Dear readers, recently I have been extremely overwhelmed with work. Work has been tossed on me at an unprecedented rate to the point that it is quite hard for me to cope.
Despite the overwhelming workload, I always try to find time to see things in a bigger perspective. And this perspective is as follows. Notwithstanding that work is important as it sustains the livelihood of myself and many others and we ought to do our best at work, it is equally or more important to recognise that life is not just defined by work alone. We should avoid the situation where we spend all our waking hours on work to the point that we suffer burnout and neglect the more important things in life like health and family.
I am aware that sometime it is hard to remove ourselves from the unrelentless pace and load of work. My experience is mainly due to being responsible and wanting to meet expectations of colleagues and bosses. But what is important is also to really take care of ourselves as we are the only one who could do so in terms of physical and mental health.
Thus, my advice for all of us who are overworked is to really create some distance from the seemingly endless work and redirect or rechannel some of your focus away from work into the other finer aspects of our lives. For there is a saying “What we focus grows”. So it we are not happy with a heavy workload and we keep focusing on this all day and all night, unhappiness will soon overwhelm and consume us and we will be left in a worse state!
For a start, drop off your super heavy workload at the close of office hour and head off to a long run and lift some weights; you will come back realising that life is bigger than working and working!
I know it is not easy and I am not asking you to abandon your efforts at work but just one message here: We have only one life and we must ought to make our life as fulfilling as possible!