So I had this conversation with a coworker today. She was asking about how to take leave from work because she's burnt out. I had to take 2 separate leaves from work in Jan '21 and Mar 21', so I was happy to help talk her through how to navigate that.
Talking to her kind of triggered me and took me back to that place I was a year ago, which was the absolute lowest point of my life. Combined with ongoing stress of dealing with the world lately, I was taking way more stress from work than I could handle. WFH pushed me over the edge, but I'd always had that problem before. Reflecting on it a year later makes me happy to see how changing my attitude about work has made me better at my job than ever.
My attitude since coming back to work has been a cup of Fucks to give each day. Starting out, I have a cup full of Fucks. But slowly throughout the day, my Fucks are given away and at a certain point each day, I have no more Fucks to give.
Now this isn't an analogy, it's literally how it is. I just don't have any Fucks left to give, sorry about your deadline! 🤷️ Oh, my boss is mad about something I did? Sorry, but he's always angry, I don't give a Fuck! I'm out of them. Look at my cup, it's fucking empty.
The crazy thing is, when I starting thinking like this, I actually got better at my job. I'm better at delegating work to others because I don't care enough to deal with it myself. I always had a problem delegating before, I think I just gave too many Fucks. It has made me better about communicating my boundaries, which makes me more professional. And just the overall reduction of stress I was taking from work is reduced, so my work is better for it. Sometimes you just need a half day to relax, do it. You only have so many Fucks to give from your cup, and once it's out for the day, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.