I’ve been sitting at the laptop for about 30 minutes, browsing professional and news sites with a view to finding some inspiration for today’s lesson, listening and singing along to Keane’s ‘Everybody’s Changing’. I do quite a good rendition, you know. It’ll be on my next Karaoke playlist because my cough is causing Bat Out of Hell issues. Which will disappoint my fans.

I was stumped. And I was stumped, in part, because I’m pooped. And that was the inspiration, oddly enough.

Why aren’t we allowed to be tired?

If you were to read and wholly subscribe to the personal development/self-help literature and the prognostications of those who speak at huuuuggggeee events (and don’t be mistaken, I’ve loved the ones I have attended), then ‘being tired’ is not an option. To listen to them, we must feel energised all of the time, even when we’re asleep – but we aren’t allowed to use coffee, BTW. Thanks for the help, Tony.

But the truth of the matter is that we all get tired, and sometimes we get fatigued at a most inconvenient time. In some occupations this is not a problem and you can work around it by managing the tasks you have to do around the way you feel in the moment.

But for the majority, ‘being tired’ is disallowed as an excuse, so ‘feeling depressed’ has to be used because we live in a woke world and people must acknowledge your right to feel down. But not your right to be pooped.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit cruel and over the top, but when has, “Sorry, I’m knackered,” been accepted by a manager? Even a manager who’s as knackered as you?

So let’s start a movement. Or a still-ment. Let us acknowledge that all tiredness, other than that which is self-imposed by staying up all night for the Super Bowl in the UK even though you have never watched a single round beforehand, should be as acknowledgeable as a justification or reason for a brief stoppage. After all, in Spain, it isn’t an issue to have a kip in the PM. Psychologists have shown it to be beneficial. Unless you’re the only pilot, in which case “WAKE UP!!”

Find a suitable spot and close your eyes for ten minutes. See how much better you feel afterwards. Are you up for writing a small LinkedIn post?

Good. I’m off for mine. Sleep tight.

 

*Be Spanish