Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Enthusiasm

There are times in our lives when we have no idea if we enjoy what we are doing or we are just taking each day as it comes. Sometimes it feels like everything we do goes wrong or makes no sense.  Well, you may not have such times in your life but I certainly do and it sucks.  However, I have found out that such situations serve as reality checks.

Whenever you feel disillusioned and constantly fagged out or you simply lack the enthusiasm to do anything positive about your lack of enthusiasm, you may be suffering from a burn out. Trust me, there are warning signs which we choose to ignore:
  • You never have a good day.
  • You constantly feel stressed out.
  • You raise your voice above the recommended decibel for no apparent reason.
  •  Lack of appetite…or unusual appetite.
  • Irritability
  • Constant physical pains: headaches, backaches, heartburn etc.

There are many other signs but these are the ones I am familiar with. Basically, I believe lack of enthusiasm is the beginning of death.

Most often than not, we do not take into consideration the fact that we need to stay constantly motivated to do things even when we enjoy doing them. Joyce Meyer would ask “Has your ‘get up and go’ got up and gone?” Do you feel like you have nothing to live for? Like you are simply surviving? Take a break. Yes, you read correctly, TAKE A BREAK.

Life is too short for us to be miserable; we need to take responsibility for ourselves. Some introspection is necessary. If you are not where you want to be, map out your plans and figure out where exactly you would rather be.

I am just recovering from a burn out and the following routine helped me:
  •  Waking up every morning and taking 30 minutes to meditate.
  • Subscribing to Dilbert.com for the daily comic strip (the humour helped me a lot).
  • Hot Cocoa/tea (depending on my mood).
  • Having breakfast…boy; you would be surprised what good breakfast does.
  • 30 minutes exercise routine.
  • Reading a chapter of a book every day. (This week, I'm reading  "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux)
  • Re-evaluating my goals. (I realized I wasn't satisfied with my current status and instead of doing something constructive about the dissatisfaction, I was killing myself slowly)

I must add this caveat: my routine may not work for you because only you would know for certain what would work for you.

You need to keep the fire inside of you burning.

1 comment:

Jennifer A. said...

There's truly nothing like taking care of yourself, especially to avoid or recover from a burn out. I am a firm believer of having a good breakfast every morning, and being a wide reader of the Word and blogs revitalizes my spirit.