Mindful Mondays #29: Burnout Edition
Self-care and burnout, doing weird things, and advice from Silicon Valley's top CEO coach
Good morning, and welcome to Mindful Mondays. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks between Write of Passage and another course I’m taking (EFT Professional Skills 2 with the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology).
Sometimes I get stressed out trying to keep up with everything, and wonder who signed me up for all this stuff—and then I remember that it was me. More specifically, the part of me that is insatiably curious and hungry to learn new things. We all have multiple parts of ourselves, and oftentimes viewing our everyday frustrations and conflicts through this lens can help us relax around them and treat ourselves with more compassion.
This week, I published an essay on my experience of burnout at my previous job, and why I think our cultural focus on self-care as an antidote to burnout is misguided. If you missed it on Wednesday, you can catch up here:
Self-Care Is Not The Cure For Burnout
Most online discussions of burnout take the form of some coach on Twitter listing 20 ways to cope with it and then asking, “what would you add?” The list items range from reasonable entries like “get 7-9 hours of sleep each night” to rather extreme ones like “wake up at 5 AM, take a cold shower, drink a gallon of wate…
Article of Interest
Do The Weirdest Thing That Feels Right: Have you ever been in the situation of trying to decide between several reasonably good options? How do you make a choice in that situation? My friend
hit it out of the park with this essay, in which he argues that all other variables considered, you should go for the “weirdest thing that feels right.”Podcast of the Week
CEO Coach Matt Mochary — Live Coaching with Tim, Why Fear and Anger Give Bad Advice, How to Perform Personal Energy Audits (etc): I enjoyed this episode for two reasons: one, because we get to see Tim Ferriss being coached, live on the air, by Silicon Valley’s top CEO-whisperer; and two, because Matt shares some excellent advice for running companies. After listening to this, I’m diving into Matt’s coaching methodology, which he’s generously shared as a free Google doc, to see what I can learn and apply to my own practice. I’ll have more to write about this in the next few weeks, but for now, I highly recommend giving this episode a listen, especially if you’re a business owner or manager.
Quote of the Week
"We pray not for heaven and earth, but to be quiet in heart, and clear in eye. What we need is here."
—Wendell Berry
That’s all for this week! As always, I appreciate your feedback on Mindful Mondays. What was your favorite thing I shared this week? What would you like to read more about? Just reply to this email or leave a comment on Substack or Notes to let me know.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Cordry, LMFT
PS: Feeling burnt out? Self-care habits not cutting it? Tim Ferriss/Matt Mochary podcast got you curious what it would be like to work with a coach? :) I’m pretty busy right now but I have room to work with the right person in my private practice. Just reply to this email to let me know if you’re interested.
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Hey Chris! What was your biggest takeaway from the podcast? I’m thinking of listening to it ..
I listened to the Tim Ferriss podcast a few weeks ago doing day 9 of the Pennine Way. The advice Matt Michael gives about hiring people is excellent!
I know he coaches CEOs but I found his coaching style overly directive. It’s not my style and many will like it, but I do wonder how much of the thinking that a client might generate themselves - from their own yet-to-be-uncovered ideas and resources is squashed with such an approach.
Would love to chat about that EFT course you’re doing!