How bright is your star?

Mira is a giant red star about 200-400 light years from the Sun. The name Mira means “wonderful” or “astonishing”. This star has an interesting history. It is thought that people in ancient China were aware of it. This star can increase its brightness and then fade again. On Wikipedia is a long list of people who observed and recorded this star. The explanation is the following: “Mira A is a well-known example of a category of variable stars known as Mira variables, which are named after it. The 6,000 to 7,000 known stars of this class are all red giants whose surfaces pulsate in such a way as to increase and decrease in brightness over periods ranging from about 80 to more than 1000 days.”

The human equivalent of this behaviour is NOT burnout. Early in my life (I was still in high school) I realised at that at times I was a star performer and other times not. Why? “Because I did not FEEL like it. All very human. During my early adult years, I tried many ways to keep my star shining on an ongoing basis. I tried rosters but that did not work. It did not work because at times, I did not FEEL like following the roster.

Then in 1989 to my rescue came Stephen R. Coveys book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” For the first time, I understood what is happening and why I feel at times unmotivated and unproductive. My planning was wrong and I can do something about it.

Now I don’t have to wait for that elusive motivation.

Since then I have applied the following principles to my life.

First, I look at urgency. It can be low, medium or high.

High urgency stuff will be those items that I don’t have control over, for example, getting the flu etc. My health then gets priority.

Medium urgency is all those things I have control over. I can decide when to do them. Most of my work is done in this category. I do it before it is urgent. If I can, I do everything now, as soon as it presents itself. There are of course exceptions.

One exception is something that is urgent but not important. Those I delegate. Filing and admin is really not my thing. I can pay someone who is excellent in this field to do it. Problem solved.

The other exception is those things that are not important, not urgent and which if I drop them will not harm anyone else. An example would be baking a cake. I don’t like baking. My husband, on the other hand, loves baking. It must be clear what my train of thought is. Ha-ha. I do have a wonderful husband.

I find this way of working that my star is constantly shining. I find it hard to work in the urgent and important – do it now or else category. In my opinion that is where burnout starts.

I am not an “Omicron Ceti.” Knowing I have the same elements in my body as those of the stars does indeed make me feel wonderful. What about you? Where do you work the best? Can you produce constant results or are you a bit “on” and “off?” Please let me know.