How Not to Burnout - When You Decide to Do Everything as Fun

This is just a peaceful slice-of-life article that I was randomly inspired to write when I woke up today. I have realized that a lot of mental stress in our lives is caused by a simple thought or mind state: I don't want to be here! We always want to change things in our life to better. There are still a lot of things to improve, right? Why do we often aim for perfect and are not satisfied with good enough? Often, when we feel anger, hatred, or tension, we actually have a choice. This is sometimes difficult to realize due to the way of thinking that is hardwired into our brains. However, we can choose. Is this my duty to do, bear, suffer, survive this? Or can I take this as a fun? I will try to give you practical examples from my own life.

Let's start with something really unpleasant. Fear! I had to perform in public many times, teaching at a high school and university, having a talk at a scientific conference, reading at a church during a celebration as an acolyte, performing karate kata (choreographed sequence of techniques) or having a fight at a tournament, having a flute concert, etc. Sometimes you feel this nervousness which is actually cool and motivates you to go for it, show the world what's inside you! But most of the time I felt rather afraid. Sometimes I even felt physically sick, you know, an upset stomach, headache, etc. I never found any special cure for that, to be honest. What helped me the most was not fighting too much. I am terrified, huh? OK, good. Haven't seen you for awhile Mr. Fear. What's up? Accepting, the fear. Yea I am afraid but I kind of like to be here. It's a great experience and I will have something to talk about with my friends, playing cool and fearless of course!!! Sounds silly? It is silly! Why not? Have fun, make a joke about your situation! Humor helps a lot! In fact, laugh at your whole life!

We often take our life too seriously. Can you make fun of yourself? Do you feel offended when someone criticizes you or tells something funny about you? Why? Why is our own image so precious? So precious that we are willing to suffer, to think for hours about how we look like, how people think of us? I sometimes see it as standing at a crossroad. Do I go to the hard path of defending myself and creating tension and stress? Or do I let go and go to the easy path of relaxation? I love the quote by Ajahn Brahm When you learn how to make fun of yourself, the world will never laugh at you, but will always laugh with you.

It's good to have a change once in a while. Go on vacation, do nothing there. I have been to many places. Sometimes walking a lot, visiting many places and sometimes just lying on the beach, eating in a hotel, doing nothing. I enjoyed all of these trips! I always found the best part of it and focused on that! Why do we always focus on the bad parts of life? I tend to look for the fun parts. The good parts of people I meet. Again, it's a choice!

We try to be productive, earn money, have a good carrier, raise kids, build houses. To me, the most important thing is fun! I finished quite a difficult university and even though I got a few gray hair after that, I had fun! You know the stories about university students not sleeping, doing projects or studying for the whole night? I never had to do that! I just came home, studied a bit, worked on projects, didn't take it as an unpleasant duty. Don't get me wrong, I was never the kind of student that looks forward to going to school! I would rather have holidays for the whole year!!! It's not good to pretend, to act like Oh I love this, except that I hate it! That can lead to even more problems since the stress builds up and can later explode in an unexpected way. It's more like Yea, this is not the best thing I can do but let's try to have fun! So I didn't have much problems at the university. There was one technician who was taking care of the lecture rooms, etc. He used to come to the students before exams, always telling them how his wife yelled at him last night cause he doesn't earn much money, but when he does she yells at him for not spending much time at home, etc. He always leaned agains the wall or table talking to students and repeating that he should have already been at the other side of the school, opening another room, and that he was super busy and late. These funny stories actually made everyone feel much more relaxed before the exams. My friends learned quite quickly to lock their notebooks when they left the lecture room. I used to change their wallpapers when they left and I was really quick! Just a few seconds were enough! I always put there something they didn't really like but it was fun! Similar moments are really something precious and these little funny stories can really help to overcome stress.

A freshly graduated student after finishing the university and getting a few gray hair.

To make life more fun, trying things that we always wanted to try is another great thing. Some ideas might sound too crazy and distant for us but trust me, going for them is an amazing experience. It can even make us dizzy! I remember doing decisions that felt really scary, out of my comfort zone, and I felt like in a dream. It felt too unreal. For example, when my friend told me to go with him to Japan. Hitchhiking, urban camping...quite scary! What if something bad happens to us? Going to Japan had always been my dream and this trip was the biggest adventure of my life!

It's never too late to do things! As a kid I played the recorder flute. I've always wanted to play the piano. One day I just bought an electric keyboard and started playing. Learning from the Internet. I am not a master, I just play when feel like it.

We often expect some productive results, right? I wil never be a piano master, I will always just play for fun! I've always wanted to perform backflip! I risked a bit and just went for it! Again, I will never be a tricking master or a professional gymnast, but I enjoy the movement!

One day I got the silly idea to learn how to draw. The top of my skills was a stickman, really. I studied some basic recommendations like how should the draft be made, how far from each other are the body parts and I gave it a shot. Took me a few attempts, but yea, I drew something that I would never believe that I was capable of. Again, I will not sell my drawings and I will never work as ana animator, I just enjoyed the process. Oh yea, I also loved to stare at the result!

Oh this article got too long. All I wanted to say was: Have fun in your life. Such moments might be actually the most important ones that you will ever experience!

Oh and if you want to stare with me at my drawings, here we go. Or just jump to the comments section.