In this episode, Baylor discusses the feeling of exhaustion that can come from pursuing goals and offers practical advice on how to minimize it. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the ebbs and flows of life, scheduling time for deescalation, and building in active recovery periods. Baylor also emphasizes the importance of keeping everything in perspective and keeping our goals in mind to stay motivated and focused. He encourages listeners to prioritize their energy, build in active recoveries, and keep their goals in mind to find the inspiration to push through even when feeling tired or uninspired.
Understanding the ebbs and flows of life [00:01:27] The importance of understanding the ebbs and flows of life, and how it’s not feasible to always be on the go. He gives examples of how musicians and big companies use this strategy to avoid burnout.
Consciously deescalating to avoid burnout [00:02:50] The importance of scheduling time to deescalate and avoid burnout. He compares it to Nascar, where drivers conserve energy and make pit stops to refresh themselves.
Active recovery and slowing down [00:04:14] The importance of active recovery and slowing down in training for ultra marathons. He applies this concept to life, saying that sometimes the best way to progress is to slow down and build a base.
Building Active Recoveries [00:05:44] Importance of prioritizing active recoveries to move forward and keep perspective.
Keeping Goals in Mind [00:06:26] Importance of reminding oneself of the reason for hard work to stay motivated and find fuel.
Finding Inspiration [00:06:57] Importance of remembering the purpose of hard work to avoid feeling uninspired and keep going.
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TRANSCRIPTION
(00:00:00) – You are now listening to Shark Theory. I’m your host, Baylor Barbee.
(00:00:08) – Hey, some, everybody. Hope you’ve been working hard. I’ve been working hard. Have you ever hit a point though where you just feel utterly exhausted? I’m not talking about tired, I’m not talking about sleepy, but it’s like your bones hurt from the mental energy that you’ve put into where you’re going. If that’s you, today’s is is for you. And, and if it’s not you today, a congratulations, but might as well bookmark the podcast. It’s gonna happen at a certain point. You know, there are times when we, we try to do all the right things. We try to get our rest, we try to, uh, you know, eat right, but we’re just exhausted. A lot’s going on at work. It’s the end of the quarter. You have family issues, you have societal issues, you’ve got a lot of things working against you, and you just get burnt out.
(00:00:49) – I, I, those are, it’s one of those situations that’s gonna happen. But we can minimize those times. We can minimize our level of exhaustion, or at least prolong that level of exhaustion. This isn’t a podcast where I just sit and say, oh, if you just keep a positive mindset, then you won’t get exhausted. If you love your work, you won’t get exhausted. No, that’s not the truth. In fact, a lot of times if you are exhausted, it’s because you do love your work and because you don’t want to rest, you want to keep helping. You want to keep, uh, putting your skill, your art into the world. So I get it. But here’s the thing. We can’t escalate always. Now, we talk about escalate, and I say, you, you can’t always go up. Well, I’m not referring to, you can’t grow. I’m not saying that you can’t continue to progress.
(00:01:27) – What I’m saying is, you know, you, you feel like you have to be on all the time. That’s not a, that’s not a, a worthwhile or, or a feasible, sustainable way of going through life. So you have to understand the ebbs and flows of life. There are times you have to escalate, and there are times you have to consciously deescalate. If you look at a lot of, of, of musicians, you know, they come out, they announce a new single, then they announce the tour, then they put the new album out, then they tour and they’re on top of the world for a st, you know, amount of time. And then it seems like they just disappear. Why do they disappear? Is it that they really disappear? No, it’s just that the, the strategy of music knows that if you’re just always in front of people all the time, eventually people get fatigued and tired of hearing you.
(00:02:11) – And, and the same thing’s true with a lot of big companies. If you get around brands that have a lot of brand strategy built into the social media, they do a really good job of having escalating posts say, Hey, we’re working. Uh, you know, they, you know, that Mother’s Day is this weekend, so they’re gonna kind of start being in your face a little bit more. You’re gonna kind of see ’em a little bit more because they’re building up to some big Mother’s Day sale and then it kind of deescalates for a little bit before the next, you know, push to, to, you know, Memorial Day or whatever’s coming out. But companies know that if they’re just barraging you in the face, day in and day out, eventually you’re gonna unsubscribe. Eventually you think, oh, there’ll always be another deal. Cause they’re always there. So what I’m saying is you have to understand that in the pursuit of what you want.
(00:02:50) – You can’t always just have the pedal to the metal. You have to have time to say, Hey, this is a time when I can, uh, I, I, I can pull back a little bit. And again, the same thing is true in nascar. It’s not a just pedal to the metal all the time. You gotta know when you gotta conserve energy. So build those kind of, uh, uh, energy traps or, or energy trap avoidance into your day and say, look, this is when I need to go hard, but I have to schedule time in. I have to schedule some deescalating time, time when I’m not at every party. I’m not at every event, I’m not at every social networking, uh, uh, thing. I’m not at every speech. I’m not at every corporate function time when you say, look, I’m, I’m on the deescalation. I’m, I’m, I’m going into the pit stop so that I can refresh myself, right?
(00:03:33) – And, and if you don’t, the, you run the races getting left on the track. Like you think about what happens to nascar for some reason, uh, they ran outta gas on the track, they’d be stuck in a track, and then you’re in a really bad position. So many of us put ourselves in really bad position cause we’re going hard. We make promises. We’re we’re, we’re trying to deliver on everything. We run outta gas and we’re literally in the proverbial middle of the road, uh, with clients, with customers, with our employees, with our families, with our friends. And it looks like we’re just sitting there stuck. And it’s because we went so hard for so long and we didn’t build those in. So quit thinking that, escalating that that progress always means you’re having a partner. Sometimes the best way to progress is to cost a little bit to pull back, give yourself time to, you know, not red line, right?
(00:04:14) – And, and, and I talked about this, uh, a couple days ago, but you know, I was talking about that active recovery, and I kind of wanna revisit that. You know, active recovery, like when you train for ultra marathons, you know, every four weeks, sometimes eight weeks, depending on the plan or the distance of the race you train for. You have like active recovery week, which is a lot of stretching, a lot of yoga, a lot of walking to kind of stretch out because you know that, look, we’ve been going hard. We’ve been building, we’ve been improving our aerobic and anaerobic performance. We’ve been losing weight, we’ve been getting better at cardio. But if we keep this up, we’ll reach a, a, a, a thing of burnout. And I have this, you know, nice garment watch, it’ll tell me like, look, based on your your metrics, you’re at a fatigue level.
(00:04:53) – You did not benefit from this workout. And, and the whole goal of a great training plan is to keep you from hand to point where you’re not benefiting from something I said to say, sometimes the best benefit you can do to yourself is to slow down. Sometimes the best benefit in training for a run is to walk. Sometimes the best benefit in training to get faster is to go slower. And they said the adage is true in running, but it’s true in life. If you wanna get faster, uh, do a lot more of going slower because that slow consistent builds a base that you can ultimately go faster. So have build in those active recoveries. Like, how can I do, you know, for instance, me, when I have some of the mindless emails and things that I don’t necessarily want to do, uh, I put those at the end of the day when I can, you know, when I’m relaxing, maybe I can do that while I’m, uh, if there’s a game on or there’s something else that I’m doing that, that I don’t have to put as much mental energy into versus giving that kind of stuff my best energy.
(00:05:44) – That’s our problem. A lot of times we’re giving our best energy to the things that are least likely to move us forward or help us. I’m not saying they’re not important things, but they’re not as important. So build those active, uh, recoveries. And finally, you know, a lot of this is, is keeping everything in perspective. When you work hard, sometimes you forget why you’re working. You’re working hard for a cause. You’re working hard for promotion, you’re working hard to, uh, feed your family, to put your yourself and your loved ones in a better position. But you get so caught up in the work that you forget that sometimes we have to step outside of it in those active, uh, recovery. Let’s not do a lot of times in, in my stretches or my long walks, like, okay, why am I doing this? You have to remind yourself, and you have to be conscious of that this isn’t a thing, you know, because again, we’re human and, and, and, and stress is a real thing.
(00:06:26) – So if you don’t remind yourself constantly why you’re doing it, then you stop running outta reasons to continue to try. But if you can remind yourself, look, I’m doing this. I know this is tough, but you know, when I get past this hurdle, I’m gonna put my family in a better position. When we get past this, we’re putting our business in a healthier position. When I get past this trial, I’m not saying that the trials are gonna end, but we’re gonna put ourself in a better position. And that framing, keeping that goal in mind, keeps you in line. It keeps you in the lane, keeps you doing. And, and then ultimately what it does is it helps you find a little bit more gas and fuel. There are times when I think that I’m tired and I remember why I’m doing what I’m doing. And I said, oh, I wasn’t exhausted. I wasn’t tired. I was uninspired. I I lost track of what I was doing. But now that I remember it, now that this train is back on the track, I’m ready to keep going and we’re gonna continue to do so let’s have a great day. As always, it’s Shark Theory.
