There’s always one more in nonprofit work: one more mouth to feed, one more home to build, one more kid who needs help reading.
In my previous life, that meant one more win. One more company to bring to my community so that one more person could get a job and feed their family. After constantly chasing those wins, I was pretty much always burnt out. I was always thinking about the next vacation: the next trip to Disney (the “Disney bubble,” I call it), my next week lounging on the beach, or even my least favorite, on a Caribbean cruise (first world problems…).
After my last vacation, something shifted. I wasn’t going to escape anything, but because I wanted to go. And I didn’t dread vacation ending. In fact, I was kind of excited to get home and get back to work.
This isn’t a criticism of my old job or the people I worked with. It’s just something I didn’t see at the time: there’s always one more, especially in nonprofit work.
At some point, especially my nonprofit friends, you have to decide what’s enough for today.