Working hard without burning out
By the time I hit puberty, I had become fat. This had a major impact on my psyche. While I was never underconfident, I was always ashamed of being fat. This was because I had somewhere categorized fat people as lazy, ugly, and objects of derision. I wanted to lose my weight. There were multiple times I had tried losing weight. I would hit the gym with ferocity and go on crash diets. I would be at the top of my game for 2-3 days, maybe even a week, and then I would fall of the wagon. I would push myself to one extreme so much that I would either fall sick, injure myself, or go on a binge and call it a cheat day. They were my reward. But it was never one cheat day. I would slowly start drifting and before I knew it, every day would be a cheat day. This pattern has repeated in my life many times. Whether it is studying, improving productivity at work, or learning a new skill. I start and go all out and then the fuel runs out.
The few times in my life when I have been able to lose weight, it has been when I have known my weaknesses. When I have not set a large goal of losing 10 or 15 Kgs. I have been consistent. I have tried to follow patterns that are sustainable and on the right path. Most importantly I have not gone all out but gone at a moderate speed.I have kept the process right and handled things in a way where they are manageable. Doing the right thing every day has led me to achieve the results. I still did the difficult things such as counting calories and going to the gym. But I was not crash dieting or lifting weights much beyond my capacity. I increased slowly and after about a month or two the effects were visible.
So the key is how much can you work hard without burning out? Everything in life takes time. You need to set your direction right and keep on working hard. If you do not work hard, you will not achieve it. If your direction is not right, you will be waylaid. But if you burn out, you will give up, fall sick, and never achieve the aim.
So decide what you need to do, and how do you need to do it, set the process, set small achievable goals leading to the big goal, work hard, and do not burn out!
You will achieve what you set out to!
