Merry Christmas, Quit Striving

Olivia.DOW
Dec 23, 2021
2 min read

Updated: Feb 17, 2022

A Lesson in Burnout

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My Dear Lovelians,

I think a part of me has started believing “falling in love with life,” as the nickname represents, means striving to make life meaningful by finding exciting activities to do and searching for new experiences with others all the time. At first, my intentions were to drive out apathy with alertness and a willingness to be interrupted, which is a healthy place to be. Now, the pendulum has swung a little too far opposite of apathy, and I find myself feeling burned-out striving to force the events of my day into a false definition of “living life to the full,” which by my experience does not mean a new adventure all the time but instead choosing to rest in gratitude for what I do have and the people around me right now.

All my words fall short

I can’t help but laugh at myself. In my zeal for life, I completely sped right past it and ran out of gas on the side of the road. So, this Christmas, I’ve decided to look no further for a full life than my own household for the time being. Call it a gift to myself if you will. I suppose this looks like cookie-baking (a lot of cookies), movies (heck yeah), videogames (*gasp*), and singing at the top of my lungs to the stupidest Christmas songs ever created (seriously, who even thought of the Twelve Days of Christmas?).

I've got nothing new

I think it’s time I cooled the horsepower for a while and remember to enjoy the people in my life right now the best way I can. What a better way to refuel from burnout than with a Christmas movie marathon (or a Mandalorian marathon—ho ho ho, this is the Way y’all) and a little fa-la-la-la-la-ing? There’s a time to move and a time to be still. Forgetting to enjoy what and who's around me and pushing for new all the time leads to striving, which becomes an empty tank real quick. This mindset of gratitude combined with previously mentioned alertness and a willingness to be interrupted, and I think I've stumbled upon something magical.