Photo: Vasyl Hnyp
Health and wellness coach, talk therapist, personal trainer, nutrition junky, all the holistic things. This guy must have it together all the time, I mean look at all those letters behind his name.
As much as I wish this was the case, even the people that know exactly what to do and work in the industry get caught up in talking the talk but not walking the walk. Ever happen to you in your “field of expertise?” Well, let me tell ya a little story about how this all happened to me.
Over the past fifteen plus years, I, as well as everyone else in the world has been working towards the situation they’ve come to at this particular moment. Everyone’s story is different. Mine built from changing my college major three times and getting my master’s in social work, neglecting the field, getting back into it, loving it, hating it, getting a personal training cert, getting a certification in holistic health coaching, and combining them all into the website/business you’re reading this through right now.
After all these things really fell into place, I got super passionate about the health and wellness field, a field I never dreamed I would be involved. So I created a vision, a business, and started helping people. I wanted to advance it and grow it, so I realized that I needed to cut time in other areas of my world to get this thing bigger. What do you think the first things I cut were? Meditation time because come on my meditation time is right when I get up and that’s of course my most creative time too! Obvious drop, duh! Let’s cut yoga out too. By the time, I drive to class, take it, and then drive home it’s like 2 hrs! You know what I could do with 2 more hours of time??? Next up, time outside. Those Monday afternoon surf sessions or walks in nature or even a light jog is going to eat up AT LEAST an hour! And I can get WAY more done before my office job if I don’t make up for those lost events in the mornings that I go to the office. Let’s set aside all those things and just totally take the fun out of life.
So what’s left you ask? Work, hardcore training to become a better rock climber, some more work, and a little more work. You’re probably thinking, so he took out all the self-care stuff in his life aside from healthy eating, and some hardcore fitness training and he’s a heath and wellness coach??? WTF???
Robot Human, that’s what I turned myself into. Zero depth, no personality, lack of energy. No longer was I a human being, but now a human doing. Not to mention, incurring multiple injuries, illnesses, and barely spending time with anyone else outside of clients and me. I was literally a walking Robot Human and doing NOTHING THAT I TELL OTHER PEOPLE TO DO. I was burnt out, and it literally took a trip of getting away from it all to realize it. Self-care was my number one trait, and I totally blew it off because I had this vision. I knew there was an end in sight, but when the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing happened, the end got farther and farther away. It happens to most of us. We put off everything and just start cranking. We neglect the stuff that really makes us who we are and leads us to become robots.
So what do you do? You make sure to make time for you and what you love. That could mean ANYTHING. Scheduling a class at the gym, a walk on the beach on your lunch break, dinner out with a friend or love one. When we do these things regularly, we are more fresh versions of ourselves. We are more motivated to work hard. We are more creative. We are more energetic. And we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing: having fun.
Take some time out every day for you. Whether that be a 2 minute meditation, reading a few pages in a book, or taking a full day to knit a scarf. Give yourself more things to look forward to and I bet you’ll feel more motivated and more accomplished.