We all know that hard work is important and dedication towards what you do gets you where you want to reach. Most of us function with this thought in the mind with our sight set on the ultimate goal of success. But, one of the biggest mistakes we all make is not taking a breather/break. And even if we do, we tend to go back to work quickly.

It doesn’t only exhaust your body and mind, it even affects your skills resulting in unsatisfactory results. I know that feeling as the same thing happened to me when I just started my career in photography.

I was just 19-years-old and I hella happy because I had just discovered my love for photography and I always felt like clicking pictures. It wasn’t long after that when I became a workaholic. I used to spend hours working without thinking about my health. By 21, I forgot about everything else and just focused on my photography.

I literally started working for 16-17 hours a day and this was happening every day. My friends could notice dark circles under my eyes but I was too blind to see it because of my addiction to work.

Feeling sleepy is your body’s way of telling you that it needs rest and you need to charge up. I used to ignore it by drinking energy drinks every time I felt sleepy. According to me, this was one of the biggest mistakes I had made at that time. Trust me, energy drinks are not an option. They might give you what you might feel is a lot of energy for 4-5 hours, however, it comes out to be very tiny when compared to the energy you get after 8 hours of sleep.

Plus, they harm your health because they contain a very high amount of caffeine and even the companies that manufacture them recommend drinking not more than 500ml. That’s two cans and I used to drink five to six cans every day. I hope you understand what I’m trying to imply here. Not only they make you addicted to them, but you’ll also gain a considerable amount of caffeine in them. So, energy drinks must be a big NO!

I continued living like this until the time I was 23 or 24. I decided to stop living like that when I suddenly looked at myself (carefully) in the mirror one day. I noticed the big dark circles under my eyes along with the lazy look on my face. I went a little below and noticed that my belly was starting to bulge. There comes a point in everyone’s life when they realize that they are doing themselves wrong. This was that point for me. I felt so bad that I decided to change my ways.

First of all, I quitted all the energy drinks and in just one day, I understood how bad they were for me and what I was doing to my body. I started feeling so tired and uneasy that I didn’t even have the energy to pick up my camera. I wanted to work but I just couldn’t without the energy drinks. After two months of resting and working on my body, I finally got over my energy drink addiction. I picked up my camera and I decided to give some time to myself along with my work.

It was at that time when I noted down the disadvantages of working too hard. Now, I agree that working hard is important, however, pushing your limits with the assistance of un-natural elements is just way beyond wrong as it can seriously damage your physical and mental health.

The disadvantages are listed below:

It Takes More Than You Can Give: Working too hard requires a lot of determination and persistence. Yes, you will be able to get a lot of work done in a considerably small amount of time but at what cost brother/sister? Just give it a thought.

It’s A Never-Ending Loop (If You Don’t Realize It): You will keep working and working without giving a single thought to the entity you have to live with for the rest of your life. I’m talking about your body. Yes, you’ll be good at something… and that will be hard work. It’ll be a never-ending loop of working restlessly without caring about your body.

It’s A Potential Health Hazard: Before you realize it, you’ll start depending on energy drinks in order to compensate for the lost sleep. And as I mentioned above, too much energy drinks are not good for you. Just like any other addiction, you’ll initially think that “I’m not gonna do too much of it because I know I shouldn’t”. However, you won’t even get a sense of getting addicted to it. It’ll seriously harm your mental and physical health before you realize it.

So, these were the disadvantages of pushing your limits (based on my experiences #truestory). I still thank god that I realized early that I was doing wrong and I should give myself time to rest. Now, I take eight hours of sleep, go to the gym, and work only five days a week. Guess what, I still manage to get a considerable amount of work done without feeling tired or getting a craving for energy drinks.

I hope this short story from my life made you realize a very important thing. The thing that’s the title of this article… Sometimes, Going Easy Is The Right Thing To Do. Going easy on yourself is very important for the sake of your physical and mental wellness. So, think twice before you choose to devote every inch of your life into work. Go easy on yourself!!!