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While the news media is only partly to blame, making a killing of FUDGE (fear, uncertainty, doubt, greed, and envy), they are not the sole culprits. We live in a world where fear, stress, and anxiety are normalised. Each one of us chooses, on some level, to play this game. Or at least, we pretend that we have no other choices.

But, how do we make good decisions from a state of fear, stress and anxiety? In many ways, we’re hampered by tunnel vision, unable to see options broader than the scope of escaping the immediate threats that we perceive. We move towards safety rather than seeing the broader opportunities available to us. Continue reading How stress, fear and anxiety rob us of the ability to make good decisions

I recently wrote a blog post on my personal blog about the road to burnout. The signs, signals, and symptoms that burnout was around the corner were obvious:

exhausted
energy depletion
mentally distant
problems “getting the job done”
sense of failure & self-doubt
insomnia & chronic fatigue
constantly falling ill
emotional exhaustion
anger issues, cynicism
depression & anxiety
forgetfulness & inability to concentrate
withdrawal

But I had ignored them, blaming them on my auto-immune disease (Celiac). I continued pushing myself. I blamed the chronic low-grade stress in my life on my illness. And I mistakenly thought that my problem was my mindset, time management, and the need to establish clearer priorities. Continue reading Burnout: discovering meaning, passion & purpose