Take a Holiday from Work, not from Yourself

It’s been a very demanding year, both for the pandemic and for work, which has been even harder and more intense than usual.

And I’m sure I’m not alone feeling like this.

We’ve all been doing our best this year.

Workwise, we’ve been waking up earlier and going to bed later. We call it work from home, but we’ve been effectively living at work. Yet, there have been moments we’ve felt guilty and told ourselves we weren’t doing enough.  “Let me write one more email. Let me work another hour.”

Emotionally, we’ve felt exhausted, restless or even lonesome at times, but we’ve been embarrassed to admit it to others or even ourselves. “Oh, I’m well, all good, don’t worry about me,” we’ve told friends. “Ignore the tiredness, the anxiety, the loneliness,” we’ve told ourselves.

We feel like we’re consuming ourselves running on the hamster wheel, but still, it feels like it’s not enough. And, as we’re preparing for the holidays, we’re planning creative ways to do some extra work while away and/or to consume the last bit of our energy to make it up to our neglected families.

If you’ve felt that way this year, even only at times, I’d like to share an old story* with you.

The Woodcutter Story

Once upon a time there was a woodcutter who turned up one day looking for work at a lumberyard. The salary was good and the conditions were even better, so the woodcutter had every intention of making a good impression.

The first day, he introduced himself to the foreman, who gave him an axe and assigned him to a certain part of the forest.

Excited, the man went out into the forest to chop. And he cut down 18 trees in a single day.

“Congratulations,” the foreman said to him. “Keep it up.”

Encouraged by the foreman’s words, the woodcutter decided to do even better the following day. So that night he went to bed very early. The following morning, he rose before anyone else and went out to the forest. But despite his best effort, he couldn’t manage to cut down more than 15 trees. “I must be tired,” he thought. And decided to go to bed when the sun went down.

At daybreak, he rose, determined to beat his record of 18 trees. Nevertheless, that day he didn’t even manage to cut down half that number.

The day after that he cut down only 7, then 5, and on the last day he spent all afternoon trying to chop down his second tree of the day.

Anxious about what the foreman might say, the woodcutter went to inform him of what was happening, and to swear up and down that he was working himself to the bone.

The foreman asked, “When was the last time you sharpened your axe?”

“Sharpened it?” asked the woodcutter. “I haven’t had time to sharpen it: I’ve been too busy chopping down trees.”

*****

Does this story resonate with you? It surely resonates with me all the times I find myself so focused on the things I “need” to do that I forget to look after myself.

We think that investing in our wellbeing competes with work. But it doesn’t.

As the woodcutter story beautifully shows us, looking after ourselves, and focusing on our personal development and our wellbeing are fundamental activities for our success at work.

We often inhabit a story where attending to our duties is in opposition to looking after ourselves and our personal development. But if we’ve felt overwhelmed this year, it means that story is not serving us well.

The true story is that sharpening the axe is as valuable and as fundamentally important as cutting wood.

That’s what we do at Wise Humanity, we run courses for individuals and workshops for corporations to strengthen people’s inner core, their resilience, their self-empowerment; to help them navigate stress without anxiety; become more authentic and nurture healthier relationships; find clarity about their purpose; and find the keys to inner, profound happiness and peace.

This summer, have a look at our blogs, I’m sure many will resonate. You’ll find tons of very practical exercises for you to enhance your wellbeing.

And read about our transformative, 12-week personal growth programme. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more.

Happy Summer Holidays from Wise Humanity!

* You can find many versions of this brief story. I picked the one from Let Me Tell You a Story by Jorge Bucay.

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