“Not Human Doing”

I’ve been following this guy, Ryan Holiday, who talks about stoicism as I find this topic fascinating.

Today it was about “overworking” and his experience (not positive) with this when he had an ankle injury.

This reminded me of own experience back in 2018. We were in a middle of a integration, post-acquisition phase at work. Few days before a major congress in another state.

I was in a rush, decided to go for a fast-food (not smart by itself) and left home at night, no lights on my porch and wanted to save time putting the order upfront on my phone. 3 steps were all I had to take, and I missed one of them.

I could have waited 10 seconds to get to my car and order what I wanted.

Note: Time 10 seconds while you are waiting on red light and feels eternity, time 10 seconds while laughing with your kid and it goes too fast. Time is all relative.

Well, I twisted my ankle badly.

I felt like Ryan: the pain was so intense, my body was shaking, I felt so cold and had to call for an ambulance. Two days later the specialist gave me the good news: small fracture; bad news: a severe ligament sprain that would require 4 to 6 weeks of rest, lots of physical therapy, no travel by plane or car for at least 3 weeks and patience. Lots of patience. He literally said I would feel that ankle for over an year.

That would not allow me to travel to the most important congress but I still decided to go to the office and work every single day because, not only I had that injury but also a shoulder surgery scheduled in 4 weeks which was expected to take me out of work for few weeks.

I am lucky – because my shoulder surgery was minor and in less than a week I was back working in the office.

Doctor told me to “go slowly”. I worked from home, answered emails, went back to the office much earlier and what did I get? A reduction of my annual bonus.

By now, if you are reading this part, I hope you understand the importance of balance, respecting your limits.

As Ryan said, “It’s human being, not human doing, for a reason… The body that each of us has is a gift. Don’t work it to death. Don’t burn it out. Protect the gift.”