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What about little or no will to do things?
Ferrante | Mar 27 2006
Hi everybody, I was wondering if someone has ever experienced this kind of "chronic fatigue" or simply put, lack of will or energy to do simple things. My current status: I work as a CIO for two countries in a big company. I have a strong technical background (more than 15 years) and now I have to deal with many different problems (specially company politics), aside of pure technical situations. My main problem, as I mentioned before, is the chronic lack of energy to do things apart from my job. I always wanted to learn french and german or to read more books (I used to read 4 or 5 books a month), but when I get home, I don?t want to do anything but rest. I?ve tried everything: meditation, medication, exercise (I do some workout regularly), 8-hour sleep cycles, balanced food, etc., but nothing seems to work, or at least, to have lasting effects. Lately, I?ve been experiencing concentration and lack of focus problems, which is bad for my job. It seems that the problem is starting to affect my work as well. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 30 Comments
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 If you don't own the...Submitted by a11en on March 27, 2006 - 11:49am.
If you don't own the book, you might want to check out the very first 3 or 4 chapters of The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, M.D. I have a serious problem with time-management, and these three or four chapters have highlighted for me where my problem lies. On second thought, perhpas grab it from the library, I don't want to have you go out doing something that doesn't apply to you. Basically, at one point he mentions (not my problem), that he was upset that his other coworkers always left the office early... he still had meetings etc. after hours. He went into his boss to complain/ask for help, and the boss said essentially: "Yes, I can see you have a problem." they went back and forth, the boss repeating the same sentence about 10 times. He went away in a huff. Over time, he realized that *he* was the one with the problem. And, owning the problem gave him the ability to realize he could change the problem. Ultimately, it was the decision he was making in regards to spending more time with his clients [allowing them to schedule late meetings etc.], that allowed his coworkers to go home early, and he to stay late... when he realized this, he realized (for him) not going home early was worth it. He was making a choice to live with that pain in order to accomplish his job (his greater joy). For me, my problem with time is a delayed gratification problem... I need to learn to live with short-term pain, so that I can get longer term pleasure. Instead I often go for the short-term pleasure, and gain long-term pain. I am now seeing it is my problem, and am working to correct it. Also, Covey's 7-Habits is the perfect approach for this more generalized life problem. Your problem isn't necessarily just work. It sounds to me like there are other aspects of your life that are important to you, that have been taking the back-seat. If you ignore these areas of your life (if they are truly important), you will eventually feel as though you are not accomplishing anything in life, and that your work is ruling your life. Covey's concepts of life "Roles" will help to highlight this for you, be sure you are accomplishing at least 1 thing in each of your life-roles each week, so that each area of your life is moving forward. 7Habits can help you to organize your total life plan and help you to realize the bigger picture which may be slipping away from you while work is taking up so much effort/pain. The more you focus on this one aspect of your life, and disregard the other aspects which are important, the more difficult life will seem to you. [My guess.] If instead, you renew yourself, do a *little bit* of building your life (diversify your portfolio), life will seem a bit less petty, and you will most likely be more vibrant, things will slide off your back more, and you'll be a bit more of a rock when it comes to trials at work. At least it seems to help with me. [When I'm not at the whim of my delaying gratification problem that generally rules my life.] :) Well, some of the above may be wrong, but I hoped that perhaps some of it might have helped. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. ;) This was free, so it probably ain't worth much. ;) -Allen ps- As well, I don't see David Allen and Covey at odds. Covey is much more of a top-down approach... bigger picture issues... is your life headed the way you wish it to be. d.Allen is much more focused on how to actually do something in your life... how do you organize your day to day? how do you implement your day to day? how do you do your next actions... such that you never have downtime and know what to do next. pps- another interesting thread that's been running for me lately... the things that are most often the most important to do... the things that will move us forward much more than the next guy... are the things we don't know, things we don't understand yet, and the things that are the most difficult to do. The way I always look at it in science is quite simple: why do science that we already know the answer to? it's not getting us anywhere... so doing the stuff that's hard to do... the "out there" stuff, that no one has done... is much more difficult but the outcome is much more important and huge. It would move us forward the most. Perhaps there are items you are avoiding because they are hard, but if you see them in the light of moving forward, and accomplishment, they may take on a different hue. » POSTED IN:
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