An ankle sprain can happen so easily. I twisted my ankle stepping off the elliptical, generally a joint friendly machine. My first thought was that everyone gets injured at one time or another, and that I would ace my recovery. Yes, I recognize my first thought should have been to ice it rather than to ace it. But I am of the understanding that as a general rule, working through pain builds character and strength. I am definitely one of those who push themselves too hard. I’ve been thoroughly indoctrinated into believing in mind over matter. From a young age, I was taught to never cave in, to work through pain. I’ve learned that when I am tired and sore I can still push myself to do more. Thus, hobbling on one foot, I dragged myself to yoga class thinking I would do the necessary modifications throughout the practice. This strategy didn’t end well for me. After the first warm-up sequence, I spent the rest of the class in child’s pose surrendering myself to gravity and pain.
In the past week, I’ve been reflecting on this drive to push myself and whether, contrary to popular belief, true discipline is knowing when to keep pushing hard and when to slow down, pull back, take a break and get some rest. When dealing with an injury, there is a balance to be struck. On the one hand, early mobilization and activity is valuable. On the other hand, pushing too hard too soon can aggravate the injury and slow down the healing process. For those who are like me, resting “properly” and taking it easy is tricky. What if I rest too much and get out of shape? I acknowledge I have it backwards worrying about restoring fitness instead of healing first. I have to consciously remind myself that recovery depends on applying rigid discipline not just to mobility but also to rest and healing. As I have been spending the past week talking myself into taking good care of myself allowing my foot to heal, it occurred to me that this tension is also played out in our work life. It is a delicate balance between pushing too hard or not hard enough. Just like cardio training, in your career you want to push yourself to achieve optimum results, but not push too hard that you crash and burn.
In sports, it is fairly easy to know when you might be pushing yourself too hard. Telltale signs are feeling sore and stiff and experiencing body aches and fatigue. If ignored, sports injuries are sure to follow. Ironically, working harder and longer may produce opposite effects with performance heading downhill. Similarly, at work, the reality is that when we try and take on too much too frequently, we end up burning out. It is one of the greatest professional challenges to balance the aspiration to bring value and make a difference and the need to take care of ourselves. True to the spirit of the 21st century superheroes, many of us feel it is our duty to buck up, push through and sacrifice our self-care in favor of inexhaustible deliverables and aggressive deadlines. Unlike these legendary superheroes, as mere humans, we end up overworked and overwhelmed at a great cost to our mental and physical well-being. Clearly, there are times when we need to rally, power through, and push to the finish line, but we should be careful to make sure these are the exception instead of a way of life where we never have the time to take a break and reset.
Just like a physical injury, we need to learn to recognize the signs of burnout when we push ourselves to measure up to unrealistic standards and expectations. Sadly, we do not have a built-in STOP button. Through experience and focused awareness on ourselves, tuning in to our feelings, our body, our thoughts, and behaviors we can learn to recognize these times when we push ourselves too hard. When you experience any of the signs that indicate you are overworked, overwhelmed, and overstressed, you can reboot in 3 easy steps:
Own it – admit you are overdoing it pushing yourself too hard.
Reframe it – reset expectations by redefining what “enough” would look like.
Reset it – give yourself permission to re-strategize, reprioritize, and recalibrate to just do enough.
And when all else fails try crying. Apparently, Japanese schools and companies are encouraging people to cry to boost mental health. I gave myself a good cry today. My ankle is still sprained, but I feel much better.
In my next blog I will write more about these times when we may be coping out not pushing ourselves hard enough to stretch, grow, and truly live up to our full potential.
Please share some of your self-care practices to reduce stress and maintain balance in your life.
