When you’re burned out, sick and stupid.

When you’ve been hustling like a mad scientist with laser like focus, no eye on the clock and a hunger for success for a bit too long, you’re possibly burnt out like a car in a dodgy neighbourhood. Hey, when the passion and the enthusiasm come rolling into town, who the hell can say no to working your arse off to achieving what matters most?

Now, don’t get us wrong, but being busy is not to be confused with being productive. In fact, no one cares how busy you are. Some of us are inclined to burying ourselves in our work and making shit happen, and sometimes it goes to the level of destroying our immune system and putting ourselves in forced rehab for a duration of time.

Remember the story of the golden goose?

There is a story of a farmer who buys a goose. He looks after it and to his delight, notices that it laid a golden egg! The farmer takes the egg, cashes it in and rejoices in his wonderful find. He feeds that goose more and more, and the goose lays more and more golden eggs. The goose turns into an egg laying machine as it keeps pumping out the golden units.

The farmer, blinded with greed, keeps making the goose lay eggs. In only a few months he has a million dollars, all thanks to this goose.

Then, unfortunately, the goose dies. Over worked, stressed and abused it passes away one evening. The farmer, now upset, realises his mistake.

In only a few months he made over a million dollars, But if he had slowed down and taken time to look after the goose, he would have had hundreds of millions of dollars over the goose’s longer lifespan.

When you’re burned out, sick and now stupid from excessive hustle, you need to take a time out.

This is where focusing on yourself comes in. Make sure you are eating the right foods, make sure you are looking after your mind and meditating daily. Get a heap of exercise in to reduce the cortisol and give yourself some much needed love. Focus on your relationships and give some love to the people you love.

Yoga retreats, holidays or just locking your phone and laptop in a safe for a few days might just be what you need to do when you’re burned out, sick and stupid. Recharge the batteries for the inevitable hustle-a-thon that will undoubtedly be in the very near future.

If you value getting meaningful work done, you need to value the time taken to recharge the batteries. You can’t make calls from a dead mobile phone, so you need to plug it in to let it recharge. Do the same with your body, and mind.

The cost of neglecting this is stupid decisions, excess stress, and a burned out body for longer than needed.

Hustle. Play. Repeat.