I’ve never quite understood the, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” mentality.

For me, sleep and peace are when my best ideas come to me. For ages, I despised the quiet, but now I revel in it. Although single, I still wake up an hour before I get ready for work, so I can meditate, workout, and read. If I’m feeling really fancy, I may even have a bit a tea while I read. It's when I’m at my most creative, and it only comes after a night of rest.

I’m not yet great at it, but I will sometimes wake myself from my dream to write something I saw or learned—an idea I believe was given to me by the Higher One. It is my personal belief that God speaking to me through dreams is my spiritual gift, but until I fully commit to tapping into it, the world may never know.

Anyway, I suppose the message behind the above mentality is that you shouldn’t waste time in going after what you want, which I can’t say that I disagree with. However, what it glamourizes is this idea that somehow working all day and night leads to success. A wise man once told me (and tells me repeatedly actually) that life is a game of chess, not checkers. I'm sure there's some historical reasoning behind this, and one day I'll do the not-so-difficult work, but ours is a society that encourages being "on" constantly, and all it has done is create stressed, robotic, anxiety-ridden creatures seemingly incapable of repair.

Sleep isn't the cousin of death. Exhaustion is. Exhaustion kills your focus, in turn, killing your dreams. Instead, be strategic. When are you most productive? For those out there, like myself, who have a 9-5 (or 8:30-4:30 in my case) in addition to your avocation, ask yourself, "When is my attention required the least?" Then go from there.

You never know what you'll accomplish.

(Writer's note: I understand that I am writing from a place of privilege. Not only am I no longer married, but I do not have children or others depending on me for survival. To those people, I am no expert, but I still stress that you find some time to carve out for yourself. It'll prevent burnout, if nothing else. Remember, you can't take care of anyone else if you aren't taken care of.)