Remember that last passion project? You pulled all nighter, only to find out it meant the next week would go completely sluggish, almost like a nightmarish, all those burnt out days that come after, it's not easy, right!
Our body, and mind. It's our tool, for almost anything that we do. Be it our work, hanging out, or doing something random, can you do things when you're not in your fully charged state! Imagine trying to push a sofa while your arms are injured!
Almost the same thing happens when your mind is tired! You can't push your mind to it's limits, and not suffer the consequences. You could say the deadlines are important. But so is the results, and your own wellbeing! Let me convince you why your wellbeing is important 🙂.
Suppose you're dealing with something you care deeply about. Something you want to make sure to give your best. The best way you can show up, at that position, is to make sure your tool, that is your mind, and the one that's housing it, is fully recharged. And incase you're a human, chances are you're going to have almost million things you'd care about. Whatever that could be. You want to make sure, that you're at your best capable version, to take care of that situation.
It starts with your health!
There's really two way of looking at this. In the short run, and the long run. In longer horizon, you'd want to make sure, that you don't suddenly fall on the floor at the slightest stress, just cause you weren't fed enough. And your small habits, the tiny walk towards the positive direction, in terms of health and self-care habits, it'd slowly become better. Just one fruit a day, or simply maybe drink a glass of water more. Just small, but positive acts. These are going to make a positive impact in the long term. Cause like it or not, even if there's a slightest chance, that you are going to care about something in 5-10 years, you're likely going to be better off being in a condition, that you're not so bed ridden, that you're the one that needs help, not the other way around!
In the shorter time, you might not feel that much of a difference. That's why it's so easy to neglect health, and the good habits. It'd show more in forms of frustrations. But it's kind of like this, the harder you push yourself, the sooner you break! To keep your work interesting, try to maintain the goldilock's rule instead. It'll keep your work fun, while also making sure it doesn't lose it's quality, but increases instead!
Care about your career? You can't work your best when you're not fully charged. To provide the best result, you should keep yourself at a good state.
Care about your child, family and the people around? To care for them, you have to stay capable, no!
One way of looking at it is this, when you're offering your service to someone or some cause that you care about, would you want it to go with a bad quality or not the best results? Chances are you're not. But then again, you can't do your best work, unless your tools are at it's best health!
So if you're a boss, take care of those tools, and if you're reading this for yourself, care for the things that gave you this much in your life!
I personally go about it in a 5 pillar system.
- Sleep
- Diet
- Exercise
- Water
- Meditation
It could be flawed, but it's a personal choice. You could find better resources at experts or other resources.
Here are few of my personal pickings:
Try to imagine, you're starting working out for the first time. Now you'd go ahead and do 100 push ups or run 5 km on the first day. Chances are you're going to stay at home, cursing out the guy that showed you all these 🙂. But if you took it slow, it would've been painful. Painful that it takes so long to see any kind of progress!
It's better to take things slow. It almost always is better in the long run. No matter what you're doing, if you want the results, you have to go through the boring, repetitive and slow burning process. Staying in the boring consistent routine is the hardest thing to do. It makes you want to kill yourself. Out of boredom, you wish something exciting would happen, even if it's bad. You miss the rush. But the thing is, results, usually, are far more exciting, even if it means having to go through the mind numbingly boring and excruciatingly repetitive work that makes you want to just throw it all apart to find that fun again.
But really it all starts with yourself! So, first shine the tool, you can make the craft fine later!
To start out, here are some small guide, small action steps to get started:
- Sleep: Try to set a consistent wake up schedule. Research shows it's the best way to fix the circadian rhythm.
- Diet: Maybe add just one good stuff in your diet next time. Fruits, or whatever.
- Workout: Start with just 5-10 minutes jogging from the first day. Increase later as you see fit.
- Water: Try to track it a bit more. I myself keep a water bottle that is 750ml, so 3 bottles of it a day means I had roughly reached my goal for that day.
- Meditation: It's usually a good practice. The outcomes are quite astounding. Try for one month, and you'd see. Here's a good video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0GtmPnqAd8&t=194s&pp=ygUKbWVkaXRhdGlvbg%3D%3D
Thank me later 😄😊😊
Top comments (2)
Hello, Ahammad Sabir! Thanks for your awesome post! I truly loved and I noticed how topics like self-care should be more discussed inside the tech community, where the burnout rate had been so high.
Thanks! 😊
It's really an important topic, often gets ignored perhaps because of our hustle culture or our own obliviousness, but can't ignore it!