Reflections at 40 – Intention – 26/40

To celebrate turning 40, I’ve challenged myself to blog for each of the 40 days leading into my birthday. This is post number 26. You can read all the posts here.

When you have a highly-driven, overachieving, Type-A personality you are programmed to push forward in a relentless fashion. People are forever telling you to ‘slow down’ or ‘just relax already’ – like it’s a switch that can be flicked on or off. While a large part of you needs to be striving in order to thrive, there’s always a tiny voice whispering in your head ‘Hey, you know you can’t keep up this pace forever? Right?’

But you ignore it.

And push on.

And on.

Until … burnout.

‘How do I stop people like me from having to burn out before making the changes they know they need to?’

That’s the question that’s driven this blog for the past 3-4 years.

And here’s what I hope has emerged: an understanding that while we can do anything, we can’t do everything.

That’s where The Art of Living Intentionally – a manifesto I created – emerged from. It urges the following:

The major thing that getting in touch with my values, saying No and de-cluttering life allowed me to do was live according to the above (more often than not!).

The beauty of this shift was that it didn’t discourage striving or achieving.

It did, however, provide some nice boundaries to operate within.

 

Image credit:John T