Do you know you're about to hit a wall and burn out in your business?
There are two things you don't want to do. First, don't wait until it's too late, because burnout causes catastrophic effects. Second, don't rely on TV or drinking to escape.
In this episode, Chris explains why you don't need an escape plan, you need a change in stimulus.
He shares ideas for habits and hobbies you can adopt every week or every day to prevent burnout in every area of your life.
Tune in and get ready to change how you think about recharging your mind and body.
Your brain and your body, they're amazing, miraculous organisms that thrive and that recharge on a change of stimulus.
In this Episode:
- How burning out affects your business
- Will your "escape plan" make you less productive?
- Why you need a change in stimulus
- Daily and weekly habits you can adopt to change your stimulus and avoid burnout
- Why you can't take recharging to the extreme
Find out exactly what aspect of your company is the current weak link that, if fixed, will help you scale faster and more successfully.
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Transcript:
Burnout is so common in entrepreneurs, and I think it's probably been that way since the dawn of time. But today it seems like entrepreneurs don't even feel the effects of burnout, these crippling effects in their lives and in their businesses until it's too late and it becomes a virus and it spreads throughout everybody in their organization. And it just destroys so many businesses.
I'm not talking about just startup businesses, I'm talking about businesses that have been in existence for a long time. This is about generational businesses. Multimillion-dollar, even billion-dollar companies where the key people start to burn out and it spreads and it affects the organization from them all the way down. Now, I'm on my way back right now from a meeting with a key team member in Manhattan and I know he's on the verge of burnout.
We spent a lot of time in our meeting today discussing how to prevent this and how to recharge. He kept coming back and explaining to me what he's doing. It's so wrong and it's like what most entrepreneurs do that end up destroying them.
Your Brain Needs to Rest
I want to talk about it and sort of touch on this today. Because I think it's so important for you and for everybody else who is driving in business. Most entrepreneurs that I talk to, whether they're in my organization or they are in one of the companies that I advise, they believe that when times get tough or when they go through growth spurts or even just periodically they need a vacation. That may be true, but the definition of a vacation for most people is an escape.
Which might mean binge-watching Game of Thrones or something like for a weekend. Or it might mean just going out in your backyard and drinking beers with your buddies for a weekend. I promise you, every single high-growth person that I've ever spoken to who has done that has come back less productive on Monday. It is never helpful to do that. Never. I mean, your brain needs to rest. Your brain needs to recharge and that's what happens during sleep.
But a vacation for an entrepreneur absolutely should be something that is a change of stimulus. Your brain and your body, they're amazing, miraculous organisms that thrive and that recharge on a change of stimulus. If your day is basically built around sitting in front of the computer or having team meetings, then the change of stimulus that you need is something that is completely different than that.
Preventing Burnout With a Change of Stimulus
You go out into the sunlight and you spend time in the sunlight. Go onto the beach, you let your toes hit the hot sand. You go into the ocean, you go skiing. You go mountain climbing, you do something that is a change of stimulus for you. That could mean just going and hiking. It could mean going on a long walk. Being able to have breaks in your day where you're going for a long walk outdoors, if your job is an indoor sit in front of the computer, kind of job is huge. Taking a weekend and going out with loved ones. Telling stories and laughing and getting outside and doing stuff is huge. All of these things help us to recharge our brain in our body because they are a change of stimulus. There is never a time that you need to escape reality in business.
You need to recharge, and to recharge, you need to change a stimulus. The entrepreneurs that take this to heart actually have hobbies. One of my good, good friends loves to go hunting. He goes hunting on the weekend, keeps his mind completely off of business, comes back, completely recharged. Another one loves dirtbag, dirt bike riding. He goes out there, he does that with his family and he comes back completely recharged.
You Don't Need a Hobby to Prevent Burnout
It doesn't mean that you need a hobby. It means that you just need to know what you can do to change the stimulus and do it on a regular basis every single week. Or maybe you do something every single day. Take a walk during lunch every single day that will keep your brain and your body recharged and keep you productive. It's very rare that we need escapes.
The only time I will say that this doesn't work is when somebody takes it to an extreme. We had an employee who was a salesperson years ago. We had this discussion with him and I went through all these different examples of things that I do to stay recharged. He brought it to the extreme and took a skydiving course. It frazzled him so amazingly and he came back at a state where he needed another vacation.
He needed to get away a little bit more. He actually needed to sleep in order to recharge his nerves. So don't take it to an extreme. But we definitely need to stretch our stimulus in order to recharge as entrepreneurs and to keep growing our companies.
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