Burn baby...burn!
Hello there! Have you ever heard of the burn-out syndrome? If you only heard about, then you are in a superb place regarding your business life. But if you smell something like slowly roasting pork during your office hours, then you are starting to experience it!
If you are a businessman that have the need to have control of everything, and you can't delegate most of your daily routine tasks, then I bet my money that you are feeling exhausted, your memory is failing you, you feel mostly tired even when you are on vacation, you start doing a task and end up doing something else and all your co-workers are under-performing all the time.
At the beginning of this century, my dear BBQed friend, I crushed twice in the same year. My second burn-out syndrome, left me in the hospital for 3 weeks, in a foreign country (thanks god it was Canada), and the only thing I could do for 3 weeks was an inner conversation with my Ego, myself and my inner-child. Actually, I was at a point where everything in my life was going perfect (according to my Ego), I was a successful trainer for a multimillion company, travelling all around the world for business, earning money and commissions that I had never dreamt of, building a great future for myself and branding my name in the best (f-word) way! I was doing everything the right the correct way (according to myself), doing the work of 6 people, never trusting anybody, checking everything just to be sure and even writing my own reports, although I had a secretary and a personal assistant. And then I asked ME, do you have the time to actually see the countries you are visiting (my inner-child asking all these awkward questions)? Is your bank account giving you any time to have fun? Do you have any YOU time? Have you actually seen N.Y. that was your childhood dream, and you have already been there 14 times? I found myself answering no to every single question that my inner child was asking. After 4 days of clinical evaluation and constant examination, my doctor's diagnosis was Burn-Out Syndrome! His professional advice was to take a looooong vacation and reconsider my life choices. Two and a half weeks later, I was at a beach in a Greek island, drinking cocktails under the sun, getting all lobster red (I have an awful relationship with the sun), answering emails and correcting reports...and then, it hit me (I got actually punched in the face by my best friend)! I was wasting my life. I was missing out on every moment. Not only that, but I was once more doing stuff that were meant for my staff to do! Furthermore, I realized that this kind of life is not what I wanted for myself. And guess what...I quit!
Years later, when I landed my first big client, I had to fight with him to let me do my job. The job he was paying me to do. Every day, I woke up and had 30-40 messages on my phone informing me about tasks I had already scheduled to do later in the day. He used to woke up 4 hours earlier checking everybody's tasks and stress because he thought that the amount of work that needed to be done from a team of 16 people, will not be done on time. But, with a magical way, everything was completed by the end of the day (thanks to my programming and the correct time management of the whole team). At some point I had to talk to him in a really hard way, getting him to face his fears, using tough love (memo to self: I have to apologize about that at some point), forced him to realize that the dysfunctional part in his company was actually himself. He was not doing his job and he was burning out. He was holding back his own growth.
Does this story feel familiar? Do you feel that everything is going through you? Do you feel the urge to be in control of everything? Are you feeling tired and can't perform at your best? Then I think we should have a talk. Go on and book a virtual coffee with me, my sweet little BBQ!
