. It starts with my realisation that life and work are not separate, they’re just different perspectives of the big thing called life within an even bigger thing called love.
A few years back I tried to keep score on three areas, family time, personal time and business time. The key was to not sacrifice family time and to dent out time from business to get personal time too. An example of that is me going to sauna, or skiing, or now I plan on going trekking in the middle of the working week, just so that I dent out the business time.
Anyhow, the balance is not this issue here any more. The reason for that is that I somehow, and honestly I can’t say I know for sure how, managed to find the type of work that makes me happy. This transformed business time into personal time, because I enjoy it. It also relaxed me about my family time. I often find myself skyping with international colleagues and friends in the evening hours, sometimes during weekend, but mostly I don’t consider that a violation of my family time. It just feels ok.
Because the moment I don’t like something, mostly that’s business related, I simply stop, rethink, and come back to it later. I just don’t let everything overwhelm me, me as my life, me as the love that I need to feel around me anyhwere I go to feel satisfied and fulfilled.
Maybe that’s it. Love. It is by no means only erotic love, though it is an important part, but more than that it’s the love for everything around me. And if something bothers me, if it intimidates me, scares me, makes me sick, cry, and not well in general, I try to see it in the biggers scheme of love. If I manage to do that, all is well, if I don’t I wait a little longer.
And that’s it. One love. One life. One you and me. Just one.