a little something to think about

Dear you,

You may have noticed you have not received emails from me in the last three weeks. It was necessary for that happen, but there's more to it. I had been super productive since January, running on turbo. I promised myself that this year, will not be like last year, I promised myself that I would take care of my body and mind a little more. So guess what? When I noticed that I was literally "pushing myself" to start on a daily basis in May, making crazy mistakes and just falling back to bad patterns, I knew that burnout wasn't too far away. I was fast approaching burnout and I needed to take a break as quickly as I could.

But...

I was too late.

Two days after I took the break, I fell ill. Apparently, I did not outrun the burnout. It caught up with me. I spent a good chunk of my holiday being ill, taking drugs and nursing myself back to health. But I remembered a conversation I had with the amazing Ben Lyon , founder of Stax . He said something along these lines:

"You need to take stock of your activities and ask yourself what is giving me energy and what is draining my energy?"

I really gave myself time to think about this. I spend my time on different types of activities daily, but I had never really paid attention to whether or not I feel re-energized or drained after a specific activity. Why is that I could talk to someone for an hour and have the best time of my life and talk to someone else and feel like virtue has left me? Was there a way to mix and match activities in a way to balance my energy? Is it possible to have a balanced day 8 hours for work, 8 hours for enjoyment, and 8 hours for rest? Is it realistic? Can I build a lifestyle where I vacation everyday, instead of delaying my gratification for a specific moment? Can I have short burst of vacations and just be disciplined with my relaxation as I am with my work?

We did not come to earth to work until we die or to be chased by deadlines. A world exists where we can truly work and play and I am determined to build that life for myself. I owe you three letters, so I will send two letters every week until I make up for it.

I have found that I am more productive when I am not forcing my brain to think. I have learned so much in the last two weeks. I had the most thrilling experience watching a theatre show - The Phantom of the Opera. It was so creative I cried. People are truly talented. Apparently, this experience also inspired bae to write his newsletter today. Read it here . I visited some of the Bridgerton sets, and had a moment where I thought to myself - I should totally intern on a big-budget set, once in my lifetime, just to watch these things done in realtime. I learned about architecture, buildings, people, nature, the minds of thinkers, how things are made. I even got to hear about the life of Jane Austen and just immerse myself in the life of someone else. I met some really interesting people and experimented with a lot of food. It was thrilling. I also realized that in all, relationships are golden. They are the biggest currencies of life and best assets in life. Invest in them.

Anyway, I intend to live and laugh as hard as I work. I hope you do too.

Life is short. Rest is productive. Build it into your lifestyle.

With love,

Blessing Abeng.