Psychologist Thijs Launspach is a psychologist and stress expert and the author of the book Breeding pressure. He marvels at modern working and gives tips every week for more happiness and less stress at work. Today: the half power day.
Take out everything that’s in it. Just keep pushing to achieve your goals. There are only so many days in a week, so no time to waste. Full house ahead, because you are a hard worker, a goal getter, a maximizer. You only live once, right? With your best foot forward, you give the full hundred.
As work bees without a 9-to-5 mentality, we like to pride ourselves on our work drive. Hard work is in our nature. From childhood we are told that we can achieve our goals by doing our best. At work, dedication is valued. Our culture is also full of messages, subtle or not, that emphasize the virtue of ‘doing your best’. For example, this week when I went to the toilet at a gas station, I received a receipt with the text ‘Get everything out of your toilet break!’ You can also exaggerate with your maximization thought, I thought at the time.
Unscathed
Nothing wrong with hard work, of course. But sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. You have a headache, or are very tired from a bad night. You worry about something or are constantly distracted. You are running behind the facts. On such a day it is not ‘the best of yourself’, but: ‘take it easy, then the line won’t break’. Instead of focusing on such a day on what you should do, the question becomes how you can survive today unscathed.
Such a half-life day is completely normal, we all have one from time to time. It is part of our modern way of working and living. After all, the bow cannot always be tense. What is difficult is that you can often be plagued by a feeling of guilt on such a bad day. It will not work! How bad! I’m not trying hard enough! My fault! This is a wasted day!
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What is difficult is that on such a bad day you can often be plagued by a feeling of guilt
Could all be so, but a half-day is not something to feel guilty about. Instead of thinking there’s something wrong with you, embrace him. Understanding that a bad day is part of it now and then is a sign of mental strength, not weakness. ‘Getting the best out of yourself’ is nice, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work – and it doesn’t have to be. Life is too short to feel guilty when things don’t work out that way for a day. And what’s more: such a half-power day ensures that you may be able to go full steam ahead the next day.
Thijs Launspach is a psychologist and stress expert. He is the author of, among others, You are already enough – Mentally healthy in a disturbed world (2022), Werk can also uit (2020) and Fokking Druk (2018).
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