Today let’s look at burnout, and how to prevent it.
Quick summary, the key parts of your new habit building routine:
- Take breaks.
- Use the differential prescription for all up-close tasks.
- Change the focal plane once in a while (no glasses, changing your distance from the book or screen).
- Go outside.
- Use your normalized prescription.
- Make out objects in the distance.
- Spend part of your morning routine without glasses.
The theme is all about habits. Simple, non-invasive things that become part of your life.
You can’t really fail with this approach, as long as you take those 20 minutes it may take to read the session , and make a small effort to follow the advice.
I’m never asking you to spend hours on a tedious exercise.
Did you set yourself up a system to remind yourself to take breaks? Yes?
Then you have set yourself up to SUCCEED. The parts to remember, as you progress and want to make sure you stuck with it:
First, you create positive change that is going to stay with you.
The core aspects of this change includes a few things:
One, you have now have critical knowledge. Before you didn’t know that the 14 hour work marathon followed by three hours of TV, and an hour of Internet were killing your eyes. You didn’t know that wearing a full minus while up close would make your eyeball grow longer and longer into the abyss of axial myopia.
But now you know. Just knowing makes it harder to ignore the things that lead you to success (better eyesight).
Second, you are now wearing different focal-plane changers.
Normalized prescription. Differential prescription. How much time do you spend wearing full minus?
If you are part of the majority of clients, probably NONE. Will you go back to them? Unlikely. You know that you just need the differential to read. You have the normalized prescription handy for distance vision.
These seem like small things, but they are set in stone (if you let them).
Are you going to ‘quit’? Well … this would mean going back to wearing full minus for 14 hours a day. You could, but it would take an effort, and it would not even be pleasant.
Third, you experience progress.
Did you get at least 15% improvement yet by now, in terms of the prescription strength reduction you nee for distance vision?
Most likely, you did (unless you were really low myopia to begin with – and even then, you’re probably quite close). Progress is addictive.
Progress ties back into the knowledge that you can do it, and the experience that you have. It’s much easier to continue to improve at something you have already proven to yourself.
Fourth, you are becoming an expert at managing your eyesight.
You know how to measure your own eyesight. You know how to order your own prescriptions. You know what all those numbers mean, and you know what part of the day your vision is strongest.
You know about focal planes. Granted, there are more things we will keep learning as we progress, but think of where you started – you have come a long way from there.
These are the things you are getting from a program designed to give you long term success.
Could you quit? Sure, you could stop doing focus exercises. But then you know that just 15 or 20 minutes of pushing focus, and generally staying as far back from the computer screen as you can, is exercise. And if you made that a habit, it’s no stretch to keep going.
You can’t quit the knowledge, you are not likely to quit your new prescription style, and ever so often you will get curious and measure.
The only difference between levels of success is time.
It may take you six months to reach your goal, it may take you three years. Meanwhile though, you banished the uneducated dependence on a system that kept you from knowing about your own eyes. Even if you stop doing exercises, and quit lowering prescriptions for a year, you are still ‘holding your place’. And every time you make an improvement, you are taking a step forward.
Remember this topic if you ever feel like you have been slipping, not doing much for a week, two weeks, a month. If you ever feel ‘burned out’. There are still all these things you have already gained – and today, you can take twenty minutes to push focus, go outside, read that sign in the distance. And you are back on track.
Don’t let this be a pass to stop your progress. Stay on top of the new installments, let’s get the latest topics on track as well. And post your experience and progress in the forum. It’s an easy way to create a bit of a journal. You can always go back and look at your previous posts and progress there.
And of course, enjoy the process.
Also, keep in mind my recent offer: A whole year of extended once-a-week sessions, no extra cost or commitments, once we’re done with the core program. This should also help you stay motivated, in touch with me, and eyesight-relevantly entertained. 😉
Quick note: Remember your cumulative distance time. We’re about to get back into that subject!
Cheers,
-Jake
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