Throughout history, as well as in modern times, us men were expected to fulfill our evolutionary role as providers and protectors. As any other species cannot help but become extinct if they do not comply with the strict laws of mother nature, we too had to fight our way from the African savanna to the top of the food chain as the number one predators of attrition. We were expected to hunt and gather, to guide our tribe on long voyages to distant lands in search of better hunting grounds, to protect our women and children and the elderly. Today, most of us aren’t dependent on hunting for survival, nor do we have a responsibility to protect our tribe from aggressors, but we still as men need to be the providers and protectors of our society if our civilization is to survive. As is with the natural order of things, species who do not comply with natural law die out, so to do civilizations who go against human evolutionary programming slowly but surly collapse. Our job as men is hard, and our place in society is irreplaceable, so in order to stay sane, cool and collected, and in order to do our job as well as we can, we need to take some time off from time to time.

This past month, I’ve been continually working on my purpose, as any man should be doing. I’ve been working both on my mind and body, developing myself academically, spiritually and physically. It is through this “burn-out” period that I started to lose energy in my day-to-day life, my workouts started getting less intense, my attention span shortened, and I noticed that my willpower would drop significantly near the end of the day, which was usually the time I was most productive. Seeing how I was just finishing one burn-out period and in the next few weeks a new one is about to start, I had to choice but to take a week off in order to keep up with my progress. It was through this period of relaxation and energetic recharging that the idea for this article came into my hat. I usually cannot stand doing nothing productive for a day or two, the guilt of knowing that instead of doing nothing and relaxing I could be on my purpose, striving to live the best life I can live would become too unbearable, but with this new insight I found that taking time to relax and slow down for a longer period of time between the great “battles” can greatly help with my mental health and overall well being.

Even though I try to minimize the stress in my life through daily rituals like meditation, mindfulness, keeping a gratitude journal and other similar stoic exercises to keep my life stress-free. There still exists that small amount of daily stress and anxiety which accumulated thorough a burn-out period such as the one I recently had, and taking a week or two to let go and be unproductive, or devote yourself to some new hobby which you might like can help destroy that little bit of residual stress in your life.

In my case, my week off consisted of long days of gaming, having good conversations with my band of brothers and working out, with a few nighttime trips to local bars with my tribe, good times spent drinking fine liqueurs and lighting up dark Cuban cigars helped me restore my energy and I got back into full warrior mode for my next burn-out period, ready to crush my goals.

Of course, none of the above should last for a very long period of time, since a long time of unproductive behavior can easily destroy and prior progress you have made in any area of your life. The time-off can only be enjoyed if it is earned, if you fought with all your strength and you’ve achieved great success in your battles, only then, like great Norse warrior of old, would you be permitted access to Valhalla, only then can you say that you earned your week off and the time of Bourbon and Camacho Robusto cigars.

So brothers, if you find yourself under great residual stress after a long and drown out battle that you had won, consider letting go for a week, and celebrate your victory like it deserves to be celebrated.

Or if you fought with all your strength and still suffered a defeated, do not lose your warrior spirit, take a week off as well and return to your purpose stronger and even more determained to win.