Fellow humans: we are not machines.

The stories I am hearing lately from people all around me (including myself) seem to be centered on the need to do more and be more. It seems that for many of us our weeks are filled with crippling workloads and our weekends are spent trying to squeeze in all the fun we can muster. I’m all for working hard and having fun, but at some point, dear humans, we have to stop and rest.

Once in a while we all have to run the gauntlet and carry more than is reasonable for someone to be expected to carry, but that can’t become the standard. We are not machines and we need to take care of ourselves…and one another.

I worry that our inability to care for ourselves and set realistic boundaries is making us less capable of taking care of one another. When you can’t keep from drowning in the ocean of your own responsibility, how can you rescue someone else who is drowning?

What if we just admitted that we are human and can’t possibly continue like this much longer?

I’ll go first: My name is Geoff Welch and I cannot do it all. I cannot say yes to everything I want to do because it will literally kill me. I am a human person and I break. Regularly. I refuse to spend my life pretending to be able to do it all because doing so might make you think that you are supposed to be able to do it all…and that’s not a legacy I can bear to leave behind.

Let’s try to be realistic, and honest, and take better care of ourselves, okay? Let’s try to take better care of each other, too.

We were not made for perpetual motion. We are not machines. We are humans and we need rest.