We’re often encouraged to push ourselves, to do more with our lives…to stop cheating ourselves by setting our sights too low. That’s probably true for a lot of people.
But it’s also true that some people are ruining their lives by pushing too hard. A large fraction of automobile deaths in this country are caused by sleep-deprivation, by people attempting more than they can handle.
Another example of overdoing it was shown on the national news the other night. The program showed two videos of a harassed woman. The first video was taken in the morning, by a surveillance camera at a convenience store. The woman had just bought something and was rushing off to work. The second video of her was at a police station that evening. She was devastated, dissolved in tears, saying she had tried so hard to be everything to everyone. She was the assistant vice principal at a school, and when she got back to her car that afternoon she found her baby…carefully fastened in his car seat…and thoroughly dead from the heat. Apparently this was only one of 19 such incidents this year.
We can do more. We can achieve more. Those words are inspiring… they can motivate us to improve our lives and the lives of our loved ones. But because they are so powerful, we should use them with care.
What do you think? This site is about sharing, so please tell us your thoughts in the comment box below.
Thanks to Kim at Escape Adulthood for pointing me to the video clip.
The news program about the mother pointed out the unintended consequence of putting children in the back seat… it’s easy to forget them when people are overly stressed.
This post is stored under Optimizing Stress.
I completely agree. I think as much as we push for what we believe in and what we can do, the hard part is knowing when to stop. The hard part is not knowing what to do or anything like that, it’s knowing how far to go, how hard we can push. And I believe that only comes with practice and experience. When you try something and you realize you’re burning out, that’s how you know where to limit yourself.
Success literature seems to be aimed at people who need inspiration to get started. I agree with you, that’s not always the problem. We need more thought about why we’re doing it…how much is enough. And, as you say, we have to find out for ourselves, through experience.
Thanks for stopping by.
Talk about timing…I just came across a site entitled “Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word.” It’s selling a book and seminars, but the author has a message that needs to be heard.