I’m going to start off this post by saying that I am not telling you how to live your life. That’s up to you. But, I hope that the points I bring up here will lead you to think about (if not reconsider) the way you take on tasks. This is the way that I see things.

Many people I know are workaholics. Raised with the implication that we need to be productive, make money, and never disappoint anyone, we take on every single thing asked of us. That’s not healthy. We aren’t machines; we are human beings. These people (myself included) could benefit from learning the art of saying no. This blog has a great post about it. Great read!

Anyway, my take on the subject. We, as a society, need to say no more often. It is trained into us that every opportunity is great, that we should do as much as possible, and in general, be superhuman. Yeah, right. That’s not going to happen. Not really, at least. You get spread too thin.

Spread too thin: When you say yes to every single thing you are asked to do, every opportunity you are offered, and every little thing that interests you, your life becomes imbalanced. You can no longer put your full effort into everything and something is lost. In many cases, it’s health that falls by the wayside. Sometimes it’s a project or two that just end up half-assed (pardon). Maybe you just don’t get to have a social life. I don’t know. Everyone is different.

There’s a certain balance that needs to be found between work, self-care, and fun. All three are important, and all three are worthy of your attention.

Perhaps you’ve seen the graphic below. You can replace good grades with work, social life with fun, and sleep with health and the picture applies to life in general, not just college. Pick two? No. You can have all three. You just have to learn to limit yourself.

Prioritize your health, make sure you take care of yourself. If you aren’t healthy, you can’t work, and you can’t do the things you enjoy. Without being able to do the things you enjoy, what’s the point of working? Sure, maybe you enjoy your work, but you still need personal time-gotta see the newest episode of Better Call Saul or read that new novel you’ve been looking forward to.

I think the problem for us is the “work” third of the triangle. People make it anywhere from 50 to 75 percent of their triangle. That really hurts health and fun. I’m telling you that you don’t have to work so much! If you simply say no sometimes, this part of your triangle will gradually get closer and closer to 33 percent. It’s 100 percent possible to have a balanced life.

Now, do it!

Why do I have any right to say this? I probably don’t… But it’s something I have definitely noticed since coming to Germany. The people here are super concerned about staying healthy and maintaining good social relationships. They don’t constantly work, and they are, in general, just happier.

In Germany, you can’t go shopping after eight PM or on Sundays. People don’t work then. And that’s just how it is. I have a friend who works in a laboratory and as soon as it hits five PM, everybody stops working and either starts drinking with their colleagues or going home to spend time with their families. It amazes her that the Germans can do graduate school and have a family at the same time. Work doesn’t steal the soul here.

I experience this too. In America, I would always work late into the evening on homework after starting as soon as I got home from school. On my triangle, I didn’t get “social life”. Here in Germany, I feel like I actually have time to live. Life is for living, so don’t work too hard.

Live.