It's been seven times now that I have taken all of January away from work and unscheduled, this being the seventh of those times, and you would think, by now, I would be good at it.
There is a pattern that emerges, and I've written about this to myself through each of my previous sabbatical times where I imagine that I will achieve an extraordinary amount, but in the first two weeks of time off, I achieve very little or so, it seems.
There is no question that I am addicted to scoring points or what I perceive to be achievement, and therefore, if I take time down without doing any of that, there comes a point when it starts to have a negative effect on me, but I wonder if that is not the case for all of us.
There is a balance, a Goldilocks zone between doing too much and doing too little.
The dangers and the ill effects of doing too much are pretty apparent to all of us and result in massive levels of stress or burnout or inability to cope, but there is a similar sort of symptom, a similar degree of problems when we do too little.
It's the fourth of January, and I have been off work for almost two weeks.
I've had a little bit of contact here or there, but interestingly, I was supposed to go in on Tuesday the 2nd to supervise a sedation for Dom, so not to do anything of any significance, but just to be in. It was cancelled because of illness, and I was sad not to be there.
That's only ten days into seven weeks off, and already, I will miss the routine, challenge, stimulus, contact or camaraderie of being together with the people that I work with.
I know that I will need stimuli moving forward for the rest of my life.
One of the great things that the sabbatical does for me is it reminds me that my job is to find the Goldilocks zone, not too hot, but definitely not too cold either, which is in some ways counterintuitive as we all seek downtime and rest and chill out but actually too much of a good thing and all that.
Finding the bit in the middle where we're contributing, making a difference, being stimulated and challenged and yes, stressed to a degree is essential for happiness and for, longevity and contentment.
Blog Post Number - 3677
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