Hopefully, you’ve had a holiday or at least a break which has left you feeling more restored. The kids are back at school and the old routine is kicking in. Or is it, as you vowed you weren’t going back to your old (unhealthy) habits? You might have been feeling a bit burnt out before the holiday but are feeling much better now. Over the break, you’ve had a chance to think about the months ahead with mixed feelings.
There are lots of opportunities, the business is looking good and you could find yourself being busy. With an eye to all of that, you’ve spent some time planning a fitness regime, getting more wearable tech and reading up about some productivity hacks. Getting up at 4am, leaving your emails until 5pm, swallowing frogs, here we come! But wait… isn’t that just getting on to a productivity treadmill, to make you fitter for the other work treadmill – to achieve what? What are you really trying to accomplish? Isn’t that going to get you back into burnout?
One of the things I realised after I had had my retreat week away on a Scottish island which got me over my burnout, is that I had to do things differently. One of them was lowering my expectations of myself, not trying to live up to other people’s expectations, for example, building a million-dollar business! The problem with all the health and productivity hacks is that they look like shortcuts and could be silver bullets that have worked for other people. Even something valuable like mindfulness (which I’m not good at) can be a sticking plaster. With all of this, we’re merely snatching time for ourselves.
What does your work require and what conditions enable you to be at your best? I would put money on it needing creativity, especially in these uncertain times, leadership as other people look to you for direction, and at the very least, your good mental health. For all of that, you’ve got to
- give yourself time
- allow yourself to step back
- have time to think, go inside yourself to draw on your intuition
- find confidence that actually you do know the answers
- that you can draw on all your valuable experience and knowledge.
You don’t have to get back on the treadmill.
You might also be interested to read an article one participant published for us: Click Here
Our next 5 day retreat starts on 31st October 2021 – click here to join. By booking a place you will start to feel better, have something to look forward to and a sense of taking control of your next chapter.
