How to Prevent Burnout in the Race of Life

A couple of months ago, I wrote an essay talking about why I started wasting my time and why I believe you should do it too. The feedback was amazing. Most people who read it loved the idea and recognized its importance in today’s world.

However, I have to be realistic. For most people, having chunks of time throughout their day where they do absolutely nothing and just let their mind wander around without receiving any kind of input is an extremely difficult habit to establish, no matter how easy it sounds.

Our modern society is based around the complete opposite idea. People could be divided into those who spend the majority of their time educating themselves or working on something and those who spend the majority of their time consuming entertainment, but all of those people still spend almost every waking minute of their day receiving some type of input.

And just to be clear, when I speak about "people," I am speaking about myself as well. Although I wrote about the benefits of learning to waste my time once again, if you read the essay, you know how much of a struggle that was for me. I consider myself a prime example of someone who was completely consumed by this modern way of life where every second needs to be used for something.

That’s why, for those who are not ready to start having whole chunks of their day where they do absolutely nothing, I found something that might not be an alternative, but is a great entry point into the world of giving your mind some freedom and rest.

It’s called mental aid stations.

I picked this up from David Goggins' latest guest appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast.

As I understand it, this term refers to the aid stations in long-distance races. In endurance events, aid stations are set up along the race route to provide supplies such as water, sports drinks, and food to participants and can also be used as a rest area.

So, what exactly are mental aid stations?

How Goggins even got to explaining this concept is that Joe Rogan asked him if he ever takes vacations and how he prevents burnout.

He responded that he doesn't need to take a vacation because he takes mini-vacations in the form of mental aid stations every day.

Mental aid station means taking any activity during your day that naturally doesn’t involve any kind of work, but in our twisted times has turned into an opportunity to get more work done, and just doing that thing.

Mental aid station is just having your meal and taking that time to relax and give your mind a break instead of going through your emails or trying to get more work done while eating.

Instead of taking a business call while walking your dog, mental aid station is simply walking your dog and using that time to give your mind a break from all the inputs and your eyes a break from all the screen time.

Mental aid station is simply taking a shower without using that time to go through your mental checklist of everything that needs to be done tomorrow or next week.

You get the idea.

And I know that some of you might say that all of this sounds nice, but you need to take those opportunities to get more work done. You are working on something important, or you simply have too much stuff on your plate at the moment and you cannot afford to have those mental aid stations. I know some of you will say this because I will be the first to say it to myself. Because no matter how much I talk about the importance of doing nothing, I still struggle with it.

But consider this:

The fact that you feel like you cannot afford to take those small breaks from everything is the very reason why you need those breaks more than most people.

There is a Zen proverb that says:

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.”

I feel it’s the same with taking these small breaks. The more you think you cannot take them, the more you need them.

Think about what taking those small breaks can do for your efficiency and your long-term productivity. You might think that you are helping yourself by working non-stop and then consuming something educational whenever you are not working. But think about it some more. At one point, you will get fed up with it and simply won’t be able to keep it up because you are (still) just a human. You will take a longer break than all those smaller breaks combined. But it’s not even about that. It’s not simply about the mathematics of what types of breaks will save you the most time.

It’s that, once you get to that point of burnout, your relationship with work and the things you are pursuing in life will change. You will naturally start associating work and education with negative feelings.

The point is, if it wasn’t obvious, that taking intentional breaks from everything around you is healthier than overloading yourself to the point where your mind forces you to take a break.

Of course, those intentional breaks can be structured in any way you find most suitable for your lifestyle. I don’t suggest that all of us should go David Goggins style and not take a single day off during the whole year because we have "mini vacations" in the form of these mental aid stations. However, I believe we could all benefit from not making our days, and with them, our lives, all-out sprints with no rest.

Let’s try taking them as long distance races where there is no shame in stopping at that aid station to take some rest and recover.

Thank you for reading.

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