All or Nothing

It’s scary.  I battle it, in me and see it in others.  The tendency to go too far.  To think “oh it won’t happen to me.”  Ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  The tendency when doing something and enjoying what I am doing to overdo it.
I really enjoyed my job.  That in itself probably seems incredible as it was all numbers.  Yet I was really into it.  I felt I could do it 24/7.  And there in lay the problem.  I couldn’t, despite my best intentions.
It seems the line between self-sacrifice and self-destruction is a fine one.  Many, including me, think they can do something at the expense of all else.  Good health is abandoned in pursuit of a good goal.  Unconsciously it is treated as an either/or thing.
Yet I have found it is not.  It is a both thing.  I remember one time having to rush to get something to eat before I fell over.  I had ignored an essential, and that never ends well. 
Pursuing a good goal is a good thing.  But it is guaranteed to be short lived if I neglect my health.  Eating, rest and pursuing something totally different for a while is necessary.  I have tried to ignore all three and come a cropper.
I remember trying to do something seven days a week.  The only way I can explain it is it was like days six and seven were two half days.  I could have achieved all on day six alone and had day seven for rest and regeneration.  Instead I needlessly sacrificed my health and family in pursuit of something that I could have pursued in a more balanced way.  I sacrificed one when I could have had both.
I will never forget, before we were married, Merril finding me with my head in a book and saying let’s go for a drive.  We did and loved it.  It was right.
I guess I watch all this fairly closely as I am involved with volunteers.  I wince when others volunteer as though they alone can achieve a task for ever and a day.  I admire enthusiasm but not unbridled enthusiasm.  Not something seen as all or nothing and invariably becoming nothing.  Not something seen to be that way when it is not that way.
The way to me is balance.  Doing all that needs to be done.  All in every case includes rest.  For me the less I do things the way I should, the less likely I am to achieve the goal that consumes me.
Thankfully it is not a wasted lesson.  I know I am thick but I am getting better.