In second grade, I received an ‘N’ (the lowest grade- ‘Needs Improvement’) on my report card in the category of ‘self-control’... basically, I was too chatty, too exuberant, too goofy.

By high school, I had learned how to play the game, got straight A’s on all advanced courses... and was the walking (burnt out) dead by the end of it.

Somewhere between applying for colleges and deferring for a year (to bum around New Zealand) I made myself a promise:

*that I would never work that hard, ever again*

And, because I’m someone who takes integrity very seriously, I kept that promise.

In the last couple of years, I reached burn out again, this time financially. You see, it’s hard to keep a promise of never working hard again when you run your own business.

But I had an epiphany last year and changed the promise:

*I will never again work that hard for someone else and on something that doesn’t light me up*

It changed everything.

I was just having a conversation with a client this morning about going after our purpose and passion and what might be possible for the whole world if we were all encouraged to work hard in pursuit of our gifts. And then this post from @talkingshrimpnyc popped up.

Where in your life can you go hard for the things that feel easy? And where might it serve you to back off on the things that drain you of your own precious life force?

And how can we each participate in changing systems and society so that your immediate response to the first two questions isn’t something defeated and along the lines of: “that sounds nice but I have to make money/survive somehow”?