Mike Yaconelli Quotes

Few in these hot, dim, strenuous times are quite sane or free; choked with care like clocks full of dust, laboriously doing so much good and making so much money - or so little, they are no longer good for themselves.

Most everyone I know feels frazzled and overwhelmed most of the time.

The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I'm in the middle of a battlefield.

I envy people who can think, 'No, I'm not going to work today' when they have a huge pile of deadlines stacking up.

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.

Stress is a designer ailment that many of the so-called afflicted suffer from with pride.

You can always find stress in someone's life if you want to. You ask a few questions, and eventually, it's, 'Yes, I admit, I was worried about something recently.'

The slow rhythm of the body, the insistent rhythm of the wit, were they becoming irreconcilable in modern civilisation? The sedentary life, frustration and irritability; work with the body, fatigue - and peace of mind.

Stress is a killer.

Some days, I get overwhelmed and a bit breathless... I've probably cried at work, but I'm limited with my crying: I'm the boss; I'm not really allowed to cry at work.

I was losing sight of myself and started to get anxiety and stress. You work at such a pace and you don't have time to sit with yourself and think.

You are overwhelmed, overscheduled, and dejected because you keep trying to have it all - or at least most of it. You want a fulfilling job and personal life, and it's not working. The way out? Work more.

I worked myself into a frenzy. By 1996, I had a nervous breakdown just from working. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, just getting anxiety attacks and all of that stuff because I was doing too much, too young, all the time.

I don't really compartmentalize well. I'm in a state of anxiety and panic a lot, but it's for different reasons. It used to be because I had nothing going on, but I work very hard and there doesn't seem to be an end to it.

I learnt an enormous amount, but there came a point where I found there was too much stress. It was no fun any more. Outside of the chessboard I avoid conflict, so I thought this wasn't worth it.

By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves to do otherwise: 'John, I'd love to talk about the gaping void I feel in my life, the hopelessness that hits me like a punch in the eye every time I start my computer in the morning, but I have so much work to do! I've got at least three hours of unimportant email to reply to before calling prospects who said 'no' yesterday. Gotta run!

As a working mum, it's really hard to find time in the day to just relax and take a break. I am constantly on the go.

I was making comebacks every single year. That makes it difficult mentally. It causes a lot of stress.

It's physically hard for me to work. I start to break down, physically. My joints start. I get weepy eyes. I don't sleep well. I was never a hard worker, I guess. So the voiceover work ethic is really great for me - couple days a month, two hours a day.

Being exhausted is all part of the fun. I'm cool with it. I'm not going to wish that it would slow down.

Prosperity has brought complications. Our lives are busier, faster, more stressful. They're nostalgic for a simpler, slower time.

After my health suffered due to the stress of running my second company, I had to switch careers. But I still didn't want to go back to the corporate world. So I became an academic.

I've worked myself to exhaustion before. I was so young, and I thought I could do everything; it was just too much for my body and my mind.

I'm like everybody else. I get tired sometimes.