What if it’s better for your health, and your ambitions, to work less hard? This may seem counterintuitive, but hear me out: for overachievers, giving your all in one area of your life, be it work, exercise, a project, etc., can leave you with less time and energy for other areas of your life, making your life out of balance. (This is especially difficult when you’re multipassionate!)
We’re often told to give 110%, but what if the key is to actually work hard at creating a balanced life, putting in a sustainable amount of work more consistently? This topic is still something I’m working on; below is what I’ve learned so far, with the affirmation, and the former mindset.
I schedule days that make me happy
(I won’t try to do everything)
I will no longer overschedule my days. If I’m upset at the end of the day that I lost my day to errands, it was not a “successful” day. A day is successful if I can be productive and happy.
I am consistently working on my fitness goals
(I will not give it my 110%)
If I give myself an injury for two weeks from working out so hard, then that means I did not do well in my workout. Honestly, I’m giving it about 50-75% right now, I’m still sore, and able to keep up a consistent workout schedule.
I read almost every day
(I will read less)
As much as I love sitting for hours reading, it’s really nice to read 20-30 pages in a book per day, and allow the information to settle into my brain. I’ve even started reading multiple books, but just reading less from each of them.
I practice language every day
(5 minutes is enough for now)
I’ve been saying the past 10 years I want to learn more languages, but have not been carving out the time, because I have other things on my plate. I am currently loving the Drops app, which reminds me to study Italian for 5 minutes each day. It’s not much, but I’m still learning. (According to my math, if I had been doing 5 minutes for the past 10 years, that would have been 304 hours).
These are just a few examples of how I’m changing my overachieving mindset to be happier, and create better results. Easy does it, is my new motto. On another note, don’t forget that you don’t have to do everything you like every single day (you could choose a couple of days for writing or cooking, for example); these are just a few of my daily habits that I’m trying to touch on, without creating burnout.
Do you find that you try too hard, creating burnout for yourself? If you have the opposite problem- you feel like you don’t try hard enough, it could be because that you are intimidated by a time or effort commitment (like me and language). See if consistency without exhaustion is something that you can incorporate into your life!