Today, we continue our Dadly Daily Declaration series with readings from The Passion Paradox by authors Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. So far, Stulberg and Madness have discussed the pitfalls of passion and the sole focus of pursing your passion. Today’s reading focuses on burnout and rest.
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Here are a few gems from today’s reading:
- Lots of people equate a passionate pursuit, going “all in,” with working all the time. But this isn’t a recipe for sustainable success. It’s a recipe for burnout.
- It’s well established that intrinsic motivation promotes long-term performance and protects against burnout.
- If you push too hard without appropriate rest and recovery, you’re bound to stagnate.
- If you are into what you’re doing and you’re dying to get better, the natural inclination is to keep pushing. Unfortunately, even if that pushing is born of all the right internal reasons, eventually the mind and body get tired. And when the mind and body get tired, it’s easy to slip into apathy and, even worse, depression. The worst part of all is that this often happens subtly, without you even realizing it.
Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:
Your mind doesn’t grow and make leaps when you are at work, but rather when you are at rest.
Consider rest an essential part of your job. Think about rest not as something passivebut rather as something active (i.e., your brain or body is growing and getting better). Seen in this light, rest isn’t separate from the work—rest is an integral part of the work. Going all in on something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rest. If anything, exerting passionate effort is all the more reason to rest. Remember that stress + rest = growth. And be sure to build in regular periods of rest and recovery to whatever you do.
