Breaks And Burnout

Something I've been thinking about lately is burn out. I have probably touched on this before, but it's still an issue so I thought I could focus on it for this week's blog post. As I've mentioned, when I have goals in mind I tend to hyper-focus on them to my own detriment. Years ago, I questioned whether I was a perfectionist and I dismissed it because I only had this limited view of what a perfectionist truly is. I thought that to be a perfectionist, one had to want things perfect. That wasn't me! I only wanted things to go a certain way like my plans, and a lot of times that way wasn't "perfect." This is where my therapist helped me more than you'd think with one simple question. I was telling him about all my projects and how I'm always mad when I'm not able to work on them when I want to. He then just asked simply, "are you a perfectionist?" And that's When it clicked for me. I suddenly realized that I needed things to be a certain way and that in itself is perfectionism. I would freak out if things weren't the way I had planned if things were like 5 minutes off from where I wanted them to be. Which led me to the unhealthy habits of not being able to take a break because I constantly felt like I was behind where I should be even though I'm the one setting my own parameters, my own hours... everything. But I can see that I'm burnt-out-- pretty much every day that I'm working on my comics I pass out at my desk, exhausted. Which is why after the New Year, I'm heavily considering another hiatus. One where I actually take a break instead of work on my backlog. I will let you guys know what I decide. As a positive My hours were lessened at my part time job, which will give me more free time. I am now going to take more days off of doing things so that I can stay fresh. So take breaks, my Jellybeans. I shall see you next week. Stay happy, healthy and safe.