I was a Middle-Aged Burnout

But I'm all better now

After a much-needed break, Time2Thrive is back!

What was going on, you ask? Why haven’t I posted or been around Substack for the last three-plus weeks? It’s simple. I was overwhelmed and burnt out, and I had to make the hard choice to step back from the newsletter for a bit.

Have you ever thought you had everything under control, and then there was some inciting incident that pushed you just a little too hard, and you realized you had no gas left in the tank, burned out, too tired to even care, just wanted to sleep, couldn’t be bothered to answer texts or emails, cancelled plans, sat in front of the TV, and let everything flop?

That was me.

Except.

I DIDN’T let everything flop. My routines and habits stood up to the test.

I won’t get into the details of what went down in my personal life and at my day job. It’s enough to say that everything suddenly became too much. I hit the end of my rope.

I learned some valuable lessons from the last few weeks. Some of my strategies really paid off. I’m on the right track. And you can be too.

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1. Mini Habits Can Save Your Soul

Even though I was pushed so hard I thought life was ending, I did okay. Because I had built a flexible routine of habits like daily exercise and eating healthy, I could rely on those strategies without even thinking about it.

Even though I couldn’t muster up enough energy to act normal:

• I did yoga and stretches in the morning

• Iket up the kettlebell workouts

• I went for walks outside

• I got in enough healthy protein and fats, and avoided the evil glutens

• I did some breathing exercises when I just couldn’t even

Because I built all of these routines when I WASN’T under as much pressure, I was “lucky” enough to be able to rely on them when the going got tougher.

If there’s one thing that’s true for everyone, it’s that sometimes, things get crazy and out of control. Building positive routines and habits can help you get through it without capsizing your canoe and getting smashed in the rapids.

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2. You Can’t Do It All

When you run out of juice, you can’t pretend that you’re a superhero anyway and just keep on keepin’ on, unless you really want to run into trouble. When you start hitting the wall, you need to re-assess the situation and know your limits.

I was doing too much. I needed to make some space to get my mojo back. So I decided what was important and focused on those things, in this order:

• My mental, emotional, and physical health

• My relationship with my wife

• Family and friends

• Day job (we all need money)

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Here’s what took the back seat until the crisis was over:

• Social media. Notes, Facebook, etc. can go suck it.

• Substack posts. I love writing, but I just didn’t have it in me.

• Dealing with other people’s bullshit.

• Anything extra that required brain juice.

I quit doing some things so that I could keep up the most important actions. I focussed on myself first to make sure I didn’t implode. I didn’t waste energy on dumb shit like social media. That’s a black hole at the best oftimes. I didn’t struggle to write when I had nothing good to say. I didn’t beat myself up (too much) over not posting every week. And I kept to myself a little more to recharge those batteries.

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Become More Resilient With Life-Affirming Habits and Routines

Ths is what I believe, that we can become more resilient and better able to handle the stresses of life. And I believe that the easiest way to do that is to have tiny routines and habits that you can rely on.

If things go sideways, but you have those routines? You won’t flush your entire life down the toilet.

• If you are in the habit of exercising, you’ll de-stress naturally. Exercise is medicine.

• If you keep at least some of your nutrition habits when you’re under the gun, you’ll maintain the high energy levels needed to push through and come out on top.

• Your routines will give you a sense of control over your situation, so you don’t feel totally adrift. Feeling a bit of control over even just your own body will keep you from losing hope.

“Fine, Tim. I see now that you are totally right, and I need to build healthy routines to keep my life from sucking. But how do how do I do that? It seems impossible, but I don’t want my life to suck. What can I do?”

I hear you. No one wants their life to suck.

Luckily, it’s pretty simple, although maybe not that easy. You build habits by choosing an action, and then repeating it over time until it become a built-in routine.

I’ll be writing about habits in next week’s post.

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Mini-Course Launch Soon: Bite-Sized Goals For Nutrition and Fitness

I apologize for not getting this out to you when I originally planned. Better late than never, right?

This mini course will show you how to narrow it down to simple steps you can start taking immediately. Great things can be accomplished with tiny repeated steps.

Keep your eyes open for an upcoming post if you would like to get in on it!

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If you don’t want your life to suck, subscribe to Time2Thrive. Because nothing would make it suck more than NOT subscribing…