8urnout to 8usiness

"It should be different" is a killer sentence. It's so easy to believe, but it's a lie and it's simply the definition of suffering.

It was a late night in August, the fireflies were out and I was on the phone to one of my best friends, while walking my dog Nook (in hindsight I figure he must've been really upset to experience me in this state for to long. Yet another situation I thought should have been different.)

I was a mess. My friend was patiently talking me through my situation, giving gentle, helpful advice. I didn't realize at the time that it was all part of it, this was what I was supposed to be experiencing. I thought it would never end.

What happened next is just that: A memory, and it sounds ridiculous - it kind of was. The fabric of the night sky bulged out into a face, I felt a shock running through my body and the message was clear: "Life wants to live. If nature can conjure and survive ice ages, meteors and supernovae, you can conjure and survive a burnout. You want to be alive. Get up."

In that same moment I saw the pea I had planted months ago, then put on the porch outside in the hopes that it would thrive in the sunlight and wind. It had died the same day. I'd come back weeks later to remove it, only to realize that the same seed had sprouted again - a stronger, much more durable plant had emerged.

I'm telling you, life wants to live. No matter where you look.

I know something now that would've been impossible for me to believe then: I had to go through all of that to create and master the mind management tools I have available now, that allow me to help the person I was in that state, by tying down the open ends of my burnout story now. I bent time that way, in a fictional sense of course (we're all delusional when it comes to time, we believe we have none of it, or that others own ours, as if we owned any - so why not go full throttle), and helped the person I was then by helping myself now. I completed the story arch deliberately and mindfully.

By deciding the story I want to tell now. And the one thing that helped more than anything was taking full responsibility for the experience and giving none of the power away to any of my circumstances. Claiming it all.

It's only once you decide to no longer be a victim that things for you can start to change.

Want to know more? I help companies retain their employees of all levels by teaching them to manage their minds and their time - your company's two most valuable assets - so your business can replace pressure with precision. Get in touch via linkedin or drop an email at [email protected] to see how we can work together.