During a busy autumn many years ago, when the client’s bullshit hit particularly hard, I felt pretty burned out. Poisoning your mind with the client’s ideas and processes can put a strain on you, suffocate you and suck out your purpose and ultimately make you wonder:

Why am I doing this again?

Deep down, I always knew that the consulting business is not a world that I would ever feel comfortable in. But I wasn’t ready to discover this truth just yet.

My thoughts were going in circles, everyday life didn’t make any sense and to top it all off, I relentlessly immersed myself in the bullshit world that my clients felt so content in. No wonder I felt burned out. I reached a stage of burned-out-ness where I wouldn’t believe anyone that simply said “just take a few days off”. What difference will a few days off make? I was convinced that my misery was long term.

Nevertheless, we left. We left the noise, the big city traffic, the bullshit. And what did we find? Darkness. But opposed to my gloomy mental state at the time, this darkness felt soothing. Darkness, so pitch-black, the stars would illuminate the night sky. We found silence. Silence, so serene, we would notice our own breathing. I was blown away by how dark and calm the nights could get out here. We lay down on the patio and watched the Milky Way dance its beautiful dance with millions of stars above us. Pretty sure we caught a few shooting stars too, but maybe it’s just me romanticising how clear everything suddenly seemed. The air was fresh. The nights kept to their soothing darkness. The days were sunny. The water of the lake was blue and the woods smelled like pine trees.

Sometimes, when the bullshit just gets too intense, take life back to where it makes sense. Where the nights are still dark, the air is still fresh and the lake is fuckin’ blue.