My life has been out of balance for about 6 weeks.
Too much work, not enough sleep, and not enough play make Jack a dull boy...a grouchy boy and an ineffective boy.
Shortly after my leisurely trip to Austin, my day job became my day and night and weekend job - which sometimes comes with the territory - but luckily for me it is not something I have to try and sustain for extended periods of time.
I am driven (which makes for a good employee...provided you can be driven and effective) and I have a great deal of natural curiosity (again a good characteristic for an employee but something that also makes me not want to devote 14/7 to any one thing for extended periods of time...as fascinating as my work may be).
Luckily for me I work with a great team of people, and I have enough experience to know how to push myself far but not too far. I'm also really glad I had started a regular morning gym routine a few months ago and have learned various relaxation/meditation/prayer techniques that help me deal with stress over the years.
Part of my interest in relaxation/meditation/prayer stems from an experience I had years ago when I was driven to complete a project. The work itself was important, interesting, challenging and enjoyable - but the difficulty in overcoming the inertia inherent in a large bureaucracy was stressful. I started to internalize a lot of stress and ended up with chest pains (which I foolishly ignored for days). I eventually visited the local ER and the tests showed I was suffering from some sort of heartburn, not a heart attack....they had me drink a local anesthetic which made the pain stop - and I got right back to work.
Later - after talking to my Doctor and thinking it over I realized how stupid that episode was, and knew that I needed to find ways to take care of myself if I was going to be effective, help other people and survive.
Enough about me. I'm just really glad to be able to take a breath and think about other things.
