Do you struggle to balance the work you need with the life you lead? Would you like to discover how to manage stress by making time for serenity? The author of Burn Brightly Without Burning Out, a Thomas Nelson book and Successories booklet, Dick burned out so badly he quit a 13-year sales career in 1982. Over the years, Dick has become more intentional about work/life balance and he’s eager to convey his experience and insights.

Burn Brightly Without Burning Out is a popular Successories booklet and Thomas Nelson Publishers book by Dick Biggs. It’s his perspective on balancing the work we need with the lives we lead. Here is an excerpt from the hardbound book version…Chapter 12 entitled Burnout Vs. Enthusiasm:

Burnout is the extinguishing of your spiritual, mental, physical, or emotional enthusiasm. It happens when a single dominant interest becomes your life. For example, a workaholic is often worn out by excessive enthusiasm. Or burnout happens when you make too many commitments among your dominant interests and your circuits become overloaded.

Enthusiasm is derived from the Greek word enthousiasmos, which means “to be filled with spirit.” A spirited person wakes up each day and says, “Good morning, God.” A burned out person moans, “Good God, morning,” The challenge is to be balanced enough to maintain your enthusiasm without burning out.

Jim Fixx struggled with this delicate balancing act for many years. In his mid-thirties Fixx was obese. He was a heavy smoker. He had poor eating habits. He had a cholesterol count of 250. He never exercised. And he was a burned out man.

One day while playing tennis, Fixx strained his right calf and took up running to strengthen his legs. He quit smoking. He changed his eating habits and lost weight. He worked his way up to running seventy miles per week. He went from burnout to burning very brightly.

In 1977 Fixx wrote The Complete Book Of Running followed by The Second Book Of Running a year later. These best-sellers, coupled with Frank Shorter’s Olympic marathon victory in 1972 and the publication of Aerobics by Dr. Ken Cooper in 1968, paved the way for the fitness boom of America. If the Fixx name is starting to jog your memory (groan), you may remember that, at age fifty-two, he dropped dead of a heart attack while running. How could such a fit man be so unhealthy?

Dr. Cooper addressed that question when he wrote Running Without Fear. The autopsy of Fixx revealed the heart of an unhealthy man. He had severe blockage of his coronary arteries, scar tissue indicating at least three minor heart attacks before the one that killed him, and an unusually enlarged heart. He also had the number one risk factor of heart disease—family history and heredity. His father suffered two heart attacks, and the second was fatal when he was forty-three.

In addition, Fixx was under a lot of stress. He has been divorced twice, changed jobs a lot, and suffered a $50,000 investment loss. He disliked travel, interviews and pubic speaking, but was forced into these activities due to the popularity of his books. Ironically, Fixx was at the famed Cooper Clinic in Dallas six months prior to his death and declined a stress test that could have saved his life. Dr. Cooper agreed with the Vermont medical examiner that “running did not cause (his) death…severe and silent coronary arteriosclerosis did.”

While it’s true that physical fitness can do wonders for your energy, productivity, and longevity, it’s just one of the components of a healthy lifestyle. Like anything else in life, too much of a good thing can sabotage the precarious balance between burnout and enthusiasm. Dr. Cooper warns, “People at all levels of fitness may have a tendency to overdo it. Given his underlying coronary problems, Jim Fixx overdid it.”

You can’t do your best if you don’t feel your best. That’s why overall good health is so critical to your peak performance. To lessen your risk of burnout, optimize your enthusiasm, and increase your chances for a healthier life, practice these Eight Elite Enhancers Of Longer Life:

• Get the proper amount of sleep and relaxation.
• Have regular, complete, preventive medical and dental examinations.
• Eat a balanced, sensible diet, and maintain the proper weight.
• Exercise aerobically, reasonably and consistently.
• Avoid all tobacco products.
• Avoid drugs, and use alcohol in moderation, if at all.
• Use home smoke detectors, and wear vehicle seat belts.
• Laugh often, particularly at yourself.

Several scientific studies have shown that people of faith are less stressed and happier. In fact, Dr. Cooper addressed this subject in Faith-Based Fitness: “If you expect your beliefs to have a major impact in motivating you to get fit and stay fit, your deepest personal convictions must be solid and relatively unshakable.” He also recommends asking this question: “Do I believe my body is good and worthy of being treated as a creation of God?”

How is your enthusiasm for life? Do you need a boost spiritually, mentally, physically, or emotionally? Which of these life-prolonging habits do you need to embrace? When do you plan to take action? How will you make it happen? Remember, Jim Fixx was physically fit, but he wasn’t healthy, and death came earlier than expected.

Choose good health and live a longer, happier, and more energetic life. Don’t let an unhealthy lifestyle rob you of your precious time on this earth. Why die before your time? Why not burn as brightly as you can for as long as you can?