Elon Musk is facing the true cost of saying 'no'. It's a strangely brilliant lesson in avoiding burnout

In what's starting to look like a messy split, Twitter is suing Elon Musk for backing out of his $44 billion acquisition offer in an effort to force the deal to go through before. While Twitter tries to keep Musk honest, he already is. Because Musk is pulling out of the deal like he said he would, according to CBS News.

Despite what he has said publicly, Musk isn't walking away from Twitter just because of his millions of fake accounts or plummeting stocks. Most savvy business entrepreneurs would have suspected that the social network is crawling with spam accounts. And of course, publicly raising doubts about the company would undoubtedly lower its price per share.

One ​​of the reasons Musk wants out of the deal is to avoid burnout, something he is a master of. This is the scientific reason behind Musk's superhuman ability to work 120 hours a week. It is not about resisting fatigue or forcing concentration, but about investing our time in the things that invigorate us rather than exhaust us.

It was this very skill that, in part, led him to become the richest person in the world, and it is a common skill shared by some of the most successful people in the world . The secret behind it is simple, but often only seen in hindsight.

After all, burnout isn't necessarily a function of overwork, but of a lack of meaning or impact. In other words, you're not exhausted because you're doing too much, but because you're not doing enough of the things you love. The good news is that you can easily avoid burnout by recognizing three simple things.

1. If information is not static, neither are decisions

If preventing burnout means avoiding activities that don't recharge us, then it's important to stay on top of new information and insights that come along over time, and to keep analyzing and optimizing . Every decision we make is based on the information available to us at any given time, but over time we often gain insights and information that affect how we feel about our decisions - and whether they will leave us exhausted. or satisfied.

It could be as simple as planning a Caribbean vacation months in advance, only to find out a few days before your scheduled departure that there's an impending hurricane or an unheard-of cold front. It could also be a potential investor's dissipated excitement upon seeing their terms or terminating a contract with a supplier who fails to deliver on their promises.

2. Know the cost of your decisions

Every decision we make comes at the cost of something else.

For example, choosing to meet friends for drinks after work can come at the expense of that goal of getting more exercise, the rejuvenation that comes with a night out, or staying late at work to go forward. For Musk, choosing to buy Twitter isn't just a financial decision, but more importantly, it comes at the cost of his time, energy and focus. The energy consumed by the acquisition of a new business is energy taken away from his other businesses, other potential acquisitions and his personal life. Know the cost of your decisions and make decisions based on their value or not, because by saying "yes" to one thing, you are saying "no" to dozens of other things.

3. Make room for what matters

Time is limited, so don't spend it doing something you don't want. The reality is that just because you once loved the idea of ​​something doesn't always mean that over time you still love it.

We really don't need to feel committed to every engagement. We have enough things in our lives that we can't back down from - and letting go of plans, decisions or ideas that don't excite us gives us more spa...