I once attended a leadership lecture from a CFO of a big company. He gave a pleasant talk on how he did his thing and climbed the ranks. I asked a question during the Q&A: had he ever felt stuck or disengaged with his career and job, and what did he do about it? This guy confirmed he had never felt stuck or disengaged with his career or job. Ever. And had always wanted to do this and was stoked that he was doing it currently.

Does this resonate with you? Me neither. This was a punch in the gut. The CFO and I were not sharing the same experience.

We’re not always going to be firing on all cylinders, or in love with our job/life/relationships/self, or in perfect alignment with our fulfilling purpose. Do I dare mention the b-word here? How many times have you heard burnout in the past two years? For me, more than I had in the rest of my life combined.

I can’t understand people who can’t understand what that feels like. Or who would pretend that it’s not a part of their life. It might be extraordinarily difficult to be engaged with certain things right now. That doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong or that it’s not the right fit. The cycle of being engaged and being less so is probably just life.

What I find helpful during these periods is rest. This looks different for everybody. As an introvert, I space out my social activities because it’s exhausting otherwise. I try to read and not put a deadline on finishing the book. I exercise. Fuck it. I watch The Office on TV while my phone is inches from my face.

Identifying and investing energy in the things I really care about are the things that keep me going through all the other crap. They actually re-energize me so it feels like I’ve got more room in the cabin. Sometimes it’s hard to know what those things are. And specifically, when something is burning me out, it’s hard to carve out the time for them – rest, exercise, not doing anything productive at all.

Coaching is an effective way to get at that stuff. I didn’t think I needed a coach to help me do things I actually wanted to do, but when burnout was busting down the door – tethering me to my email, forcing me to eat al desko every lunch and dinner (Google it), endlessly complaining about how hard things were but not taking any other action – the accountability, fresh perspective, and genuine empathy my coach provided were the right tools for the job. There’s a choice in all this. A coach helped me discover it.

I would love to be able to help you with this. If you’re interested in partnering together, book a consultation here or learn more about coaching on my site.

Go get ‘em this week.