// Remove your badge of honour
Do you use burnout as a badge of honour?
I was guilty of this. As I started to slow down and recover, I realized I was part of the problem. I was perpetuating the idea that success only comes from burning the midnight oil and sacrificing your health and well-being to reach your goals. I was pretending that I had it all together, when really I was hanging on by a thread. I once had a panic attack in design school, my body froze and I couldn’t move my hand. As I struggled to breathe, my only thought was….if my hands don’t work, how will I finish this assignment? I lacked compassion for those who didn’t work as hard as I did and bragged about how I pulled all nighters once a week to get top marks on assignments. Toxic. All of it. I could tell you 1000 more stories like this but I won’t.
What I will tell you instead, is how much more productive I am when I’m well rested, how much more focused, creative, and happy I am……how much better I am at my job and in my relationships. I will shout from the rooftops that the best thing you can do for productivity sometimes is take a break. When we model and speak to this kind of behaviour, we create a safe space for others to do the same. From there, we build a culture that doesn’t glorify burnout.
Who’s ready to take off their badges of honour and live more authentically with me?