Burn Well

We love a good talk and a good read about fiery passions, persistence, grit, sacrifice, and a can-do, never-give-up attitude. Anything we love and support is fire 🔥! Go! Hustle!! 101%!!! But do we ever stop and pay attention to what builds our flames?

What’s in a Flame?

Fire needs three things in order to exist:

• Heat
• Oxygen
• Fuel

Same is true with every fire that burns in our life. Whether it be desire, passion, gusto, and even the range of emotions from joy to anger; what we have ablaze in our lives will also need three things in order to sustain itself.

• The spark. It’s heat in the form of motivation and the will to begin and keep going.
• Life. It’s the oxygen. It is time. Every flame you have built or would ever kindle, demanded and would require life – yours and others’. Please let me know if you don’t find this in your very core to be true.
• Fuel. The variable you can control. Whatever type, source, and amount is your call.

Only Burn Out When You Run Out

Looking outward should not be our immediate response once the feeling of being burnt out sets in. Our most specific reasons usually border along these sentiments:

• It’s not my fault.
• I’m a victim.
• I need to be treated better.

The list can go on but all outwardly towards blame. We can’t keep talking about flames without being mindful of the burn.

The nature of fire is to consume.

It is in this very nature of fire where we can find the best response to burnout. And that is to look within.

• What are you burning?
• Where are you getting your fuel from?
• How much or how fast are you burning?

Time ticks away and it won’t wait.

Will can take you as far as you are willing to go. The decision to pause or slow down is not burn out. You’re not burnt out when you’re able to rekindle and reignite.

Of coals and stars, all subject to the limits of their core, their being is fuel. Magnitude, irrelevant to a common fate.

The goal is not to avoid burnout. The challenge is how to be mindful of our fuel in order to burn well. Well enough to get our burnout and time’s up at the exact same point.