Live longer, don't burnout

Just baby steps, anything else it’s not worth the stress

Watching a documentary the other day about how stress affects our health and how it also speeds up the aging process motivated me to write this post.

The idea that stress is bad to our health is nothing new, we all have heard or have been told about this by our significant others, family, and even our doctors! But it doesn’t matter because in general, we tend to only listen to stuff we agree with and we disregard everything else.

In today’s world, most people see a hectic life as some sort of success… a person with many responsibilities, having a full schedule and an inbox full of unread messages somehow is seen as a good thing, it validates how important someone is… really? I believe on hard work, but there are limits in my opinion.

Somehow we all have been programmed to think that we need to be doing something at all times, because it makes us feel important, feel valuable, etc… this idea couldn’t be more wrong. Like everything in life, there needs to be a balance between work and life. While it is a good thing to be busy and be productive, it is also important to have time to do nothing, or at least nothing that requires you to make difficult decisions, just a time to relax and have a good time.

People burn out, there is not a question about it, correct? And yet many people still push themselves to the edge in a continuous basis. When you have a goal and you want to succeed, hard work is needed, no doubt about that. However, that does not mean that you have to push yourself to the limits because doing so will burn you out, it will discourage you, and will also push you further away from your goal instead of getting you closer.

In order to get to your goals faster, make sure you spend sometime decompressing and enjoying the world around you, trust me, it is something you don’t want to miss! Spending more time with family, friends and doing things that you enjoy doing besides work is something that will help you get to your goals faster, it will keep you energized, motivated and more importantly, it will keep you healthy and happy!

It is also very interesting how people feel some kind of pride when working long hours, skipping dinner, skipping their kid’s soccer game, not taking care of themselves, etc… just to be able to reach that goal… and many times even society will think of them as hard-working people who focus all their energy and time on one goal… lame. Living like this might help you get to your goal, but it would also increase your chances of being depressed, getting a divorce, missing your kid’s childhood, loosing friendships, etc… you get the point.

This does not mean that you don’t have to work hard to achieve your goals, what it means is that you shouldn’t use your goal or goals as an excuse to skip life and it also means that you shouldn’t spend all your time and energy on one thing, there needs to be a balance, remember… everything needs a balance.

A person who takes time to enjoy life and takes a moment to really enjoy the world around them, will have a greater chance to achieve success instead of burning out and even live longer! anyone suffering of burnout can’t operate at the same speed and can’t be as productive as someone who isn’t experiencing stress or a burnout. Take it easy, take baby steps and have a good balance between life and work.

The next time you are working in your startup, or any project with tie deadlines, remember to have some time to decompress and do something fun. After all, the work that we do and companies we are creating as entrepreneurs are in most cases with this one goal in mind… to have a better life.

What are your thoughts on this? please use the comment’s section below to share your opinion about this – thanks!