That kind of socializing is so restorative! I love how when you're with a group and the conversation is flowing so well that you lose all sense of time.
I'm sorry to hear about the burn-out but glad you were able to recover! Thanks for the book suggestion, I'll look that up. It sounds like the perfect follow up to the one I'm currently reading. My family is very goal-oriented too. If I don't feel like I'm being productive there's a certain guilt that sets in. I'm getting better about balancing that now after I started working for myself in 2017. It's crazy how so many of us are programmed to be worker bees from a young age. It's like our entire sense of self-worth is tied up in how much we can get done.
It's my dream to become an expat but I'm not sure it will ever happen at this point. Being in the US is like whirling around in a cyclone of stress sometimes. At least we don't live in the city center anymore. It was much worse with the rampant crime and noise.
Yes, that's exactly how I felt - even though my family was already telling me to tune it down a bit. I had achieved almost everything I had set as a goal, yet I couldn't stop. My brother, another burn-out-candidate, actually flew down to Ecuador to smack me around a little and get me back on a healthy track. He's better at giving that advice than at taking it though - he went back to Germany and started a second business 🤣
I think the book might help you. For me, it was very introspective. I had to read pages several times in order to understand first the words, then the meaning, and finally apply on my situation and hence feel them. I wish you all the best! Thanks for opening up and sharing!
I also worry about my younger brother sometimes. At 50 he's already been in the corporate world three years longer than I was before I began writing full time and it's starting to show on him. He's always connected to work through his phone. He does everything quickly and has to wear himself out physically before he can relax (kind of typical for a lot of guys, I think).
I'll definitely be adding it to my reading list...I'll probably queue it up as my next read. Thank you for the thoughtful comments!