AES46 Taking Breaks

It can be tiring sometimes. With so much work to do, and expectations from everyone around you to perform at your best at all times. It can be exhausting. Sometimes, what we need is to take a break. Just taking some time to reflect and quietly contemplate your life can do wonders for your mental health. It allows you to take a step back and really evaluate what you’ve been doing so far, and what you need to do in the future. You can rearrange priorities, even take some time to do the things you enjoy.

I’ve been watching a lot of old school Star Trek recently, so I’ll borrow an analogy from that show. The Starship Enterprise is capable of traveling at warp 9.9, but it doesn’t use that speed all the time, if it did it would destabilize quickly and explode. Usually the Enterprise travels around warp 5, and performs many maintenance checks, which is much more sustainable for the engine. We work in a similar way, if we push ourselves too hard for too long, we will inevitably break down. But remember, if you leave an engine turned off for too long, it will be difficult to start it back up again. As is with everything, the key is finding balance.

I think as a society we place too much value on hustle culture. The idea that to be successful you have to work non-stop every hour of every day, making as much money as possible, only sleeping late into the night, and never enjoying any free time. This way of thinking is damaging and unsustainable. It creates an unrealistic expectation that’s not how a human being is supposed to live their life, in my opinion.  

You don’t have to sprint all the time, sometimes you can walk. What’s important is that you keep moving forward, that’s something we must never forget, and something I still need to learn for myself as well.