It is ok not to always give 100%
Most of us generally have a desire to do well in life. We want to be successful in our jobs, in our private lives as well as in our relationships. This is what drives us forward, gives us motivation and very often also leads to success and people living a happy life. However, it can also build up a lot of pressure and result in continuous stress and anxiety. We therefore need to learn to find a balance and that does not mean to always for everything give 100%. The key is to set priorities.
We are already thought in school to always do our best and give 100%. What we don’t realize, is that if we constantly push ourselves to the limit, it will no longer lead to motivation and ultimate success, but will cause stress, anxiety and eventually makes us sick and burned out. We can occasionally just enjoy the ride as they say, and not constantly push ourselves to the limit.
This, however, does not mean, we should fall into constant laziness and a kind of always on “chill mode”. We should continue to work hard and be motivated to move forward and achieve. Not constantly pushing ourselves to the absolute limit does not mean we are not driven or lazy – that is a very important fact to understand. Also, many of us think when they work less hard, they have to justify themselves to others. We feel like we constantly have to tell others how busy we are in our life, to gain appreciation and respect in the eyes of others. This is just nonsense. There will always be times in our lives that are very busy and challenging and others are much calmer.
In those calmer times, many of us are desperate to stay occupied and cannot just switch off and chill. It is the same when we go on holidays - we always feel the need to do something and be busy. Instead, we should enjoy periods of calmness and less work for us, as those will help us to bundle our power for times when we have to give 100% again. It is ok to sometimes just enjoy a summer and leave work early or not have a lot of projects on. That’s does not mean we cannot be productive. We just shift our focus to things we enjoy, that make us happy, like spending more time with family and friends. It is ok to do so.
As many things in life, it is all about finding that balance. The balance between times when we need to give 100% and dedicate a lot of our time towards thing that require hard work and might not always only be pleasant. However, in other times, it is ok to take a timeout for ourselves, especially mentally. To not be 100% up to date with work, and to not constantly push ourselves to the limit. It will help us put things into perspective and ultimately lead to more success as others perceiving us as more relaxed. With balancing our work life balance, we will end up being happier personalities and this will ultimately lead to a happier and more successful life.
It is therefore ok to take a break. It is ok to step back a bit and let others exhaust their potential until we are ready again to join into the game. We don’t need to always be the best. Sometimes, it is good enough to just be average and it might make us happier and more fulfilled in the end. We have to gain our balance that work for us, and not all of us can belong to the elite and we don’t have to. We should all remember that and enjoy the summer.
