Burnout

Michael Touchton
Jul 29, 2017 · 2 min read
photo source

Fires should burn only where they should burn and not where they shouldn’t.

A fire is good in a fire place. A fire is bad in a house.

A fire is good trapped within the appropriate place of a car’s engine. A fire is bad in the front seat of a car.

Burnout happens when fire, something that is often necessary for moving forward, spreads to places that it shouldn’t.

As everything starts burning, the smoke can mess with our mind and make us think that the big fire is just the price we pay for moving faster.

We are moving fast… toward burnout.

Very soon the fire overtakes everything and then, ironically, burns out.

At this point, there’s no more fooling ourselves. The car won’t move and the house has no walls.

The small fire in the engine makes the car go, but if the small fire becomes a big fire and takes over the whole car, the car will eventually stop moving and the fire will be totally extinguished.

Protect yourself from burnout by protecting the fire. Keep the fire burning in one spot and don’t let it take over all of the other parts of your life.

There’s a lot more to a car than the little area where the fire burns. There’s a lot more to a house than the fire place.

When we get obsessed with fire, and motivated solely by forward motion, the fire easily spreads.

When the fire gets out, it quickly gets out of control.

By the time it’s out of control, we’re quickly headed toward having no fire at all.


Hi, I’m Michael and this is my daily project where I write about diverse ideas.

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A Daily Dose

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Michael Touchton

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From a crowded island in the middle of a river, I write about life, faith, and anything else. Follow along: https://medium.com/a-daily-dose

A Daily Dose

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