I Want Success—But I Also Need a Nap

💌 Written by Chloe

Hey girlfriend, nice to meet you. I’m Chloe, and the term workaholic doesn’t even begin to describe me. 

Throughout my life, I’ve always strived for the top—top schools, top of my class, top of the cheerleading team, and now top manager at the law firm I work for.

This overachiever mentality has brought me success and achievements that satisfied me for a long time, but here’s the catch—I’m exhausted. 

My entire life feels like a never-ending to-do list. Between endless documents, legal research, networking events, and even a side hustle as an e-book writer, I feel like a machine stuck in a simulation.

On my way home from yet another networking event (at this rate, I’m convinced the entire New York social scene already knows each other), I found myself completely drained. I stumbled into my local newsstand, Girlfriend Gazette, and collapsed onto a bench. I was too exhausted to walk home—which, by the way, was only five minutes away. That’s when they staged an intervention.

I’m usually the mom of the group because of my discipline, but that night, the tables turned. They handed me a zine from the Gazette titled "Slow Down, Babe", and honestly, it was exactly what I needed.

The pages talked about the importance of taking breaks—how rest isn’t the enemy of productivity but a part of it.

At first, it felt ironic. Hustling has always been my default setting. But then it clicked: You can’t perform at your best when you don’t feel your best. And right then, all I wanted was a nap and the permission to just… stare into space.

When the weekend rolled around, instead of answering emails, I had a picnic at Central Park and did nothing but watch the clouds shift. 

And for the first time in years, I felt like I could finally breathe—without a deadline looming over me.

If you’re still reading this and ever feel bad for not being a Type A overachiever, just know—as someone who embodies that archetype, it’s not all gold and glamorous. 

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but I’m slowly finding a balance between doing and being. At the end of the day, you’re a human, not a machine.