Burnout Is A Real Deal, Watch Out For It.

On the 6th of April 2007, Arianna Huffington, the founder of HuffPost collapsed from sleep deprivation and exhaustion, broke her cheekbone, and woke up in a pool of blood. She wrote about it in her post 10 Years Ago I Collapsed From Burnout and Exhaustion.

I didn’t know about Arianna Huffington’s famous Burnout which led her to quit Hufpost until two weeks ago when I realized something was not right with me.

I had developed a terrible neck ache. My eyes were permanently tired. I had so many articles turning over in my head, but when I sat down to write, the words wouldn’t come out. I was incoherent, apprehensive, and anxious. I lost confidence in myself. Nothing I did was good enough. I questioned the purpose of everything I was doing. I was ready to give up all the work I did for in the past two years. All I wanted to do was to curl up in bed. And when I did lie down in a fetal position, I would get up within minutes, frightened that I was wasting time.

I was on the brink of Burnout.

About 18 months ago, I quit my job to become a full-time writer. One would think, how lucky I was to be able to do that. I thought I would have a lot of time on my hand to devote to writing. But it was hardly the case. There was so much to learn. I enrolled in courses after courses, took on projects after projects, wrote article after article. I was enjoying the journey, up to a point until lockdown restricted my movement.

I took the opportunity to write even more.

I was not socializing, not going to the gym, not even going for walks. I got obsessed with increasing my productivity. It didn’t matter how much I accomplished in a day; what I was not fit in my day haunting me. There was no demarcation where my work-day ended, and off-work time began.

I resisted sleep stay up way past my bedtime, trying to squeeze in a little more. The result was when I manage to get to bed, I wasn’t able to sleep. I was restless, overwhelmed, and anxious all the time.

Thankfully I took the warning signs seriously.

I decided to research Burnout. If it was something that was going to take me down, I wanted to know all about it. I read everything I could find on the topic. Its history. The science behind it, the finding from the new research, other people’s experiences, and coping strategies.

I took notes. And I made my own observations. I am sharing them here so that you can watch out for the symptoms and are aware of some coping strategies.

The article is divided into two parts. Part 1 deals with science and Part 2 with the coping strategies.

PART 1 – What is burnout?

The term “Burnout” was first coined in the 1970s by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. He used it to describe the consequences of severe stress and high ideals in “helping” professions. Doctors and nurses, for example, who sacrifice themselves for others, would often end up being “Burned out,” exhausted, listless, and unable to cope.

Nowadays, Burnout is experienced not just by those in the helping professions. It can affect anyone, from stressed-out career-driven people and celebrities to overworked employees and homemakers.

Burnout is now recognized as a legitimate medical disorder by much of mainstream medicine and has even been given its own ICD-10 code (Z73.0 — Burn-out state of vital exhaustion).

Is Burnout real?

It’s a mistake to assume that burnout is merely an emotional response to long hours or a challenging job. Mounting scientific evidence shows that Burnout takes a profound physical toll that cascades well beyond our professional lives.

Burnout expert Christina Maslach defines burnout as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.” It creeps up leaving us physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, as well as frustrated, disillusioned, uncaring, and cynical.

Adrienne J. Heinz, a licensed psychologist and research scientist at the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System and Stanford University lists the following as the signs of Burnout.

  • Reduced efficiency and energy
  • Lowered levels of motivation
  • Increased errors
  • Fatigue
  • Headaches, muscle tension, GI problems
  • Irritability, Increased frustration
  • High levels of stress and anxiety
  • Suspiciousness, cynicism
  • Trouble sleeping
  • Feelings trapped — lack of control
  • Alcohol, substances to cope
  • Feelings worried about work when not at work
  • Loss of interest — Apathy

Many of burnout symptoms overlap with that of depression, leading the experts to debate whether burnout is a form of depression.

Could Burnout be a form of depression?

Dr. Grant H. Brenner, a physician-psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, debates that burnout may actually be depression, but calling it “burnout” makes it harder to get treatment where it is sorely needed.

To look at whether burnout is a depression in another guise, Bianchi, Schonfeld, and Verkuilen of the City University of New York and the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland conducted a study of 3,113 individuals across five different samples, measuring both burnout and depression, to determine whether there was any difference between the two.

The researchers found that not only did Burnout correlate strongly with clinical depression, but that individual Burnout factors correlated better with depression symptoms than with any other medical condition.

If you’re feeling burnout at work or in life in general, it will not go away on its own. Neuroscientists discovered that Burnout has a physical impact on your brain.

Does Burnout have a physical impact on the brain?

New research is showing burnout can be devastating to the brain.

A team of psychologists at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden provided striking evidence that Burnout can alter neural circuits, ultimately causing a vicious cycle of neurological dysfunction.

  • A study by Armita Golkar and her colleagues reported that the work-related chronic stress enlarges the amygdala — the part of the brain that controls emotional reactions. This can increase moodiness. It also causes a stronger stress response when startled.
  • In a separate study by Ivanka Savic, a neurologist in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health at the Karolinska Institutet reported that the Burnout causes the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for cognitive functioning, to go thin. This normally happens with aging, but in people who are stressed for prolonged periods of time, it occurs much more rapidly.
  • A team of Greek psychological scientists led by Pavlos Deligkaris conducted a comprehensive review of the burnout literature and concluded the parts of the brain that control memory and attention spans are weakened. This makes it more difficult to learn.
  • The brains of people who are chronically Burntout show similar damage as people who have experienced trauma.
  • Burnout reduces the connectivity between different parts of the brain, which can lead to decreased creativity, working memory, and problem-solving skills.

To sum up, the emerging research is showing that the chronic psychosocial stress that characterizes burnout not only impairs people’s personal and social functioning, it also can overwhelm their cognitive skills and neuroendocrine systems — eventually leading to distinctive changes in the anatomy and functioning of the brain.

APS Fellow Christina Maslach, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the foremost researchers on Burnout, published an article “Burned-Out,” in the magazine Human Behavior in 1976 that generated a huge public response. The impact of that article was huge leading to more research, more books, and more attention from academic journals.

Maslach and APS Fellow Susan E. Jackson (Rutgers University) collaborated on what would become the most influential framework for defining and assessing burnout.

At its core, burnout emerges when the demands of a job (or home) outstrip a person’s ability to cope with the stress.

Is stress the root cause of Burnout?

It’s a common misconception that the culprit behind Burnout is merely working too long or too hard. Research indicates that other factors, both individual and organizational, can be just as detrimental.

A comprehensive report on psychosocial stress in the workplace published by the World Health Organization identified consistent evidence that “high job demands, low control, and effort-reward imbalance are risk factors for mental and physical health problems.”

Ultimately, burnout results when the balance of deadlines, demands, working hours, and other stressors outstrips rewards, recognition, and relaxation.

Neuroimaging studies are showing that the brains of people suffering from clinical burnout show similar patterns to the brains of people who have experienced severe early-life trauma.

The symptoms of accumulated stress are well known.

  • Behavioral — avoidance, irritability, sleep problems
  • Cognitive — easily distracted, confused, thoughts of dread
  • Emotional — anger, worry, depression
  • Cardiovascular — chest pain, palpitations, cold extremities
  • Muscular — tension headache, neck/back pain, shaky/strained voice
  • Skin — flushing, hives/rashes/ psoriasis, perspiration
Source: The Science of Burnout and How to Prevent It by Adrienne J. Heinz, Ph.D.

With these kinds of extreme effects, burnout is no joke. It can lead to anxiety, panic, anger, and breakdown.

Can Burnout be reversed?

Bruce S. McEwen (The Rockefeller University) along with BJ Casey (Department of Psychology, Yale University) Conor Liston, (Associate Professor Weill Cornell Medicin) found promising initial evidence that the adverse effects of chronic stress may be reversible.

In a study, they took a group of stressed-out medical students who were preparing to take their licensing exam and found that their brains showed many of the impairments described above. However, after four weeks of relaxation, many of the changes in the brain were reversed. They also stopped experiencing side effects, such as having a short attention span and mood swings.

But four weeks of exam prep is not equivalent to the years of stress that many people endure at their jobs.

However, this study does suggest that interventions and recovery at the neurological level are possible for people suffering from burnout.

PART 2

Experiences of people who suffered from burnout.

Many of the Medium writers spoke of their experience of burnout.

Lara McPherson suffered for six years before being correctly diagnosed

Lara McPherson wrote in her article What Burn Out Feels Like that she learned that burnout has a medical name too. It is called Hypoadrenia. Also known as Adrenal Fatigue.

She had been experiencing continued fatigue or exhaustion, muscle weakness, sleep disturbance, decreased ability to handle stress, Hypertension, hypoglycemia, unusual food cravings, weight gain, inability to lose weight, estrogen/progesterone imbalance, chronic anemia, trouble sleeping, depression for over six years. In that time she saw no less than seven professionals trying to get a correct diagnosis.

Unfortunately for me, it looks like the unresolved stress of the original trauma meant my tolerance for new stress was already greatly reduced. This, combined with too-big ambitions and expectations (my own) and an uninformed willingness to subscribe to “the cult of busy” led to chronically elevated stress hormone levels (cortisol), which gradually corroded my body’s ability to regulate adrenal and other hormones and started greatly affecting my ability to function, let alone thrive. When my adrenal system could no longer deal with the pressure it started to give way, disrupting my body’s whole eco-system in the process.

Imogen Roy couldn’t imagine one could burn out while doing something one loves.

Imogen Roy had just started her consultancy when she started experiencing the warning signs of burnout. She couldn’t understand it. She loved her work and she was working just thirty hours a week. But she was wrong.

At first, I felt like a failure. And I was confused. But I’m not even working that hard or that long! — I’d think to myself. I have a great life! I love my work! I’m doing what I love! I felt guilty. I felt week.

Burnout manifests itself differently for everyone. But feeling constantly drained, irritable and unproductive are the most common early-warning symptoms.

In her article How to manage burnout when you can’t take time off, suggests to “just stop and take a break.” But if that is not possible, these seven coping strategies helped her survive.

  1. Only do the essentials
  2. Reduce your hours
  3. Tell someone
  4. Organize something to look forward to.
  5. Get our of the house (or office)
  6. Reduce additional emotional stress
  7. See every challenge as an opportunity to grow.

Richie Crowley suggests a contentment approach to avoid burnout.

In his article, The Fear of Complacency Drives “Burnout” — Here’s The Solution Richie Crowley writes that the root cause of Burnout is trying to accomplish too much in a day out of the fear of complacency. He says (and I paraphrase) that each day we set out to accomplish a day’s worth of tasks. Some days we finish them all, other days, we get distracted, and we don’t. When this happens, we have two choices: finish the tasks of the day at any cost or be content with what you have been able to accomplish. If we chose the former, that leads to “Burn-out.”

That is the reason he chooses the latter. He chooses to admire himself for his flexibility and ability to be able to be content with what he accomplishes. He reckons this attitude towards work is sold as being competitive and hardworking, but truly it is a fear of complacency.

This fear of complacency is what then drives the unhealthy behaviors and unhealthy decisions to continue working while ignoring balance and our wellness.

Tom Kuegler suggest choosing between two complete extremes

When you are burnout from writing Tom Kuegler suggests you either write your way out of it (it will get you out of the writer’s block caused by sheer laziness) or take a long, long break.

Katy Velvet recommends exercising your flexibility to prioritize your projects.

Katy Velvet, who works 12–15 hours a day and is seriously sleep-deprived points out that the great thing about working for yourself is that you have the flexibility to prioritize your projects. She has four tips in her article The Truth About Burn Out, to avoid turning into a zombie.

  1. Learn to take breaks.
  2. Relaxation should be a priority.
  3. Let your loved ones know about your burnout.
  4. Promise to check in with yourself.

Here is what I figured out from my burnout.

My burnout meant something had to change. It was a warning sign. And I am glad I took it seriously. I did a series of things.

  1. I took a two-week break. I put my daily schedule on hold and freed up my day.
  2. I talked about what I was going through with my friends and family members. The more I tried to explain to them, the more I became aware of the issues I was facing.
  3. I culled several projects. I put some on the back-burner and abandoned some altogether.
  4. I scheduled breaks on my calendar. Daily breaks, weekly breaks, and yearly breaks.

Summary

Burnout is a medical condition very closely related to depression.

Burnout is not just experienced by those in stressful jobs or those in the helping professions. It can affect anyone, from stressed-out career-driven people and celebrities to overworked employees and homemakers.

Burnout can physically alter your brain.

The jury is still out on the reversal of Burnout symptoms.

Early detection and intervention can help the long term detrimental effects.

What can you do?

Try and figure out what your Burnout is trying to tell you. It might be a sign that something has to change.

Rather than a catastrophe, Arianna Huffington says burnout was The Best Thing That Could Have Happened To Her. It literally changed her life. She wrote two books, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution, and launch a new business, Thrive Global, which is helping people navigate through challenging times with less stress and greater resilience.

Photo by Yuris Alhumaydy on Unsplash

Beautifully unique conversations

Hi Friends,

It is taking me time to get used to writing this email on Mail Chimp. Those of you who don’t know, Mail Chimp is an email marketing service that small businesses and bloggers like myself use to write to their subscribers. I had been postponing using MailChimp dreading to learn yet another software but finally gathered enough courage and launched into it. Longer I leave it, the more I feel intimidated by technology. So bear with me if things feel a bit out of place.

Speaking of technology, did you know that podcasts are the next big thing?

First Google launched a podcast app for Android phones. It’s called Google Podcasts and you should download it if you haven’t. Next, according to The Hotsheet, and Amazon is also getting into podcasts. I also read somewhere that the next generation of cars will have podcast apps built in the dashboards. That is entertainment and learning blended in one. If you haven’t started listening to podcasts yet, it is time you start. Leaving it too long will mean living in the eighties without watching TV.

If that is not enough to shock you, here is another technology shocker. A college student used GPT-3 to write fake blog posts and ended up at the top of Hacker News. GPT-3 is a language-generating Artificial Intelligence tool that looks for patterns in data. Liam Porr was trying to demonstrate that the content produced by GPT-3 could fool people into believing it was written by a human. He told MIT Technology Review, “it was super easy, actually, which was the scary part.”

Here’s a sample from Porr’s blog post (with a pseudonymous author), titled “Feeling unproductive? Maybe you should stop overthinking.” A reader to the AI post wrote, “Reads exactly like 99% of the bullshit you find on Hacker News and Medium – well done!”

Where does it leave bloggers like us? We will have to think of ways to beat the machines.

This leads me to an interesting conversation I had with a Medium writer Cody Mcgraw whose article 15 Radical Minutes caught my eye. Cody has been spending 15 virtual minutes with people he had never met before and having “beautifully unique conversations” with them (his words). I wrote a note in his article saying I like this idea and he invited me to have a conversation with him. We hooked on Goggle Meet yesterday and in fifteen minutes I get to know a guy who was young, amazing, interesting, and a great listener. And as they say, it might be the beginning of a long friendship.

This week I submitted the synopsis of my novel to the workshop I am doing with the Australian Writers Centre. It got great reviews. I am feeling energized to get back into it. I was about to dump the damn thing but apparently, the story wants to be born. You will find me talking about it from time to time. 

I started several reports this week, which I want to develop into free resources to be made available on my website. They will keep me busy for months to come.

That is it from me this week.

I will write to you again next Friday.

Until then take care.

Regards
Neera

It’s time for a bit of a change

Dear Readers,

First of all, I want to thank you for subscribing to my blog and staying with me while I found my feet in the wide world of the internet.

For the past two years, you have been receiving two articles from me each week. Although I draw a lot of pleasure from researching and writing them, I am finding that it is restricting me from working on other projects. I have a novel, a non-fiction book, and a number of courses underway. Their time has come.

Which means I need to make time for them in my daily schedule. 

Remember my article Three Types Of Newsletter To Stay Connected With Your Readers? In that article, I described three types of newsletters writers can use to stay connected with their readers. 

  1. “Editorial” or “Feature Article” style
  2. “Link” style
  3. Blog style

So far you have been receiving an “Editorial” or a “Feature Article” style newsletter from me.

It is best suited to educate readers and impart knowledge and experience in a regular way. As I am getting more and more into the nitty-gritty of writing, publishing, and marketing, I am observing that not all my articles interest all my readers.

Also being in the teaching mode doesn’t allow me to connect to you in the real sense. There are many things each week, other than the articles, which I want to share with you.

That is why I am moving from the “Feature Article” style newsletter to the blog style newsletter. Just like the one you are reading. 

But don’t worry I will still be writing articles.

I will be writing them and publishing them regularly on my website and letting you know about them in my weekly newsletter. You will receive one email from me, each Friday, to let you know what I have written to help you with your journey and to let you know about my journey.

Because, more than anything else, we writers learn from each other.

By sharing our progress and processes we inspire and motivate each other. And also keep ourselves accountable. Writing is a solitary activity. Without my readers, and their encouragement, I will get lost in my struggles and perhaps will have nothing to show for all the effort I put into my projects.

I need you, just like you need to know what I am learning from my experiences. 

This style of communication will suit us both. 

Over time I will improve the layout of this email so that it becomes more useful and familiar.

But for the time being, let the above cartoon mark the new beginning.

Keep writing.

Regards
Neera

PS: You can let me know what you think of this format by simply replying to this email.

“False Memory” an interesting tool to use in writing

“I remember so clearly taking a medal that belonged to my father and burying it in the garden. I then looked for it for ages, digging up little pieces of the earth but never found it. When I think of it now it must be a false memory. Why would my father have medals? Why would I bury them? But my memory feels like truth – shiny color and crisp edges.”

This memory was donated in the False Memory Archive; an art project started by a London based artist, AR Hopewood, who got interested in people’s distortion of the truth.

Other examples of “False Memory” are people who believe they have experienced an aircraft emergency landing or a car crash. A typical one is war veterans in group therapy, they gradually adopt each other’s stories.

Something that is so troublesome in the real world could be very useful in fiction writing.

“False memory” can prove a useful tool to develop interesting plots.

In 1844, master storyteller Edgar Allan Poe managed to trick American into believing that the first transatlantic crossing in a hot-air balloon had taken place. It is one thing to trick people into believing something that hadn’t happened but totally another thing to make them understand that something they believe that had happened but actually hadn’t.

The “false memory” research provides writers and particularly crime writers a unique tool. Crime writers the concept in three ways.
1. To question the memory of witness of a crime
2. As an interrogation technique
3. To assign a motive for the crime

1. To question the memory of the witnesses

The judicial systems all around the world are based on the assumption that eye witness is telling the absolute truth. And nothing but the truth. But memory research is proving there is no such thing as ‘absolute truth.”

“The truth of the witness statement is seldom questioned,” says Jorn Lier Horst, once a Norwegian police investigator and now a best-selling crime writer. Eyewitness psychology plays an important role in the plot of his crime novel Ordeal, in which a false memory is gradually uncovered. To write the book he took an interrogation course by real Norvigian detective Asbjørn Rachlew.

Rachlew states that many crime witnesses are surprised by how little they know when they compare it to what they’ve seen in crime stories. “Witnesses are unreliable and often remember things incorrectly.” Once he worked on a murder case where four witnesses described seeing the suspect riding a moped. The trouble was that everyone’s description was all totally different.

The interrogation methods used in crime films and books are totally wrong. Behaving boorishly in front of witnesses, interruption them in the middle of a sentence or threatening them is not the way the real interrogation is done.

2. As an interrogation technique

In the gangster films and crime TV shows, the good-cop/bad-cop routine has been used to the nth degree. The tough cop goes, “we know you did it; it’s just a matter of time until you break. The good cop wins the trust of the accused little by little and gets the confession. In real life, that is not the case.

In real life interrogation, the investigators work with the fundamental laws of memory. The methods used by memory researchers trying to create false memories in test subjects can be used in your fiction interrogation. Letting the suspect create the story rather than tell him your construction of how it might have happened, provides a great way to bring the twist in interrogation technique and also to exploit the false memory.

3. To assign a motive for the crime

There are three different types of false confessions. 1) Forced confession, where people are tortured to make a confession. 2) Voluntary confession, when people confess to something that they haven’t done because they think they deserve the punishment. And 3) a confession based on false memory when they believe they’ve done it but there is no evidence of them having done it. Which makes a very interesting concept.

Although the first and second types have been explored endlessly the third one provides an opportunity for great twists in the story. What if the accused has not committed the murder but believes he has. What if the protagonist is running from law thinking he as done something terrible getting into more and more trouble while in fact, he hasn’t done anything wrong at all.

The techniques of writing crime fiction are based more on what we see in movies and crime serials rather than real research. Even small real-life research, “False Memory” can provide means to add an interesting twist in your fiction writing.

Rather than following the beaten track of writing crime scenes based on TV serials, use the latest research to plot your story. You are sure to find something completely new.

How Should Writers Overcome The “Overwhelm Virus”

Remember the reaction when the World Health Organisation declared the pandemic earlier this year? People started stockpiling things. Toilet paper disappeared from supermarket shelves. City after the city went into lockdown mode. Unable to function as normal, people glued to the news. The daily toll, the economic downturn, the difficulties in finding a vaccine, no end at sight. No wonder we were overwhelmed.

But the pandemic was not the first time when we felt overwhelmed. We all experience it from time to time. When we are under emotional stress, when we have too much to do, or when confronted with many challenges, overwhelm is what happens.

The tell-tale symptom of overwhelm is that we can’t think and act rationally.

We tend to freeze and unable to function normally. It’s a scary experience. We may not know which way is up or what way to swim. We feel stunned and unable to react. 

For writers, it happens when we undertake a new project—a project like writing a book. You know where I am coming from if you have read my previous post where I announced I would be publishing a book in 30 days. I panicked because I had so much to learn. Publishing, editing, cover design, formatting, marketing, launching, a whole load of things I knew nothing about.

On top of that, I had writing to do.

After a few days of panic attacks, I came to the realization that there is an antidote to the “overwhelm virus.”

It is called – “planning.”

It came as first-hand insight from observing the response to the coronavirus pandemic. The countries that “planned” well manage to control the infection and avoided the fatalities.

People who seem to get things done despite a lot of work on their plate have just one ace up their sleeve, and it is called “planning.”

When faced with writing a book or a blog post, you can’t just sit down and churn it out. Without a plan, you would soon be floundering. Time and time again, the people who are overwhelmed almost always have no plan.

Once you get to the root of overwhelm, you will always find a lack of planning.

It is a bit like being on the road. You may have a plan to get to your destination, but things may have changed since you got into your car. There might be too much traffic or an accident up ahead, or every lousy driver decided to show up on the road at the exact time you started on your journey.

When we get started on any project, we got to have a plan to make it happen. That plan may not stay the same all the way through, as I am discovering with my book project. The plan may change as things change. But there are still three basic ingredients that would stay the same.

  1. Time
  2. Focus
  3. Route

Allocate time to work on the project.

If you have not put aside daily time to work on the project and hope that you will be able to fit it in with your daily routine, you’re setting yourself for failure. “Hope” is never as good as a strategy.

One of the best ways to set a time is for a project is to tag it along with the tasks you do on a repetitive basis. For example, I listen to online courses while cooking dinner. Dinner gets cooked, learning happens.

For my book project, I have given it two hours in the morning when the interruptions are minimal because distractions and interruptions are two other demons leading to failure.

Minimize distractions.

Nir Eyal writes in his book Indistractable,” In future, there will be two kinds of people, those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others and those who proudly call themselves ‘indistractable.'”

We all get distracted by the volume of information at hand. There is so much demanding our attention all the time. The more we consume the more we crave. It is not possible to eliminate distractions completely from our lives but it is possible to delay them.

I forbid myself from checking emails or any social media platform, read articles, or a book for the whole hour in the morning while I am working on my book. It doesn’t work all the time, but it works many times. I am hoping, with time, I will be able to solidify this habit.

That takes us to the third ingredient of a plan.

Plan the route.

It is like going to the airport. If you are in a new city and hire a car, the first thing you will do is set up the GPS. Without that, you will be circling the unknown streets. But in your own city, you know the route to the airport by heart, having driven there several times.

I am applying this analogy to learn the route to writing and publishing a book. This book is going to be an experiment. An experiment to learn all there is about publishing in 30 days.

I am going to find shortcuts too. Only when you know the landscape well you can find the shortcuts. The people who are overwhelmed think there is only one route to the destination, the longer route.

There you go. My antidote to “overwhelm virus.”

Nothing beats a plan.

First, put a plan in place, then turn it into a routine. Routine is what gets things done on autopilot.

Planning also stops you from going over the top. When your energy is drained, you are reaching the state of “overwhelm.”

Anyone can do whatever they want to do without feeling overwhelmed with a bit of planning.

Photo by Christian Erfurt on Unsplash

The Power of Hustling

Before Jamie Foxx was Jamie Foxx, he was Eric Marlon Bishop. He would go to comedy shows and sign up to go on stage and perform. Each night, the manager would call out the names of the amateur comedians who would perform that night. Eric (Jamie) was talented. After his first performance, he got a standing ovation. But then he ran into problems. The manager stopped calling his name. Eric wasn’t sure why this was happening but he was determined to get back on stage – by any means necessary.

After a while, he noticed that the manger would always call at least one female name. There weren’t many female performers at that time, and it seemed the manager wanted to give them a fighting chance.

So, Eric started listing himself under fake androgynous names. Pat, Kelly, Erin…Jamie. One night it finally worked. The manager called Jamie. He got back on stage and got a second standing ovation.

Not only that but when people called out his name “Jamie” to congratulate him, he didn’t respond, making him seem cocky. But his cockiness worked in his favor. People thought he had “a certain” factor that made him talented. His budding career came on track because he bent the rules. Because he hustled.

Hustling is powerful.

I used to think “hustle” as being busy. Doing things that didn’t matter such as “hustling about putting the house in order.” But the word has now taken a new meaning for me. It is about “doing whatever it takes to succeed.

The above story came to me from a book by the same name – “Hustle – The Life-Changing Magic of Constant Motion” written by Jesse Warren Tevelow. Jesse wrote and published this book in one week. In fact, wrote it in three days, edited it for the next three days, and published it on the seventh day. He did it as a challenge to himself.

The book is an easy read and perhaps nothing original but the most interesting part of the book is the story of writing the book itself, which Jesse has captured as diary entry within the book.

It inspires you to take on the challenge yourself.

And I did.

I have been stuck on finishing at least three books that I have started but haven’t been able to finish. I decided to write and finish my first book in one week too.

As I worked on it furiously for the past two days I realized there is so much I didn’t know about publishing a book. Jesse had the previous experience of publishing a book that took him a year to write. How the hell am I going to do the same with no experience of formatting, editing, designing a book cover, launching, and marketing? The only thing I am now comfortable about is the writing part. Everything else I need to learn.

But the case Jesse made about hustling didn’t go away. Hustling is about grinding. It’s about doing whatever it takes. It is about making things happen. It is about creating momentum.

And what creates momentum?

Movement.

When you take action and put things out into the world, stuff happens. Eventually, there are results. The more you move, the quicker you move, the more results you get. When you get results, it leads to inspiration and motivation, which then leads back to momentum. In other words, the cycle feeds on itself. That is why constant motion is the core characteristic of every hustler.

The act of hustle is more important than anything else. Whatever you are doing, whatever you’re planning to do start it. Constant motion delivers life-changing results. So focus on the constant motion part, not the destination part.

Jamie Foxx didn’t give up. By continually moving he eventually broke through the barriers and started his career.

Building momentum can lead to unthinkable results.

I have started to learn everything there is about formatting, editing, and publishing. I have decided to publish my book in a month. It is a challenge I am setting for myself. Dear readers, I need you to hold me accountable as I have started hustling.

Hustling requires a different mindset. It requires confidence, an aversion to staying in the status quo, and a desire to work hard. Hustlers do all kinds of crazy things. That is because they are not afraid of experimentation, failing, being laughed at, or making mistakes. They know experimentation leads to growth.

And when succeed in you experiments you become even more confident hustler.

So dear readers, I want you to raise your glasses to hustle and wish me success for my hustle – to write and publish my first book in one month.

Photo by Caique Silva on Unsplash