Don't Fly Too Close To The Sun
Lessons to Avoid Burnout from the Myth of Icarus
According to legend, Daedalus, Icarus’ father and a skilled craftsman, created wings from feathers and wax to help them escape from the island of Crete. Daedalus gave Icarus these wings and warned him not to fly too close to the sun, or the wax would melt. However, consumed by excitement, Icarus ignored his father's advice, and eventually, the sun melted his wings, and he fell into the sea. This is the basic version of the tale of Icarus from Greek mythology, and it teaches us an important lesson on how to avoid burnout and obsession with productivity.
This tale serves as a potent reminder of how unlimited ambition and ignoring wise advice always take us down the wrong path. When it comes to productivity, this means avoiding pushing ourselves too hard and finding a balance between getting things done and taking time to slow down. Balance is the key to navigating the skies of productivity without losing our wings.
Find Your Balance
One of the most common mistakes we make when getting into the world of productivity is obsessing over it. We think productivity means working 15 hours a day without rest, cutting out things we enjoy, and only thinking about optimizing this or that. This is an unhealthy way to see it, but entering this dynamic is much easier than getting out of it. First, sacrificing aspects of both our physical and mental health is not productive in the first place. Working without rest, disregarding our relationships, and not taking a moment to enjoy things that don’t fit the ‘productivity’ tag is not the way to go.
Many of us realize that but still struggle to avoid this unhealthy approach. In the next few paragraphs, I will give a few reasons that will help us overcome this harmful vision and substitute it for a positive one.
It Doesn’t Compound
As Naval Ravikant says, “All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.” An extreme approach to productivity might work for a few weeks or months, but it’s not sustainable in the long run. We want to develop systems that don’t feel like we are pushing ourselves more than we can sustain.
Productivity has to fit our lifestyle, not the other way around. You shouldn't be living a life where you follow some advice that is supposed to make you more productive but only ends up making you feel like a failure. As I wrote in a previous post, create your own path. Otherwise, we will eventually burn out like Icarus and fall into a sea of unproductiveness and bad habits.
Ask yourself this question to know how sustainable your present way of living is: How satisfied would I be if I had to sustain my current lifestyle for the rest of my life from 0 to 10? There are cases where a low score shouldn’t be alarming. For example, if you’re studying non-stop or building a business so that you’ll have much more control over your time in a short period, a lower score can be justified. However, if your reply is less than 3, you should very
probably do something regardless of your current situation.
It Makes Us Perpetually Unsatisfied
Obsessing over productivity means that there is no such thing as ‘good enough’ in our vocabulary. We finish one thing, and instead of reflecting on it or congratulating ourselves for a well-done job, we ask ourselves, “What’s next?” or ”What can I do now?” From an outside perspective, this might look like we are just being ambitious, but it’s not the case. This endless self-dissatisfaction, driven by an unhealthy obsession, creates a cycle of constant striving where our victories go unappreciated.
Now, don’t get me wrong, ambition is great; it is one of the main factors that drives progress and growth. But there’s a limit. Icarus teaches us that trying to fly too high can get you right down to a lower level than you started at. Learn to recognize when something is good enough and to take some time to reward yourself for the work you complete.
It Undermines Creativity and Innovation
Finally, a relentless fixation on productivity suppresses our creativity and ability to innovate. If we get into a routine where we perform tasks like a machine would, we become unimaginative—no new ideas and, thus, no real progress.
Think about the kind of activities you usually perform when you feel more creative and inspired. Is it after staring at a spreadsheet for eight hours in a row sitting at a desk, or after working out or going for a walk? Ideas often surge in moments of leisure and reflection. In his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin says, “The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible.” If we don’t take time to step back and reflect, we can’t get past these first layers. When we stare at a screen for 8 hours, we lose the ability to think outside the box to take a deeper look into what we do.
This is hard to notice at that moment, as we often see those other activities as a waste of time, without realizing that they are actually a time investment that will not only save us time but also make us healthier, happier, and more productive.
Finding the right mix of productivity and rest is one of the main challenges for those trying to get more done. The tale of Icarus teaches us a lesson about how limitless ambition is unhealthy and hard to sustain. An extreme approach to productivity doesn’t compound, makes us chronically unsatisfied, and restricts our creative abilities.
I’d love to hear your opinions on this topic. Is there something you found helpful? How do you think you can apply this in your life? Leave a comment or message me on X, Instagram, or Facebook, and we can chat! Thanks for reading!
See you later!