I’m TIRED. I have small children who seem to never sleep, a student off at college embarking on his own adventure, a husband to hang out with, two businesses and soon-to-be three blogs. I help with a charity, I work to publish my own original work, and…
You get the idea.
Some days, I just want to climb right back into bed and nap the day away.
I’ll be honest, some days, I have to do just that.
In the United States, we have a culture of productivity and exhaustion. It almost seems like a competition, particularly in the mom set, to see who can continue to work while exhausted for the longest period of time. Heck, I’ve been known to really push myself when deadlines loom.
But over the years, I’ve learned something really important. If you work yourself to the bone, soon, all you will be is all-bone. You’ll stare into space, tune out, and feel burned out. You may even find yourself sick with some sort of respiratory infection (at least, for me, that’s how stress and exhaustion manifest) and knocked out of commission for weeks instead of hours.
Sometimes, you can get away with pushing through fatigue – but not always. At some point, it really does catch up with you, either in the form of all-out exhaustion, or illness, or burnout.
Sometimes, you really should stop and rest – even if you don’t want to. Sometimes, the best thing is to forgo a project or push back the date of a launch if you can.
So, dear readers, I throw this question out to you: Do you push through fatigue or do you stop and rest to save energy for another day? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Published by Ronda Bowen
Hello there, and welcome to my page! I have been working as a full-time freelance writer and editor since 2008 when I decided that while I rather enjoyed philosophy, the Ph.D. program I was in was not a good fit for my life goals. Since then, I have published many papers and articles, started two blogs, worked as a senior editor for a magazine, served on the board of a start-up non-profit organization, and walked across fire.
I strongly believe that it is important to work to make the world a better place – one project at a time. I’ve worked with Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program to construct living quarters for those in need, written content for Stonewall Alliance, and edited the newsletter for my local natural foods cooperative. One of the blogs I founded, Activism My Way is dedicated to helping people get involved with causes they feel passionate about.
Although my academic background is in philosophy and social and political theory, my heart has always been in writing fiction and poetry. I have a novel in progress, and I am working on putting together a collection of short stories to share with readers. I also worked as part of a creative team on a project with a hip hop artist that involved world-building and creating an amazing back story to a concept album. I have worked with several authors to edit their novels (as well as dissertations, children’s books, journal articles, and non-fiction projects).
Non-fiction topics I have written about include pop culture and philosophy, project management, business startups and management, insurance, technology, and much more. I also have created web content for a wide variety of clients (ranging from gas station owners to hotels to lawyers), and I’ve had an opportunity to interview some amazing people (Michele May, Kevin Sorbo, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Mark Victor Hansen to name only a few). Needless to say, I love what I do.
I enjoy photography, and my subjects these days are usually my children as well as food, beverages, craft projects, and other such things for my blog, Wining Wife™. My favorite subjects are landscapes, nature (particularly clouds, flowers, and trees), and architecture.
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Ronda Bowen 