From the Rat-race to Sustainable High Performance.

“In a world of rush sometimes the most courageous thing you can do is slow down.”

What if stopping was the best way to maintain meaningful momentum?
The pull of a busy life can be irresistible, addictive and very productive.
Your capacity to persevere, keep going and stay in the grind can take you a long way, you might pride yourself on always being busy and able to take on the load or you might feel as though there’s no other way, “this is is just the way I operate”. You might have a mantra that runs your life, “I’ll be right”, “I can handle it”, “I’ve got to keep going”, but there’s another voice, sometimes whispering, sometimes screaming “ENOUGH!!!”
This voice can be ignored -because “I’m just too busy”, dismissed as weakness, or heard and put off of until someday later. But deep down, if you’ve heard the voice, you know there’s something to it, you might not be able to see another way but you know you can’t keep going like this.
The thing is that voice could be the key to unlocking your greatness. Always doing more could be robbing you of being at your best, often what we need to go further, to be better, paradoxical as it can seem is to STOP.

The road to burnout often starts as high performance, but along the way performance starts to drop & other areas of life start to suffer, it can be hard to notice (or address) because your so busy,. Then you start to feel the wobbles, mild anxiety, not being able to sleep well or crashing out for long periods of time, knowing that you really need to rest but not knowing how.

There is a way out - The following steps (supported by research around burnout) are super simple but can compound to have a big impact.

Stop - set strong boundaries around work so that when your “shift” finishes you finish.
Stress - stressors are necessary elements of growth, but being chronically stressed can lead to burnout. Limiting stressful tasks and activities, working with stress skilfully & recovering from stressful events can allow you to engage with the challenges life throws at you without being overwhelmed.
Strengths - research shows that when you work with your strengths you’re less likely to experience burnout. Knowing what your strengths are and how you will use them, supported by proper recovery can lead to sustained high performance.
Support - one on things that can be really challenging for high achievers particular when you’re really busy or stressed can be reaching out for help. But the capacity to do so can be profoundly relieving. Sharing work loads, speaking to someone about what’s going on for you even seeking professional help via counsellor can allow you to lighten the load a little which can often give you the strength you need to step out of cycle that’s keeping you stuck.
Sleep - most of us know (at least cognitively) of the benefit of sleep but many of us a struggle. Forcing yourself to sleep is not a helpful strategy but having a plan to lead into and out of sleep is. What’s one thing you can do to prepare yourself and your environment to sleep more soundly? What’s one thing you can do if you wake up and have trouble going back to sleep? What’s one thing you can do in the morning to start your sleep cycle?