Leonard Ng

What to Do Before You Burn Out

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Image by typographyimages.
Image by typographyimages.

You know what it feels like. You dread going to work. You feel tired all the time. You get upset about little things like people not saying hello to you in the morning.

You’re far too busy and overloaded to get the job done right, so you’re just phoning it in. You find it hard to focus. You stare into space a lot.

You used to love your job and you worked very hard at it. Now it seems like work never ends. It’s all-consuming. You no longer have time for former friendships and hobbies.

You feel like you no longer care about anything anymore.

All you want to do is escape.

And you hate it.

Welcome to Burnout

What is burnout, anyway? Here’s my definition:

Burnout is what happens after a period when your energy expenditure has been consistently greater than your ability to recover, draining your reserves to the point where you have no energy left.

That is, you’ve been draining the tank for too long and now you’re running on empty.

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The Levers of Optimism: How to Become More Optimistic

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glasses cat
Image by Octavio Fossatti.

Previously I talked about how both optimism and pessimism can be useful to you, depending on the circumstances you find yourself in.

But is it really possible to alter the way you see the world quickly and easily?

The answer is yes.

Pessimism and optimism are not a part of your genetic makeup. They are learned responses based on your environment, your family, and your experiences while you were growing up.

And if they are learned responses, then they can be unlearned and relearned.

At the very least it’s possible to adjust your interpretations of events, making them less pessimistic and more optimistic (or the other way around, if that’s what you prefer).

To understand how this can be done, let’s take a look at the dimension of optimism and pessimism called explanatory style.

What’s Your Explanatory Style?

Explanatory style has to do with how we explain and interpret the events of our lives, both good and bad.

(Good events are events that we want to have more of in our lives, while bad events are events that we don’t want to have.)

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Slow Down to Go Faster: What to Do When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed

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low gear
Image by hhabicht.

Life can feel too much for us sometimes.

It feels like we have too many things to handle at once. Too many things to think about, too many things to juggle.

And when this situation lasts for too long it can start to feel like there isn’t any point to life any longer. After all, what’s the point of living when we no longer have the time or energy to do the things that are actually important to us, that actually give our lives meaning?

When faced with such a situation, it’s very easy to give in to despair and hopelessness. And most of the advice out there doesn’t help.

Because most of the advice out there falls into 2 broad categories: either 1) quit or 2) suck it up / force your way through.

The problem is that, in a great many situations, neither of these solutions is realistic.

Fortunately, there’s a better option.

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The Art of Momentum: How to Actually Finish What You Set Out to Do

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waterfall
Image by Isabella Jusková.

Those who make no mistakes have policies which naturally lead to victory. — The Art of War, 4

So you’ve made your resolutions for the new year, and hopefully at least one or two of them are achievement-based goals. As I pointed out in my last entry, achievement-based goals are the ones that give you the qualities money can’t buy: discipline, resourcefulness, commitment, and skill.

So how can we make sure that we successfully achieve what we have set out to do?

The answer lies in momentum.

Momentum is nothing more or less than the deliberate organization of your goals in a way that makes success inevitable.

Momentum is about creating a process and routine that will take you to your goal in the easiest possible manner. Then, once you have crafted your process, all you have to do is commit to it.

The process will then do all the heavy lifting for you.

Creating a Process that Works

When I was in the military, the army had a very simple way to increase the number of pull-ups new recruits could do:

  1. Drop by the conveniently located pull-up bar before lunch and before dinner.
  2. Pull till you can’t pull any more.
  3. Repeat.

It worked.

This process exemplifies the four most important principles behind any successful process: simplicity, convenience, frequency, and humility.

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What Kind of Goals Are You Setting?

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Sunrise road
Image by Karsten Würth.

It’s the start of a new year now, when many of us lay out our personal goals and aspirations for our planet’s next revolution around the sun. This is the season when we make our resolutions: statements of purpose for the changes we want to bring about in our lives.

Some goals, however, will make a much bigger difference to your life than others. So today I’m going to talk about the kinds of resolutions that will allow you to hold your head high by the time the year is done.

Let’s get to it.

Two Kinds of Goals

The goals people set themselves tend to fall into two categories: consumption-based goals and achievement-based goals.

The two differ in what they require from you. The first chiefly requires money. The second chiefly requires effort.

Let’s look at them both in greater detail.

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