by Leo Babauta
People often think, when they are tired or don’t want to do a job (or a hobby), that there are only two options:
- Force yourself to do the work anyway; or
- Leave yourself alone
And while there is nothing wrong with any of these choices, I’m here to remind you that they are choices. And those are not the only options.
What else can you do in this situation? Well, here are a few possibilities off the top of my head:
- Choose to take care of yourself, and then get back to work recharged
- Find a reason to do work that motivates you to do it, even when you’re tired – for example, if you knew that working could save a million lives, you might not say, “Oh, but I’m really tired right now.”
- Ask other people to help you
- Find a creative way that makes you play the role and respect your fatigue
As you can see, there are options, beyond the only two options that occur to most of us.
Let’s talk about our habits, then let’s talk about what we can do to choose things other than the two main ones we mentioned earlier.
Our Habits
The truth is, most people choose one of these two choices habitually – if you often indulge yourself, then it’s a habit (you can add self-judgment and self-criticism to the habit). If you can force yourself to work, you probably do it as a habit.
So find out what you like – where do you lean? There is nothing wrong with this habit, but it will always give you the same result: avoidance makes you fixate and judge yourself, while forcing yourself to feel heavy, burdened, tired and apathetic.
Once you recognize the habit, you may ask yourself if you want to try something else. If so, keep reading!
Creating Life
So first, let’s say you’ve decided that self-care is very important. This does not mean that you will avoid difficult things, but you will make sure that you do not go to exhaustion, and be responsible for making sure that you get enough rest, eat enough food, relax mentally, and breathe enough. walking.
That is a given. Now what? Well, now you can move on to the jobs you’ve been resisting – the tough, scary jobs you want to quit.
But instead of forcing yourself, you want to try something, which doesn’t feel like pressure and doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed and unmotivated.
How do we do this? There is no right answer, but there are some things to consider:
- Connect with your deepest Why. Something that encourages you to take action, rather than avoid or force yourself. How would you like to do this?
- Let yourself play. Why does this have to feel like a job, or a “nose to the grindstone” thing? Why are we trying to “just get” all our work done with emails and meetings? What if all of this could be a playground?
- Let it feel alive. We don’t have much time on this earth. Let’s allow ourselves to be alive in every moment, every moment we can remember. What would it be like to be alive right now, as you read this?
- Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. Sometimes the resistance or the burden is great. How can others be asked to help us deal with it, or make it more like play, or help carry the load? We don’t have to be alone.
Here are some ideas to play with. How can you feel alive in the work you have today?