Being Dormant: Taking eyes off the ball

Sometimes one does not need to try to do anything, they just need to switch off completely.

The past few days have been terrible. I have been feeling like a zombie, on autopilot. I think this is what burnout feels like - this is it.

Before this week, I had never really thought that I would be burnt-out. I mean, I am used to those days of poor productivity and bad articles - which I overcame by persistence and maybe publishing something from my collection of unpublished material. That I am used to.

What I am recovering from is something worse, I had never imagined that I would feel so disoriented. I couldn't focus, so much so that I couldn't even work on completed articles or publish recorded podcasts. Yes, it was that bad. So, instead of trying to work on anything, or read anything, I threw away my laptop and decided to be a loafer for a few days.

I went back to my garden - well, it's not really a garden, just a small patch where I grow a few things, herbs and veggies. I went back to my garden and took out the least winter resistant plants and planted a few kale seedlings. No, I was not trying to find myself nor was I hoping to stumble on a moment of inspiration, I was just carrying on with life. Taking a break.

You see, I decided that I will not be languishing, I will not try to be creative by all means. No. I will not force myself to write, no research. Nothing. I will not try to flourish.

Instead, I will be dormant. Dormant like a plant that is waiting for better weather conditions to flourish.

Okay, I know this is a sports blog, cricket, and not a 'Dear Diary' sort of thing, so I have to make this lead to cricket somehow.

The problem with most players dealing with bad patches, slumps, is that they languish when they lose form. They go out and try to regain form with one big score, a 50 or a ton. They believe in the saying that a player is always one good knock away from regaining form. So, instead of choosing to be dormant, they keep trying to flourish.

This might be because they are afraid that if they do choose to be dormant they might lose their places in the squad. Someone else will come and take their place, so they do all they can to keep that space occupied. That is the only way to signal to others that you are still there.

I used to have this fear. The fear that if I do not try hard enough, people will forget about me and when I try to come back I will have to start from scratch again. That is the fear of every ‘small’ freelancer out there. There are so many writers vying for the attention of the readers that someone is waiting to take your spot the moment you take a short break. Anyway, readers will not take you seriously if you are going to take these breaks. You have to build a strong brand before you can think of taking breaks. Quantity over quality.

And the coaches do not help much. They are also happy to give that player as many chances as possible to regain form, and while this works for some, it does not work for everyone. I get the feeling that if a player chooses to be dormant, they will be seen as uncaring or not fighting to keep their place in the squad. We forget that sometimes not taking any form of action for a while might be the best course of action. So the best a player can do is to take a rest over one or two series/tours, and the series/tours have to be very low on the radar of importance too. When teams are comfortable with playing around with combinations.

The problem with this though, is that a loss of form is not a loss a player's abilities to play. Me being burnt out does not mean that I can longer write properly. It just means I need time to recharge, the skill is still there. Same thing with cricketers, a loss of form is psychological, they still have the skill. Most times all they need is some time away recharging and resetting. And a lot of times a short rest is not enough.

Every now and then, a player just needs the reassurance that they can take their eyes off the ball for a bit, and they will be okay.