Monthly Archives

July 2021

Blog

What if you could design the life you want?

We’re hearing a great deal about The Great Resignation which might just be a media invention but may also be starting to niggle at the back of your brain. What if…?

Equally, with time to think during lockdown, there are lots of us who started to become aware of things we hadn’t noticed before and started to wonder…what if? What would the life you really want look like?

What are the questions you’re avoiding asking yourself about your life, what are the possibilities you hardly dare imagine? Life is not a linear process – it doesn’t have to carry on in the same direction forever.

Faced with possible change, people tend to respond in one of three ways:

  • Ignore it. Lie down with a cold towel over your head and hope that it goes away
  • Get stuck. You know you want your life to be different, but the prospect of change is too unnerving and you’re not sure where to start
  • Panic. Rush around trying one thing after another in an effort to find something different.

For most of us, it’s unrealistic to think of starting from scratch and completely reinventing ourselves. The self-help gurus make too much of the concept of transformation and not the practical steps. Very few people can make radical, life changes to their lives and often that’s not what’s actually required.

And yet, and yet…. On our retreats, our clients make big decisions about their lives, like complete career changes. We support them in planning the execution of change by helping them build on all they have achieved to date and finding a tipping point to their future success. Some clients make smaller changes, that equally, positively enable them to live the rewarding, fulfilling lives they’re looking for.

The first step is to get you to take a step back and take some time to really look at your life, past and present, what you want to change and what you want to hang on to. If any of this resonates with you get in touch.

Blog

Burnout

I’ve just returned from a week’s retreat on the island of Iona, staying in the Abbey and living in community with other guests. There was a spiritual component to it, and I spent a lot of time looking out to sea, just being quiet. I felt I gained perspective on our business and the progress we have made, but the other thing I felt the need to make sense of was the effect that the pandemic and lockdown have had on me.  

I realised that when the pandemic struck, I went into something of a panic, especially about our business. Being in the business of running executive retreats we are primarily a face-to-face business and there was little face-to-face last year. The rush for many businesses was to pivot (how often did we hear that word?) online, which we tried, but had we stood back, probably common sense would have told us that it wouldn’t work, which is where we got to at the beginning of 2021 when we decided to sit tight and wait for restrictions to ease and face to face to commence once again.  

What I realised last week was that I hadn’t stopped panicking deep down and it had taken its toll. I was mentally exhausted and feeling waves of depression. I know I am not alone. It’s not as though we can see a way out of the difficulties and uncertainties of the pandemic. We thought vaccinations would liberate us and then along came another variant. Each stage brings with it another set of regulations to get used to, school children in bubbles, whether to get the staff back to the office or not.  

What we’re all recognising now is that this is burnout caused by endless uncertainty, pressure and lack of control. One of the feelings I had last week was that I didn’t have the right to have burnout: we were safe and healthy, we had food on the table, could talk to family and friends and had each other as companions. Many business owners report that their businesses are doing well, certainly better than expected and staff have stayed engaged.  

It’s hard to admit to burnout perhaps because there seem to be so many other people who are worse off, we think it’s not a real illness and probably possible to tough it out if ignored. But left untreated, burnout can cause people to become depressed, anxious, and distracted, which can impact not only our work relationships, but our personal interactions.  

What might your burnout be doing to your business, your family, or your friends? Wouldn’t it be great if you could find something that would help you over this and let you enjoy your life again?  

The good news is that once identified, burnout can be reversed through taking some time to work on yourself. Take a moment to regain some perspective, learning to say ‘no’ in a constructive way, taking breaks and managing expectations are all ways you can help yourself. Finding your own purpose and understanding your values are also core ways to gaining that perspective and focus.   

If you’d like the chance to renew and regenerate as I did on my retreat, we’d like to invite you to our next retreat from 13th – 15th September. If you’re not sure how they work, let’s have a chat.

Our next 5-day retreat starts on 13th September 2021 – click here to join.
 
Get a sense of your perspective, check out our ‘being your best’ scorecard – click here
Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Spotify
Consent to display content from - Spotify
Sound Cloud
Consent to display content from - Sound