Burnout
I speak to A LOT of people. Over the last almost 20 years of training people I've spoken to an insane amount of clients, I've trained an incredible array of personalities, and people from all walks of life with all sorts of responsibilities.
We're all spinning multiple plates at once trying to keep them all aloft. Some more than others. Some by choice and some by consequence. When we choose to spin too many plates ultimately one will fall.
For most people the plates that fall first are often to do with our health.
We've all seen the above quote before on social media no doubt. It gets thrown around so much its lost its potency I reckon. But if you've ever burned out from over working and ruined your health like I have trust me, this quote rings home so hard.
In 2010 - 2014 I used to work from 6am to 7pm Monday to Friday and a half day Saturday. I used to have to go to bed at 930pm in order to be rested by 5am for my first one on one session at 6am. I had 2 apprentices doing 30 x 1 hour sessions per week. I pulled 35 - 45 one on one sessions a week too. The $$$ made the tiredness and crankiness worth it didn't it?
Nope.
And then I experienced burnout.
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No amount of money is worth burn out. And when you burn out it breaks you physically and emotionally. It's horrid.
Ive seen single mums burn out, builders, hospitality staff, corporate people often burn out catastrophically because of the culture of wearing your tiredness on your sleeve like a badge of honour. I remember when I trained one of Julia Gillards PA's ( she had 3 ) she quit and slept for 5 months. No lie. It took her 5 months to recover from the flogging of that job. She'd sleep, get up, eat, then go back to bed. After 3 months she would make it to the couch after bed. Slowly but surely she picked herself back up and re gained her health.
The second in command at Westpac did it and after a years sabbatical came back and said I don't want this job or any job like it. Bye bye.
It's brutal.
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Having experienced burnout and the subsequent illness that came with it, how do I prevent falling back in to that trap? Obviously all of the above but also
SUNDAY night planning!
On a Sunday I do the schedule, I do a big shop in the afternoon so there is plenty of good food in the house, I know exactly on what day and time I am going to train that week, I block out times to do certain tasks and treat them all equally. I then look at my week and determine if its manageable. Every day on a spread sheet planned out staring back at me. If its looking overwhelming I choose what has to go.
I may be biased but the non negotiables are sleep, food, and training.
How you gonna drive your car from here to Alice Springs with no fuel and flat tyres? Sounds unnecessarily hard.
Looking at that schedule on a Sunday night means I get a good nights sleep on a Sunday cause I know I'm not over committing myself.
We don't all have the same amount of flexibility to change our work schedules, start and end times, who we work with and when, but if you do, I'd suggest you start looking for ways to free up some time for yourself if you feel you're getting a bit in over your head.
And as always ask me for different ways to go about things if you need to as well. My personal training isn't all hip hop, split squats and calories.
I am watching.
