So, I generally find myself working with people who are high achievers and as a result, push themselves in every direction they possibly can.
These are the people who walk in to street lights because they're writing that oh-so-important-if-I-don't-send-it-right-now-the-whole-world-will-come-crashing-down-and-I'll-spend-the-rest-of-me-life-eating-beans-on-toast-for-dinner email on their phone and not looking where they're going.
Also, in London, it's not like you're missing wonderful scenery by doing this so it's even more common. However, the whopping two-day headache and attractively shaped pink/purple lump on the side of your head which just totally does NOT go with ANYTHING in your wardrobe, probably isn't worth it.
Despite the risk of egg-shaped lumps and mismatched wardrobes, I find this pandemic more and more common...so common in fact, I've decided to give it a name [ignoring the fact it probably already has a perfectly good, psychological rational name like, oh, I don't know, 'over-achieving' or 'perfectionism'...but how boring are they?!]
I hereby name this syndrome, 'Hamster-Wheel-Loop-D-Loop Syndrome'. I just came up with that on a client call. Catchy, right?
Anyway, the rubbish thing about HWLDL Syndrome, is that even when you do the Loop-D-Loops and therefore know you're doing too much and going too fast and are liable to come flying off the wheel at any moment (watch this), you still carry on.
If you come off, you dust yourself down and get right back on again, without even taking a moment to re-assess and consider how you can grab this wheel thing by the balls and run better so the damn thing doesn't beat you this time around!
I know this should be the part in a blog post where I tell you that I have the answer to all your problems, and if you just do steps 1, 2 and 3 below you'll be an amazingly balanced person in a mere 3 days, 2 hours and 54 seconds guaranteed, but unfortunately it's just not that simple (and if it was do you really think I'd be writing a blog in London and not lying on a beach on some tropical island having sun tan lotion rubbed on me by a gorgeous surfer-type?*)
What I can tell you is that it takes a bit of soul-searching to figure out why the hell you're doing what you're doing, and who you're doing it for.
What would it feel like to take a duvet day?
What would it mean if you 'failed'? (what would you learn if you failed?)
If you made a pie chart of the most important aspects of your life and divided your energy between them all (the whole circle is you honey), do you still think your goals are realistic?
Only you have the power to class yourself as a success or a failure, and only you have the power to take yourself off the hamster wheel and giving yourself a damn break.
That being said, if I see you emailing yourself in to a lamppost in the street I'll clip you round the ear Dinozzo-style myself.
*Not quite sure how that relates to what I was talking about but wanted to throw it in there.