Are you working with your actual capacity — or into exhaustion?

In case you also did not know:

Is it is NOT normal to be exhausted after coming home from work.

Likely cause: Your environment does not fit you.

There may be drains causing energy leakage you may not be aware of — or that you yet accept without challenge where they should, in fact, be reduced, accommodated, or entirely removed.

You might be searching for „the mistake (TM)“ in the entirely wrong place by thinking you just „have to power through“, never questioning the discomfort, as if that were somehow necessary to the experience.

Yes, read that again:

You are very likely okay as you are.

The problem is likely (in) your environment.

And that can be changed.

Capacity is not a moral failing. It is physiological fact. The same goes for leaks and drains.

Look for what works. Look for what needs reduction and what you need more of.

What gives you energy?

What takes away energy?

This is not about lowering standards or never struggling. It is about making your struggles long-term sustainable.

And that means working WITH your (actual, honest, not some imaginary, wishful-thinking) capacity and limitations, finding the right modes and settings and scaffolds instead of working against yourself and your basic needs.

The latter will end you up in burnout.

The former will let you excel within your personal range.

That also means stopping to look at others and comparing yourself and looking at your self, honestly and without shame.

Shame is not helpful.

Shame induces stress and anxiety—and you know what those do? They lower your brain‘s capacity!

One cannot think clearly in survival mode.

One also cannot stay in prolonged survival mode without the foreseeable result of physiologal collapse.

That is not moral. It is simple, biological truth for ALL living beings. We are not machines. Not some perpetuum mobile that can go on without maintenace or care. So stop treating yourself like a machine.

(Btw, even machines need fuel, maintenance, repairs, and the correct environment—or environmental adjustments. Even they only work at their best capacity in environments fitting their physical needs and what they are good at, so…

You know, on second thought, maybe DO treat yourself like one: Rest, fuel up, repair, do the maintenance work, don’t put your system somewhere where metaphorical sand gets in your system every day and degrades its functions. Remove the fucking sand.)

Say, as just one simple, rather common example:

Too brights lights subconsciously assumed as somehow god-given, unchangeable, and you scolding yourself for being unable to endure them when in reality you get (metaphorical or real) migraines from them — instead of turning down the effing lights and/or using sunglasses, hats… Maybe you even ignore the lights cause you discomfort at all and then wonder why you feel like getting a headache after just a few hours because you learned to ignore warning signs via hustle culture and self-blame.

Or maybe your breaks aren‘t actually replenishing enough (maybe it is the wrong kind of „rest“ for YOU—some brains need more active rest, eg walks in nature, some do well with meditation, others might need an actually silent and/or dark room). What kind of breaks do YOU need? What works for you?

Maybe you don‘t even give yourself enough breaks in the first place and/or cannot shut down during because somehow they got linked in your brain to being a „reward“ for work done a certain way.

Rest is not a reward—it is a NECESSITY replenish energy and continue.

(So is play, btw.)

Rest is the baseline need to ENABLE work.

Compare sports: A body needs enough downtime to heal and integrate muscle development. Otherwise you end up with damage instead of growth.