How I avoid Burnout

“I wore my workaholism like a badge of honor. The way I saw it, I had an awesome job and would work as hard as it took to do well.” Lisa M. Gerry

Today’s culture celebrates doing more and more. It shuns laziness. Busyness is seen as a valuable trait to have and display.

I am a high achiever and have a tendency to juggle many balls in the air at once. I get bored easily if I do not do that, but sometimes I feel to get to point B will require a lot of effort on my part.

But there is a clear balance required otherwise all kinds of havoc is caused. In Japan people are working themselves to death. There is a term for overwork by death “karoshi”.

In 2014 Arianna Huffington released Thrive a book that was inspired by her own experience with exhaustion and lack of sleep.

In 2015 there was the whole hullabaloo of an article the New York Times wrote claiming Amazon world’s largest retailer, as a brutal employer that puts innovation and company performance above the well-being of its people.

So imagine one day you decide to be a writer. And you thought you will one day hit the New Yorks Times Bestseller list.

Then you decide to look around and see what other authors have done.

“The system I use to churn out 10 books and 2000 articles in one year.”

Do you know how much Stephen King has written? 56 novels, 200 short stories.

Do you know how many articles you have to publish on medium to even be noticed?

Then all the marketing stuff you have to do.

Have a presence on all social media.

Have an email list of 200,000 plus followers.

Have a podcast that rivals Lewis Howes’.

Do a trillion webinars.

Pay Tim Grahl to manage your book launch.

Have well done videos.

The word being prolific and producing more and more ARE the sure ways to get deemed a good writer. The more you do, the better you are, surely.

I already give up before we go on.

I picked my lane a long time ago and I’m sticking to it.

I have learnt to do the best with whatever resources I have. I am typing this on Word. My computer is an old Dell with Windows 7. I hate technology. I hate learning how to use a new product. That is writing time.

The day I have a podcast know I have a lot of money and there is a whole team rigging things for me, “OK now speak into this.”

“Here, not there.”

There’s always a million things authors did to be successful and are what you need to be doing.

I can’t even figure out how someone in California can speak to people in Australia and all over the world on a webinar. I would be sweating blood. I’d be like, “Can you hear me?” And the listeners would say, “Hell no.”

So that is out as well.

Meanwhile in California resides a man called Rick Warren. He is a pastor. Of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. In 2002, he released “The Purpose Driven Life” which was published by Zondervarn. The book sold 30 million copies by 2002. Recently it was in the headlines because Michael Phelps read it and decided not to commit suicide. It has sold 40 million copies by now.

The guy was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 90 weeks.

Do you know Rick has made so much money from that book that he literally gives it away.

I found even more information on this Michael Phelps article.

I listen to Rick Warren’s podcast. I mean the guy will be preaching about something and it paints a clear picture of my life here in Sweden. How is that even possible?

Anyway, he has a message called “When You’ve Come Up Empty; When You are Hoping for a Miracle. He preaches from Luke 5. About how Simon Peter and his partners James and John had fished for 10 hours and had caught nothing. And then Jesus tells them to lower their nets into the sea and they catch so much fish that the boats start sinking.

He talked about the miracle of acceleration; God can do in 10 minutes what you could not do (on your own) in 10 years.

He said the best place to start is to give Jesus control of your whole life…career, men …..you need Jesus in your boat.

There is a debate about what to blog about because blogging about your faith may alienate some people.

But I write about what I am passion about. God is my BFF and hopefully some people connect with my articles.

I am however #TeamJesus all the way. JESUS IS SO IN MY BOAT.

I have no clue where God is going with this writing thing because it has been rejection, suffering and angst upto now. And no one buying this writing dream at all. I mean these have been close friends and family.

But I go on like a delusional person. I have 270 Instagram likes. As in seriously if I hit that list one day, all you people have to give your life to Jesus because it sure wasn’t anything I did.

Because Jesus is in my boat, I don’t burnout. I know he can orchestrate a marketing move like I can’t.

In March 2005 Brian Nichols, who was wanted for the shooting of four people in Atlanta, held Ashley Smith hostage in her apartment for seven hours. Smith reported to news outlets that during this time she read chapter 32 of The Purpose Driven Life to Nichols, which she credited as influencing his decision to release her from captivity.[9]] Sales of The Purpose Driven Life rose greatly, with the book becoming Amazon’s second best selling book after news of Smith’s captivity and release was announced.[11][12]

Talk about book marketing.

God is so real to me and I literally take Him at His word. I don’t force issues, I don’t struggle, I don’t get bummed out by my circumstances. Actually before God works out something big in your life, you will go through lean years. I’ve gone through those and yet my trust and hope is in Him 100 percent.

I just do my best with what I have.

photo credit: allispossible.org.uk Drowning under a mountain of paper via photopin (license)

xxxxxxx

This article first appeared on my blog at www.nyakarimaking.com

xxxxxxx

Call to action: Subscribe and get a true story at www.nyakarimaking.com