Stop Trying So Hard

“Hard work is the key to success”, “Work harder”, “There’s no substitute of hard work”, “There’s always scope for improvement”; blah and blah.

Everyone keeps telling you to keep pushing yourself till you make it. Everyone keeps telling you to aim higher than others. Everyone is always going to tell you to keep working for one thing or the other. Every single one is always so competitive.

However, there’s you on the other hand. A single soul, a single mind, a single body. How “hard” do you think you can keep doing things that others want you to do even when they exhaust you? Why do you think that it is your responsibility to make everyone around you happy and content?

Why is it that you think the world will crumble into pieces if just ONCE you give your one and only self some rest?

Unavoidably, there is a cluster of people who are not being too hard on themselves because of others but because they cannot be satisfied with not being the best one. They cannot forgive themselves if they do not work too hard for anything and everything; to a point where there’s no time to even breathe. There’s always a constant need to be first, to be the best, to be “different”. But WHAT IF you don’t?

What if you do not push yourself so hard this time? Unlike the habitual devitalizing, you eat on time and you take proper amount of sleep?

What if you don’t push yourself too hard this time and for once let someone else be the first one by giving yourself some rest?

What if this one time you just join the flock and not try too hard to do whatever is different?

What if this time you gather some courage and maybe once disappoint someone because you’re too worn out to keep pushing?

What’s the worst thing that will happen if, you decide to cut yourself some slack?

You need to rest. You deserve to be treated like a living being. You deserve the self-care that you keep putting away. You deserve to have fun. You deserve to relax and feel alive. Take it. Live it.