Our house was recovering from the flu, and I had a ton going on at work, including a couple of big-thinking pieces like our annual strategy day and a new contract to onboard. My brain was like, "computer says no".
The weather doesn’t help. One day, spring has had enough of winter and turns on an 18°C day. We’re all dusting off our gardening gear, pulling out the mountainbikes, and strapping on the sneakers.
Everyone starts getting anxious that the year is running out, so we sign up for stuff, start a heap of projects we’ve been meaning to do around home and work.
Just in the last couple of months I’ve joined surf life-saving training, book club, a girl band, a new gym, tried dragon boating, an angel investing group, a new industry committee and taken on the chair role for another. Oh, and committed to the swim/bike legs for the Wanaka half ironman.
Nek minute, spring runs out of steam and I’m chopping kindling, defrosting the house, and watching people drop like flies to the flu and the latest round of Covid. The gardening implements remain lying where I left them the last time the sun was out and I resent that I’ve got so much on because, actually, I just want to mooch about in my PJs and eat peanut butter out of the jar.
It’s like a series of false starts. Is it seasonal restlessness, burnout, boredom, or just a simple midlife crisis?
When I started writing this piece, I was dwelling on the negative stuff. There’s not much to be inspired about right now: war, recession, and bizarre politics. It’s depressing, it can be easy to feel completely helpless and that our individual efforts are largely pointless in the grand scheme of things.
So this could have ended up being one great big whinge about how it’s hard to see roses when everything is planted in crap.
But instead, I forced myself to think objectively. Actually, there’s a lot of good stuff happening; we just seem to focus on the bad when the tank is running close to empty. We get hung up on the negative things we can’t immediately control, rather than those that we can.
Seems it’s not just me. I’ve never had so many conversations with people about being burnt-out and their tactics to improve their energy and motivation; protein diets, vegan diets, meat diets, weight training, yoga, HIIT, running, pilates, 5am starts, micro-naps, cold water therapy, mindfulness, cutting the booze, caffeine, chocolate, sugar in general ... it’s exhausting and never ending, and for most doesn’t seem to be working.
No amount of exercise, morning yoga, supplements and sleep are refilling the cup. Maybe we need to accept that at this time of year our bodies are in control and they’re not quite done hibernating.
So of course, I asked my friend Google and discovered some common themes that resonated:
The Seasonal Slump: The New Year’s buzz is a distant memory, and the holiday hustle is still miles away. We’re stuck in this weird limbo where motivation takes a vacation, and every task feels like climbing Everest without oxygen. Creative juices? More like creative deserts.
The Pressure of Productivity: Everywhere you look, it’s all about the hustle. "Maximise your time!" "Achieve your goals!" It’s like being chased by a productivity monster. With all this pressure to be a superhuman, finding a moment to let your mind wander and spark new ideas feels impossible.
The Paradox of Choice: Too many options, not enough brainpower. Should you start that new project, finish the old one, or just take a nap? The sheer number of choices can leave you frozen in place, like a possum in headlights. And before you know it, you’ve spent the whole day deciding to do ... nothing.
The Role of Routine: Routines are like that comfy old sweater— reliable but sometimes a bit too snug. They keep us on track, sure, but they can also turn life into a never-ending loop of deja vu. When every day feels like a rerun, inspiration takes a break.
It’s also not unlike a group of 9-year-olds at a birthday party. Amidst writer’s block on this article, I was hosting Fin’s 9th birthday party.
In my wisdom, I offered to have eight of his besties for a sleepover party. I wondered if I could apply a behavioural study of eight 9-year-olds at a sleepover to adult seasonal apathy. Here’s what I observed:
The honeymoon phase (summer): Kids all show up, equal levels of excitement, and all take off biking together;
The tornado of choices (autumn): After only about 15 minutes, some kids time out from the bikes. We get three splinter groups: the trampoliners, the bikers, and the Uno players.
Burnout (winter): They’ve done all the things and come inside seeking sugar and comfort. They can no longer make decisions and need to be organised, pass the parcel, musical cushions and movies ensue.
False start (spring): They started strong with some 5.30am Uno and 6am bike rides, but by mid-morning, right after rioting for pancakes, they crash.
Kids are simple. They don’t push themselves through things, beat themselves up for being lazy, or labour over decisions.
They just are and just do. We have a lot to learn from them.
• Sarah Ramsay is chief executive of United Machinists.
