Sean Äaberg

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 07

Added 2024-06-28 17:07:33 +0000 UTC

I’ve not been working on the weekends for a while. Before the stroke I used to work 16 hour days regularly, on the weekends, whenever. There were plenty of fun things to do , life was great, but I didn’t ever take a meaningful break. The idea of taking a break was totally alien to me. I thought I didn’t need to! I was really wrong. I found myself in the hospital wondering what happened. I’ve been goal & work oriented my whole life, I still am. I just soldier forth. Despite being very Generation X, I’m not a slacker. I looked up to guys like Ian Mackaye & Henry Rollins for their insane work ethic. “What the fuck have you done?” Really spoke to me. DIY Punk was really inspiring because it declared that you could do it, (whatever that was) yourself. That wasn’t part of the narrative before, even though it’s just a fact. I obviously had to take a break from working. The stroke forced me to have a three month break in the hospital! A forced vacation. It sucked & I was lonely, but what else could have slowed me down? So, since then I’ve incorporated the idea of needing to take breaks into my routine! So, the weekend is reclaimed for relaxation! I read books & listen to entire record albums. I even take a small, modest vacation twice a year. I can actually feel my brain regenerating when I do these. I come back to work feeling refreshed & ready to go. We Americans have been sold this weird dichotomy between working yourself to death & not working at all. There are so many other ways. Work smarter, take meaningful breaks, make sure you come back to work feeling refreshed. Set up your own goals, plug away, take breaks.