Sheep Get Sheared
How To Avoid Burnout Without Losing Your Momentum
I think we need to revisit a couple topics from before and mix in with a couple new topics for today. The reason I say that out of the gate is because I have any of you ever been burned out? You've never been burned out before, gone through grinding and grinding and then you're just not seeing the results you want to see and you keep pushing, you keep trying new things, you keep going up the bat, you keep swinging, you keep getting strikes, you keep striking out but you keep getting back up to the plate. Is that something familiar to anybody? Burnout affects us all from time to time, some of us more than others. That's why I think we need to talk about it today. The first time, I'll start with myself before I open up the floor for you to share your comments in the comments below but the biggest burnout I've ever experienced was when I was in the military and day in and day out, I go to what we call the weapon storage area, the WSA, we go in there every morning exactly about 6.30 to get in there by 7 and then we usually work till about 7 again. We usually work about 12 hour days, 10 to 12 hours was pretty standard for us. I'm not saying that to say boo hoo, I'm saying it because when you're doing something, especially something new or unfamiliar or something you're not really good at and you haven't found a way to enjoy or don't fully enjoy yet, it can be absolutely exhausting to the point where you push and you push and you push and then it's almost like your car breaks down when you don't take care of it, you start to break down. I've experienced that and frankly my friends, I like to mix it a little bit of vulnerability here and there so get ready for it. If you think this is weak, you're more than welcome to fast forward a little in the next minute and a half. But I've been experiencing some burnout myself, probably frankly and it's taking a toll on my physical health and despite the fact that I go to the gym every day, despite the fact that I try to eat as healthy as seemingly possible, in fact, I'm a kind of a nerd when it comes to nutrition, I experience it more often than I like to admit and so my friends, I want to open the floor up to you and I want you to tell me, how have you dealt with burnout? Maybe it wouldn't just help me in my house, someone else who listens to the show, they're dealing with burnout or they're dealing with just, they're not loving their life right now and they're kind of going through the motions and they're really actively making an effort. I'm not talking about the people who fake making an effort, those people, no, that's some fake garbage, you know, I'm talking about people who actually are trying and they're trying and they're trying and it's just not panning out the way they want and they're actively doing, they're trying to, they're trying new things, they're trying new avenues, they're trying everything they can and it's just not connecting up the way they envisioned time after time after time and this is what can lead to burnout and my friends, we need to discuss this because as men in this space, we like to talk about self-improvement, we like to talk about developing ourselves into the best we can become right, but here's a thing, we like to talk about the destinations that we're all shooting for, but we don't talk about the journey itself, one of my best friends, he gave me a quote a couple weeks ago that's just stuck right free in my head ever since he said it, he said that there was one of two ways that a great story always began according to, I think he said it was, it wasn't T.S. Eliot, who was it, I'll send it to me later, I'll come, oh Tolstoy, it was Tolstoy, there we go, it was Tolstoy who said that a great story begins one of two ways, one was a hero goes on a journey or two, a stranger comes to town, and ever since I heard that, I thought to myself, wait a minute, there's something to be extrapolated from this and then we talked yesterday, great show if you missed it, about honoring our ancestors about pushing past what is normal, pushing past our own ambition to harness the energy of past generations to say, you know what, my grandparents, parents, great grandparents, et cetera, they sacrificed so that I could be here, and I owe them a debt for pushing themselves for sacrificing and paying it forward, all of this to say we need to discuss burnout and how to avoid it, because on our path to become the best, on our path to get the girls we want, to own the car we want, to own the house we want, to live in the town we want, to have the lifestyle that we want to have, it's easy to just talk about the, oh this is what I want, and this time I'm going to get it, what about the day to day, the month to month, the year to year, where's that conversation, I don't hear that a whole lot, this is where burnout comes in, this is where people start to experience really tough adversity, and the more you try to climb the wall, you keep falling, you keep scraping, bumping, you know, whatever, it's so hard to just keep going, a man wants to find insanity as trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I would care to event to say that that is not insanity per se, because there's a fine line between insanity and perseverance. Now, if you're trying the same thing over and over again and you're not adjusting, you're not adapting, you are not saying, okay, this didn't work, let's try that, this didn't work, I'm going to tweak it a little bit and do this, that is what must be done, that's what I'm actively doing. Here's the problem though, day in and day out, we can only suffer so much rejection, only so much defeat before it gets start to get to us, it could start to make us think that we are the failures, we are the ones who are not enough, we are the ones, it's not necessarily what we are doing, but then it becomes us, not what we're doing, but us, we're not able to distinguish between, okay, this is the problem with my approach, with my pitch, with my way I am trying to do what I have set my mind to do. Problem is, if you'd experience consistent rejection, consistent pushback, consistent appointment, then you are going to unfortunately have to step back and say, okay, am I the issue or is it my approach, is it something I am doing or is it me, burnout can often lead us to not enjoy the things that we once enjoyed and it can lead us into almost a state of depression, anxiety, and it can lead us to not be able to be as prolific as we would like to be into our performance will suffer. My friends when I was a kid, my parents, God bless them, had a saying that became, I don't know, something that I unfortunately realized wasn't exclusive to them and it was this idea of do as I say, not do as I do. And I try actively not to do that on this show. I don't sit here and tell you the loyal audience, yes, you listening to the show, I don't tell you to do something I myself am not actively working towards doing, practicing or already doing. Reason being, there are so many hypocrites out there, so many people who talk for hours about things that they have tons of opinions about, but no experience, no theories, just hot air. And my friends, the reason I bring this up about burnout is because I've suffered it. I've actively gone through it and arguably I am right now. And the question is, how have you gotten through with this? How have you managed to stay on the path you've set for yourself without compromising your goals without giving up and without losing your vision? Because your vision is what is leading you down that path. It's easier to turn out the noise that it is to keep your vision focused. It's super hard to not get distracted. It's very difficult to not, to stay focused and not lose perspective. A lot of times we can be stuck with our, so far within our own heads that it's difficult for us to know what is up, what's down, what's left, what's right, what's foul, what's fair. And I'm here to tell you my friends, you need to remember who you are. That's one of my favorite seeds from any Disney movie ever. I'll tell you right now, one of my favorite seeds from any Disney movie of all time is from The Lion King, when Simba is getting, you know, the Yoda treatment from Rafiki, where he's asking him weird questions, giving him insightful answers and messing with him. And then he encounters his dead father, Mufasa in the clouds, and he's talking to him. And Mufasa says to him, "Remember who you are." And that's Czechs accord within me, because my father is a king, not because I'm some great man, it was William, it was William Shakespeare who said that there were several ways to encounter greatness, some achieved greatness, some are born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them. In that situation, in the example of The Lion King, Simba had glory, had greatness thrust upon him, but he also, he was born great. He was a man who had greatness both thrust upon him, had to achieve greatness. He had to go through all three, a lot of people, they try to get one. And the reason I bring this up is not for you to go watch the movie again. The reason I break it up is because we must remember who we are, who we want to become to keep us grounded, to keep us saying, "This is why I'm continuing to risk the rejection. This is why I'm continuing to put myself on the limb, to not give up, to persevere no matter how hard, how frigid, how humid, how barren the climate is, I will not give up, I will not give in, and I will achieve the goal that I have set for myself, and I shall claim my birthright, which is the riches, the lifestyle, and the people that I wish to have. Not going to be free. Never. You never want anything free. I hate the word free, and I'll tell you why, because it's disingenuous. If I dare say here and tell you, "Hey, listen to this show," and then as soon as you do it, you'll be, you know, this free show, and never have burned out again. If anybody's read the 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene says the following in Law 40, he says, "One must despise the free lunch, because it is either a trap or it is trashed. You're either picking up somebody else's trash or falling for somebody else's trap." And my friends, there are a lot of traps out here. A lot of unfortunate circumstances, individuals, events that we oftentimes don't have control over, but there is one thing we will always, keyword always have control over, and that is how we react to the situations that come our way. We always have control over how we react. May not seem like in that moment, you've got to pull yourself away from the emotion, away from the stress, and away from all the fog that has been seeping into the situation and into your mind, and that is how you avoid burnout. That is how you avoid adversity becoming something that destroys you. The flame of ambition burns bright in many of us, but it is important that flame of ambition is a signifier and not something that cinges us and burns us. Avoid burnout through taking care of yourself. Go to the gym. Very therapeutic for you to throw around some weights and take care of yourself. Two, if you are smoking or drinking too much, you got to knock that off. Stop it. Go 30 days with none, and if you can't do it, that means you're addicted and that means you got to do something about it. My friends, that's only two of the things that I have personally been doing to try to avoid and curtail this burnout that I am personally feeling over the last couple days. Things might work for you and it might not, but it is important for us as men, us as brothers, in mind and in thought and in spirit, for us to understand that we are not alone in this fight, and that we need to bring up these types of topics more often. Because then it helps us know that we're not alone and that there are different alternatives to what we are currently trying to overcome the adversity and not be singed by the flame of ambition. The flame of ambition is meant to guide us, not burn us. My friends, let me know in the comments below. Let me know how have you been burned out before and how have you gotten through it? How would you avoid burning yourself out if you've experienced it before and now you're actively trying to prevent yourself from being in that place? How have you done it? It might help me, it might help anybody, somebody else who listens to this show who wants to hear this, who needs to hear this, because they themselves are going through a hard time. My friends, you let me know below. Anything you want to talk about, your boy welcome to share it. This is your space. I don't delete comments. Even the ones I find very distasteful, I don't delete them. We are here to exchange notes, we are here to get to the finish line together to claim our birthright. My friends, you take care of yourselves, avoid the burnout, to get back on the front lines, fight your way to the freedom that you are trying to actively earn. Take care, I'm out of here. Peace.