Refreshed



After a longer-than-expected break, I finally feel ready to write again. I'm not sure if it showed in my writing in the final weeks before my vacation, but I grew weary of the process of writing on this blog. I was running short on topic ideas and as a result, forcing out subpar articles. However, I have been refreshed. My vacation provided me with an opportunity to clear my head, which is something that I have not been able to take advantage of in a very long time. However, I now feel ready to begin anew. I will try to keep the content of the blog at a high level, even if it means writing slightly fewer articles (3-4 per week). However, I wish to remain committed to the idea of keeping this blog, and I would like to invite you, the readers, back on a regular basis in order to read it.

It is interesting because as usual, there is larger issue at stake than just my desire to write in this blog. The process that I have suffered seems to be a common one for all people to be afflicted with: the "burn-out". Although a person may be endlessly passionate about something, if too much time and energy is invested in it, you tend to lose focus about what made you passionate about the activity in the first place. I know that this is what happened to me in the 2-3 weeks preceding my absence because although I was writing, it was blogging for its own sake. I took nothing out of the experience, and therefore I feel that I may have produced an inferior product. However, "the burn-out" has one simple cure: time. All it takes to regain passion for something that you really care about is time away from it. It helps you not only to know how much you miss it, but during these absences you tend to think about your passion, coming up with new ideas and more creative ways to approach things. No matter what you passion is, be it golf or writing or maybe basketball or reading, a constant devotion to this activity (whatever it may be) is detrimental to the passion you may have had for it in the first place.

This week-long vacation that I took for my blog has allowed me to feel refreshed, and I pray that it can hold me for another two months, until I plan to take another one. My best advice is that if you feel like you are simply "going through the motions" in the practice of a favorite activity or pastime, take time off. It will inspire you to greater levels of intellectual or physical (depending on the passion) excellence and enjoyment because you will be given an opportunity for the activity to feel new and exciting again.