Beach vacations are fantastic. With my first post...

Beach vacations are fantastic. With my first post in 2025 and the most extended break I've taken between posts in a few years, it's clear in hindsight that I was very close to burning out just before this Hawaii trip. " "" "It's hard to see it while it's happening. I was just trying to keep up with work, my side business, and a variety of health issues for both my wife and me, all while maintaining my 100+-year-old home, with asshole neighbors making it as hard as possible to do so. " "" "After a week in the sun (well, mostly sunny: we had some torrential rain near the end of our trip), it dawned on me just how over-stressed I was and how that had impacted everything. I was not showing up to work with the energy I typically do and wasn't making the progress I wanted on my side projects. This lack of productivity frustrated me, creating even more stress on an already overloaded system. " "" "While I've talked about it before, it bears repeating: the snowball effect is very real. Whether it's positive or negative, things snowball very quickly if you're not paying attention. " "" "As I return from my vacation, I'm both very excited to get back to improving LinkedIn's app speed and building an amazing Search experience for all LinkedIn members, and more aware of signs I'm getting closer to burnout that I need to pay more attention to. My focus is entirely on restarting my snowball, just down the positive hill 🎉

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Original post on LinkedIn