The Four Burners

The four burners theory is a neat summarisation of something I have been feeling a lot recently. When I ramp up the intensity at work, my health slips. When I try to spend more time with my friends, I don’t see my family as much as I would like to. It seems I can’t have it all at once, and reading somebody else’s thoughts on it has given me some fresh ones of my own.

The most obvious one is: do I actually want to “really successful”? What does that even mean, and what metrics are we using? I will always choose happiness as my metric of choice for success, and I think there is a compelling argument that living a rounded life (the four burners on dim strategy) might be the way to maximise my happiness. Intuitively, this feels like the wrong solution though - as a function of my high expectations, I think I will likely have to turn a burner or two off, that I might excel in something else to secure the gratification I so desire. My career ambitions remain lofty, and I believe they’re eminently reachable, but might take some sacrifices to get there. My health is never going to be the burner that is switched off, but it is also unlikely to ever be put above all else either. Connecting with other people is what I think ultimately makes me happiest, so it seems the family and friends burners are important also.

I think Mr Clear’s three options are all excellent, and worth considering. Embracing constraints is undoubtedly something I am going to try and do more - my time is limited, so I should try to ensure that as much of it as possible is spent on one of the aforementioned four buckets. Outsourcing would be significantly easier if I had more disposable income, but it could be something worth considering when contemplating future career decisions and salary considerations. As for seasons… I am as yet unswayed. I want it all, I want it now, and I expect I will always want it all.

Perhaps one day I’ll figure it out. Expect a followup in the near future.