Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

it was possible because he was willing to reimagine his approach to
training and to approach it with more balance.
Pacing is something athletes are often forced to come to terms
with as they age, while young athletes needlessly burn themselves
out because they think they have a bottomless well of energy. Yes,
there is purity and meaning in giving your best to whatever you do—
but life is much more of a marathon than it is a sprint. In a way, this
is the distinction between confidence and ego. Can you trust yourself
and your abilities enough to keep something in reserve? Can you
protect the stillness and the inner peace necessary to win the longer
race of life?
It was a malicious lie that the Nazis hung over the gates of
Auschwitz: Arbeit macht frei—“Work will set you free.”*
No. No. No.
The Russian proverb had it better: Work just makes you bent
over.
Man is not a beast of burden. Yes, we have important duties—to
our country, to our coworkers, to provide for our families. Many of us
have talents and gifts that are so extraordinary that we owe it to
ourselves and the world to express and fulfill them. But we’re not
going to be able to do that if we’re not taking care of ourselves, or if
we have stretched ourselves to the breaking point.
The moral of the American tall tale about the rail worker John
Henry is often lost on people. He challenges the steam-powered
drilling machine, and through sheer strength and inhuman will, he
beats it. It’s great. Inspiring. Except he dies at the end! Of
exhaustion! “In real life,” George Orwell observed, “it is always the
anvil that breaks the hammer.”
Work will not set you free. It will kill you if you’re not careful.
Prince Albert’s children would have gladly traded a less exciting
Great Exhibition to have Albert for a little longer, and so too would
Queen Victoria and the British people.
The email you think you need so desperately to respond to can
wait. Your screenplay does not need to be hurried, and you can even
take a break between it and the next one. The only person truly
requiring you to spend the night at the office is yourself. It’s okay to
say no. It’s okay to opt out of that phone call or that last-minute trip.