Growth through burnout sounds crazy, of course, but after a good burnout you grow enormously as a person by getting to know yourself very well.
Writing assignment #28
In the burnout
Ok, when you are in the burnout, you don’t think “this is the best thing that happened to me”. No, when you’re in it, it’s just as terrible. Really terrible, because you can’t navigate the country yourself. At least I had. Everything was too much, I could really cry about everything and happily thought: work & sleep every day and then I will die. So very short-sighted. I couldn’t enjoy anything anymore. Apparently I had done way too many things that I actually didn’t like at all, that didn’t give me any energy. But hey, just find out which ones they are and then throw the whole mess over.
Turning the mess over
Search, read, listen, talk, write, test, try and try some more. Actually a complete search for what you find important, what gives you energy, what music you actually like and what really makes you happy. That search is very tiring and the ignorance is maddening. Because who am I? Continuing as usual is much easier and costs much less energy, but your ‘body’ has decided to no longer agree with that, so you have no choice. When everything finally calms down and you continue on a new footing, there comes a moment when you think “this is the best thing that has happened to me”. I am really happy during these activities, they really give me energy. You turned from a caterpillar into a butterfly without even knowing you were a caterpillar at all. So a burnout isn’t that bad after all. Now “growth through burnout” doesn’t sound so crazy anymore, does it?