I regularly meet clients who are suffering from stress or burnout. Long hours at the office, taking work home for the weekend, "to do" lists which are never completed, are all indicators of this problem. Usually the body overrides the person working like this with illness, anxiety attacks or depression. The person will often feel totally burnt out
and only prolonged rest, anti-depressant medication, will help. Such a person is nearly always conscientious, helpful, supportive of colleagues and family, and keen to achieve, but they have pushed themselves too hard and too far.
So what are the alternatives? We all know people who didn't look ahead, who didn't make provision for the future, who didn't take out insurance, who didn't bother at school, who borrow more than they can repay. They seem to drift through life, and they often drift from one crisis to another saying things like "why does it always happen to me?" Many of us are actually a bit scared of being like that and will push ourselves, especially if Mum or Dad used to say "you don't want to end up like the Smiths at number 35!"
Most of us want to get on in life. Perhaps because our parents said we should, or we see our peers moving on in their lives, or we have always had certain desires. We may want to have a good education, a new job, a family, a partner, to achieve a desire to travel or to climb a mountain. Whatever it is, and wherever it comes from, it seems to be a human characteristic to strive for more. Many humans who are recognised by history have been those who strove to achieve more.
The key skill in achievement is the ability to "defer gratification", to put off enjoyment now so that we can have it in the future. A good example of this is saving money in a pension fund so that we can be affluent when we retire, or working at an education so that we can enjoy a better career. When we do these things, we learn to push ourselves so that we can overcome the discomfort, effort and waiting so that we can have the good things later.
