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.