and it’s not taking a break.
Dear Authentic Introvert,
I don’t know if you’ve experienced it but burn out is becoming more common now-a-days.
Not just because life has gotten harder, and the competition is getting fiercer.
Also, not just because of how demanding our work is and how maintaining a work-life balance has become the biggest challenge for our generation.
But because of our awareness.
We are so exposed to information, other people’s experiences – their wins and failures that peer pressure becomes inevitable.
And this only adds fuel to the fire of self-doubt and makes burn out harder to deal with.
Positive self-talks have lost effectiveness and finding a good counselor or therapist is like finding a needle in the haystack.
And they don’t come cheap, and the affordable or free alternatives are flooded with people like us.
The demand is much higher than the supply.
Like it or not, most of us are left with no option but to figure things out on our own.
I have been facing an unexplained burn out for the past 2 weeks.
Unexplained because I understand feeling burned out when you have been constantly grinding without taking a break, and then your mind decides to give up.
But this was not one of those – I have barely started working on my niche, am not expecting any gratification anytime soon and am fully aware of how I need to be resilient and patient with the process.
And yet, I started feeling this deep feeling of despair.
I initially thought it was just a creative block, so I took a full day’s break from everything.
And then extended it to one more day when I still didn’t feel re-energized.
And then one more day…
before I realized that something was not quite right.
I couldn’t get to the bottom of this, but I could no longer afford breaks, so I decided to work with whatever I had left in the form of creative energy.
But one more day passed, and I couldn’t write that YouTube video script and couldn’t post or engage on LinkedIn like I should have.
And the longer I stalled, the worse things got.
Self-doubt gripped me and overthinking bred more negativity.
Finally, I decided to write a script no matter how bad.
And so, I wrote with little attention to its quality, the hooks, the engagement, and the pace.
I finished it and it seemed okay, so I wrote another.
Not because I was excited or motivated to write more but because now, I was feeling the same way about shooting as I was feeling about writing.
I just wanted to stall it without being unproductive.
Next day, I decided that I had to shoot the video anyhow.
And yet after stalling for a full day, keeping myself busy with mundane stuff, like upgrading my logo and redoing old thumbnails and titles, I started shooting at midnight.
Shot both videos in one go because I had the scripts and I didn’t want to go through with setting up the camera, lights, and mic once again.
Yesterday, I decided to do nothing but edit one of them.
I did waste a lot of time but kept editing with the same mindset as writing – just finish it no matter the quality.
Posted it at 1:00 am and went to bed.
As I laid down, this amazing sense of achievement took over me and I felt as if a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders.
The stress was gone, and so was the self-doubt.
I could see my bright future again and my faith in my abilities was restored.
This was no less than a high, I tell you.
I reflected on the whole experience this morning and realized how overthinking had paralyzed me.
And the longer I stayed in that situation the more powerful it got like a python’s grip intensifying with every breath its prey takes.
So, here’s the lesson:
To free yourself from the clutches of overthinking and self-doubt, take action while ignoring everything that acts as an ally to the problem – perfection, quality, performance etc.
You can revisit every one of those later but not now when you are weak.
Key Takeaway:
When self-doubt becomes overpowering, forget everything else and let action take the center stage.
In action mode,
Sachin Sharma
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