I got a mild stomach flu this past week. It was from probably a combination of work stress and eating Chinese food I brought back from home. If anybody has gotten the stomach flu before, you know it’s not a fun ride. I mean getting sick is never fun, but the stomach flu is like more annoying than painful. It’s hard to eat. You feel tired most of the time. It’s hard to focus. You’re not completely out of it like if you had a severe flu but it’s hard to get your body moving.
My stomach was just in the toilet on Wednesday and it REALLY bothered me that I couldn’t work. I wasn’t focused on my software classwork or blog work so I didn’t get as much done as I wanted. As a result, I started talking negatively to myself because of how weak I felt both mentally and physically. This self talk and flu carried on for 3 days. It was bad. I gave up my afternoons because of how dejected and tired I felt. And my afternoons are when I put in the work on my blog and my software classes.
So you might ask – why do I think or talk to myself this way? Well…I listen to a lot of people who speak a lot about hustling and overcoming the weak mentality (I’m not blaming these people for my mentality BTW). I try to adopt that hustle attitude no matter how sick or sad I feel because it really pushes me to get more done, but when I couldn’t get myself to put in work when I felt sick, it just made me feel…excuse the language…like a bitch.
I’ve developed a mental emergency brake in my mind whenever I get too negative for too many days. So I took a half day on Friday and went to a local coffee shop to journal about how to get out of the rut I was in. Here are a couple of points that cleared up my mind and helped me refocus on my health:
- You can’t do anything effectively if your health is not in good condition. It sounds pretty straightforward and it is. I may not be as super human as some of the people who I listen to who hustle through the pain, but I know that as I’m trying to discover a different career path and side hustles, I need all the energy I can get to work. I need a healthy body to have as much energy as possible
- Find something you really enjoy doing when you take a break. I’m just starting to realize how important this is. When you do something you really like after working hard, that enjoyment offsets the pain from the work you put in. I’m trying to research good korean dramas and American TV shows that I can watch on my breaks. I gave up computer games a while back and don’t want to go back and play because I lack a lot of self discipline to stop when my break time is up (it’s always “one more round…one more round…”)
- Change up the environment you’re in to promote focus. My work has been becoming more and more mind numbing. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power and I feel like that sets the tone for my brain not to use a lot of brain power for my tasks in the afternoon. I’ve decided to drive out to local cafes and work from there. I really enjoy working at cafes and I usually get a lot done. The only downside is the financials because I am buying expensive coffee; however, I think the change in mindset is worth the extra $$$ on coffee.
You’re not weak if you can’t work when you’re sick. Your health matters, especially now when COVID is wreaking havoc around the world. It’s important to be strong and feel strong when you work. And you are strong when you know when to take care of yourself.
As always,
Be Confident. Stay Curious
