by Elizabeth Otieno
It's been a hectic month. Board meetings and client meetings seem to be happening daily. You still haven’t updated the monthly financial report. Your three articles are still pending and to top it all off, none of your new projects seem to be going as planned. But you still want—need to do more.
As humans, the need to continue pushing ourselves even past our point of exhaustion is inevitable. We always want to one-up ourselves and those around us. Prove to ourselves and others that we aren't slackers. Lazy. We are determined..
So why do we find it difficult to take a break without feeling guilty? We know we deserve it, but why do we feel ‘low-key’ bad about something so natural?
Maybe it’s something instilled in us from our childhood? The inoculation theory of persuasion suggests that some of our current ideologies or attitudes are the way they are because we were protected—inoculated against future persuasion from or against it. When we kids, our parents warned us against or punished us for taking a break. Being lazy. Taking naps on a hot afternoon or playing outside for too long was deemed sinful. Now as adults, we still have that mindset. We know we won't be punished for taking a break, but we feel we might be. Maybe our boss might fire us, or our clients' work won’t be as exquisite as we promised.
Sometimes we feel undeserving of the break. We haven’t done enough to receive the break. Hence our excuse, “After I’m done, I’ll rest”. Sure, it’s good to take the break after you’ve completed your assignment or project, but do we really do that? Do you? We tend to jump onto the next project, either because we feel we are in the spirit of working and don’t want to let go of that vibe or we feel there is more to do. I personally do this, more than I should. I know I need the break, but I don't feel I deserve it, maybe I’ll feel deserving of it after I finish the imaginary 30 pending assignments.
Most of us don’t want to take a break because we fear we won’t become who we want to and need to become. “If I don't complete this now, I’ll start slacking and I’ll never make it on Forbes magazine by 25, build my house by 27 and become the CEO by 30”. The fear of not achieving your goal or becoming successful is a real one. This ‘global village’ era doesn’t make it any easier, especially since everyone can know about your progress with just a click of a button.
Working hard isn’t a bad thing. Push yourself, exert yourself, just don’t exhaust yourself. How do you expect to enjoy the fruits of your labour if you aren’t even alive, mentally and emotionally that is, to eat them. If you always make up an excuse not to take a break, you’ll never find any achievement worthwhile or fulfilling. You’ll never be satisfied. So you’ll go through your life existing, not living.
So take that break! Do something different for a change. Start small, then go wild. Nothing image wreaking though. Maybe swimming or cocktails with the girls. A book and wine anyone? Catch a movie with your friends or maybe go go-karting. Cosplay your favourite fictional character or go hiking, you’ve been saying you’ll do that for years now.
Have fun! What’s the point of being here if you can’t take a break to laugh and enjoy yourself.
Elizabeth Otieno — Ray of sunshine, armed with a pen. Elizabeth is a young bubbly content creator, who is currently doing her B.A in Communications and Public relations at Strathmore University. The aspiring writer and PR practitioner goes about her day, either in class studying or working as the Digital and Content Manager at Dharkemmy Corporate Communications Limited (DCCL). When she isn’t working, she is either at the dojo advancing her karate skills, creating hilariously sarcastic videos about African history on her YouTube channel, “Epic African Tale” or in the kitchen trying a new recipe she saw on Buzzfeed Tasty or the Food channel. Elizabeth hopes to expand her range of expertise, already learning new languages and a few programming and graphic designing skills that will definitely come in handy in the future. Or at the very least make her sound interesting at the Christmas dinner party.
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