2022: Essential Work

2021 culminated in the rise of burnout and as a result productivity decreased. According to Forbes, "burnout can result from feeling disconnected from work or family and friends ... The relentlessness of the pandemic workday (has) taken a toll on our well-being, we need to reset some of our working practices." Until recently our culture glorified "burnout as a measure of success and self-worth. The implicit message is that if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we must not be doing enough," McKeown, Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.

Time away from "business as usual" can provide new perspectives. Often that which was always right in front of us is suddenly seen clearly because we stepped back from the frenetic busyness of doing and created a space of being. David Whyte calls this space of being, "withdrawal". Whereby we withdraw from our relentlessly noisy digital economy, in order to

Return to an essential person or essential work

What Undermines Us:

Whyte says "we stick to the wrong thing quite often, not because it will come to fruition by further effort, but because we cannot let go of the way we have decided to tell the story". We become entrapped by a false narrative, limiting our relationships and vision.

Our Success:

"What is needed is a simple, clean breaking away." Withdraw, so that we can see "our selves and our world more elementally and therefore more clearly again ... We withdraw not to disappear, but to find another ground from which to see; a solid ground from which to step, and from which to speak again, in a different way, a clear, rested, embodied voice we begin to remember again as our own."

With exhaustion and burnout on the rise, an antidote is returning to what is essential. Living by design, not default.

McKeown writes “essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy", saying no to nonessentials and deliberately choosing the "vital few from the trivial many" daily choices.

To return to our essential work, requires us to stop for a moment! Stop and say no to one unhealthy work practice for 2022. Start listening to what is really going on "to find another ground from which to see".