So you work long hours. And too many days without a day off. You’re on the go all day long, putting out fires, racing to the next one. Who wouldn’t be tired with your schedule?
But near exhaustion is not a natural state of being and it’s certainly not a recipe for good health or long life.
If you’re not getting enough sleep because of your schedule, if there simply isn’t enough time for sleep, you need to fix that. Fortunately, there are many ways you can cut your work hours without cutting your income. In fact, working less can actually increase your income, as it did mine.
If you are self-employed, you can delegate more of your work, you can increase your billable rate, and you can target better clients e.g., those willing to pay more for better service and influential clients who can refer others like themselves. If you’re not self-employed, you need to have a talk with your employer about your fast track to burnout, or find a new employer.
If you have enough time for sleep but you’re still not getting enough, if you have some form of insomnia and there’s no medical reason for it, there are also many things you can do. Taking naps, exercising, cutting down on caffeine, listening to “white noise,” improving your diet, and avoiding TV before bed, are a few common techniques for improving your ability to get a good night’s sleep.
But instead of looking for techniques to cure insomnia, why not find the cause and eliminate it?
If you’ve tried everything you can think of to get a good night’s sleep but you’re still always tired, my guess is that you’ve got too much stress in your life. It might not be caused by something obvious like job loss, marriage issues, or a medical crisis. It can be something much more subtle.
Let me ask you a question. Be honest, you’re the only one who will hear the answer.
Are you happy?
Are you doing what you want to be doing professionally? Is your career going the direction you want it to go? How about your personal life, are things running smoothly there?
Life is supposed to be easy. And fun. If it is not, if it is a struggle, if you’re always doing things you don’t want to do and pushing to get to the next level, you need to know that this is not the natural order of things.
I don’t believe we were put here to struggle. I believe we were put here to explore, to build, and to experience joy. I also believe we were given instincts and emotions to guide us. If most of the time we feel good about what we’re doing, it means we’re doing the right things and moving in the right direction. If we feel bad, it means we are not. When we feel bad most of the time, we experience stress, insomnia, and burn out. A one way ticket to unhappiness.
In his post, The Power of Effortless Living, the author uses the metaphor of a meandering river to make the case for following the path of least resistance. “To resist the natural course – to row against the tide – is exhausting and pointless; those who try only wear themselves out getting nowhere.”
Our futures are uncertain, he says. We cannot know where the river will take us. “All we can do is keep a vigilant eye for opportunity, relax and enjoy the journey”.
