Listen to me read this email and explain the graph in a little more detail. Do you ever experience seasons where everything is fine until it isn’t? To be clear, “fine” could range from being a functional adult, to being super productive, or just when things aren’t bad. The problem with the word “fine” is that it’s one of those automatic relative terms we throw around as a filler with no context. “hey, how are ya?” > “I’m fine, how are you?” “you ok?” > “ya I’m fine.” “how does this look?” > “fine.” A very useful word to avoid elaboration and be polite. But sometimes we need to elaborate - like for why burnout cycles occur. *clears throat for natural transition into value portion of content* Our bodies have three different modes: 📈 Go mode 📉 Recovery mode 🏥 and freeze mode. Each mode is what it sounds like. In “go mode” your body and brain is zoomin’ at nearly 100 mph. Just constantly bookin’ it. No time to even flip a signal and more likely to use a horn. This speed is sometimes necessary but the longer and more frequently we put the pedal to the metal, the more likely we’ll crash n sizzle🔥 In “recovery mode” we’ll say this is like doing 25 mph in those neighborhoods with the faded plastic neon kid sporting the red hat and matching flag labeled, “SLOW.” 🚩 This is the speed where we can observe and absorb our surroundings: like fake goat statues, clever "pick up after your pet" signs, and stealth speed bumps that can blowout a bumper. It’s easy strolling, where time isn’t at the forefront of our brain lobes 😌 And then “freeze mode” are the people you see on the side of the road with their hazards on and the hood of their car up. Hopefully this is short lived, but the next couple of days or more aren’t lookin good - could be potentially be catastrophic. We’ll just call this burnout💀 When we use the word “fine” we could be referring to any of these modes… which means we aren’t acknowledging what state our body and mind are operating in, in moment - even if there’s warning signs blaring at us on the dashboard. We’re just kinda “in it” until our smoking car is getting towed off the road and we’re thinking, “damn… how did this happen?” A recipe for putting AAA insurance on speed dial. Burnout occurs from choosing to ignore our problems and the consequences of doing 100mph with little to no recovery - but sometimes we don’t even know we’re making this choice because we don’t even see the problem to begin with. Below is a very subjective graph I made up to use as an awareness tool. Copy this into your journal and plot where you generally think you’ve been operating in each month over the last year to give you some context on how you’ve been operating. If you did this quickly and honestly you can probably predict when a freeze mode is around the corner, if you can afford to crank things up a notch, or if you desperately need to start working on building in more recovery modes into your life. I recognize that this isn’t going to cover all of the intricacies and variables that lead up to burnout, but having a little extra awareness to your state of being and the things you can control can potentially go a long way. I won’t get into how to get into recovery mode in this email but here’s some journaling prompts to get you started: What activities actually refill my energy? How can I make that happen more often? What is one small change I can make this week to move from “go mode” into “recovery mode”? ✌🏾TTYL!✌🏾 Simie P.S. For my metric users out there: Want more happiness in your life? Maybe more journaling pizzaz? Professional guidance from yours truly? Perf! Check these out 👇🏾 🧡 Get your sh*t together on all fronts in just 6 weeks 🪩 Elevate your journaling game with this |
stuffthatsticks.co