It's actually a serious question.
Usually you associate the words "burn out" with overwork and having too much to do. So perhaps we should call it "reverse burn out." I believe that I have suffered burn out twice in my life when work, family and my other pursuits all crashed together in a maelstrom of thoughts and mental and physical anguish.
But now things are different but we can still suffer burn out. Burn out from worrying about our health, our futures, our country, the world, our finances, our jobs and much more. Burn out leads to feelings of helplessness, to exhaustion and much more and I suggest that is what so many people are suffering at the moment.
Days merge into each other with little form or structure - each much like the previous one or the previous seven. Weeks pass by almost it seems like the blinking of an eye, but at the same time time seems to hang.
Every day we go through the same motions and the same emotions, looking forward to the next only to find it has a dull similarity to it. Weekends are no longer any different to weekdays and we judge days not by what we have on our diary but what we don't have.
The number of times I have heard myself say to someone I'll just check in my diary when there is absolutely no need to do that because I know the pages will be empty.
Actually that's not quite true. My pages are full of events crossed out and a few weekly events that now lighten up what is becoming an ever more difficult load to carry. So we look forward to the occasional zoom call, the occasional What's App call.
You even get fed up doing the things that you would normally love doing. That's because they used to perhaps be a minor diversion in your life but have now become a major part of the day.
The only thing we can hold onto is that things will get better. I am so looking forward to that day when a message is sent to my phone telling me that I can make an appointment to have the vaccine.
Do let me know if you feel you have suffered burn out through what I have described above.
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As you know I love statistics. They can do anything you want them to do - prove any point you want to prove. But of course they are anything but an exact science. As somebody once said: "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." It isn't known where the phrase originated although it was popularised by author Mark Twain.
I always like to use sport to illustrate a point. At the present time many football managers and coaches are claiming that players are being asked to play too many matches.
Take a team that have played games on a Saturday, a Wednesday and a Saturday. That technically is three games in eight days or a game very 2.6 days. This would be used by a coach to prove the argument that the team is playing too many games.
But the game before those quoted may have been the previous Saturday and the next game may be the next Saturday so that would mean the team playing five games in 22 days or a game on average every 4.4 days - something that the neutral would claim to be ok.
Now the person trying to prove that the team doesn't play too much football would ignore the first Saturday and start their calculations from the Sunday after. They would also ignore the final Saturday, taking the previous day for his calculations. That would see the team playing three games in 20 days or a game on average every 6.7 days - thus proving they aren't playing too much.
So depending on what stat you use the team is playing wither every 2.6 days, every 4.4 days or every 6.7 days. A big difference but all three calculations are equally correct. It all depends on what you want to the figures to prove and you can twist and use them to your advantage to back up your own particular argument.
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My reading of the entire output of Charles Dickens is continuing. I am halfway through Pickwick Papers and must admit that I'm enjoying the fun and humour, although some passages are difficult to visualise.
The main problem for me with Pickwick Papers is getting through the first dreadful chapter which is rather like treading through porridge. Get through that and it's a fun read with some unforgettable characters and observations on 19th century life that could be equally attributable to the 21st century.
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Just before finishing this blog I heard that Hethersett Post Office will be shut for at least a week. Post master Kevin Salmon has said that he has been contacted by track and trace having come into contact with somebody who has tested positive for COVID. Kevin will be isolating until and including 24th January. He hopes to re-open on the 25th providing he doesn't develop any symptoms.