5 Things That Helped Me Bounce Back From (Absolute) Burnout

Sean Meyer
Jul 28, 2017 · 13 min read

One of Them Will Probably Surprise You…

I’ve had a lot of rough mornings, but nothing like this…

My head was pounding, I had the full body sweats, and I barely had enough energy to roll over and shut off my alarm clock…let alone get out of bed.

Then to top it off, I had a phone call coming up with a prospective client — one that was supposed to give me thousands of dollars in revenue…

But no matter what I did, I couldn’t muster up the energy to pull myself together and get ready for the call.

So then I decided I was going to email him and cancel the meeting…

But right when I was getting ready to do so, I did the unthinkable.

I fell asleep and slept right through his numerous calls.

I finally woke up a few hours later, realizing what had happened and immediately rushed to my phone…

Which showed me that I’d missed 3 calls from him, along with a text from a friend of mine — asking if I could help him set up a Facebook Campaign later that evening.

Normally this wouldn’t have been a big deal as it was a good friend of mine and we’d always help each other out on different projects…

But today was different.

Without even thinking twice, I immediately picked up my phone and responded — “Can’t you just f-ing pay somebody to do it?”…

And his next text is what really opened my eyes…

“Dude, you really need to take some time off — you’ve officially hit burnout”.

I don’t know why it took me this long to realize this, but after seeing his text — I couldn’t deny it any longer…he was right.

8 Months Before…

I’d started a Freelance Accounting business 8 months before that and without realizing it, I’d been working 80+ hours a week.

I thought this was necessary and something I had to do to keep my business growing, but looking back on it now — I realize that this “hustle” was actually counterintuitive to what I was trying to achieve.

I was always under the impression that working more automatically meant getting more done…but when I started to look back and track my results, I noticed that my overall output had taken a serious plunge…

And even worse, my relationship with my clients had gotten worse and worse…

Which really hit me hard.

I’ve always been one to enjoy working with people and I really did like all of my clients at this time…but as I realize now, the jaws of burnout do crazy things to your brain — and your body.

And even though I’d consider this day “rock bottom” of my entrepreneurial journey…funny enough, I’d also consider it the best day of my career.

It was the point to where I finally realized what I was doing to my health and that my “work ethic” was doing more harm than good…

And it was also the day that I decided something had to change.

I knew I couldn’t just keep “hustlin” and “grindin”…because if I did, I wasn’t going to have any more clients, or friends, left.

So that’s the point where I decided to have another Accountant take over all my accounts and I wasn’t going to return to work until I had this shit figured out.

I immediately began to reach out to my clients and they were more than understanding (roughly 95% of them agreed that I needed to do this…kinda embarrassing now)…

And at the time, I thought it’d just be a few week ordeal

I figured I just needed a few weeks to recoup, calibrate and recover…

But this short break ended up turning into a 10-month journey that led me to a lot of interesting places.

And I’m not talking about travelling or anything of that nature, I’d actually cut back on every expense I could…selling my vehicle, moving in with my parents, etc…

Anything I could do to reduce the financial burden and allow me to learn how I could overcome this struggle and come back stronger than ever.

So when I say interesting places, I really just mean new information and new practices that totally revamped my life.

And I really didn’t notice it at the time, because when you’re slowly changing it’s hard to see the dramatic results….

But I really knew I was onto something when I saw extended family at the holidays, and after a short conversation — they started asking me for advice!

I was beyond baffled…

And by family, I’m not talking about a drunk Uncle or younger cousin…

I’m talking about my “successful” family members…the ones that had their own chiropractic firm or a large farm operation…

Both of which were financially set, but they were missing out on the important thing that we all strive to achieve — an overall sense of well-being and the freedom to do what we enjoy.

Now this made me laugh at first, but it also helped me realize that it was time to get back on the horse.

I started to realize how much I’d changed and how great I felt…

So shortly after this I started Freelancing again, but this time was different.

Instead of working 80+ hours a week trying to building a business, I now had systems in place…

Ones that allowed me to get a crazy amount of things done in a short amount of time.

Now, instead of working for 15 hours a day and getting little done…

I was working 5 hours a day and absolutely killing it.

I was making more money than I ever had, and I was more productive than I ever thought possible.

I eventually moved out of my parent’s house and got back into the groove of things…

Oh, and I even wrote a 115 page book in 3 days (I’ll explain more on that later).

Okay, so here’s where I’m going with all of this…

I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of burnout.

I’ve been there, and throughout my journey of learning about this “disease”…I found thousands of others who have been there as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sayin entrepreneurs don’t need to work hard…

But I am saying that with everything that’s thrown our way — it’s extremely important to have systems in place that allow you to become efficient as possible.

And even though I feel like I could write another book on this subject….

In this article I’ve boiled it down to the important things — things that you can start using today:

Item #1 Headspace

First on the list is a practice that’s severely misunderstood.

It wasn’t that long ago that whenever I heard the word meditation, I instantly thought of some dude with a man bun doing yoga on a mountaintop…

But then I found Headspace, and realized how wrong I was.

I won’t get too crazy on you and tell you about what meditation does or the positive effects it has on your brain..

But think of it as a brain exercise.

One that not only eliminates anxiety, but one that also skyrockets productivity and brings your focus to an entirely different level…

3 things that anybody could use, ESPECIALLY entrepreneurs on the go.

And that’s the reason why I love Headspace.

It doesn’t require any equipment or a special place to meditate, it’s simply an app that’s designed to work on specific areas that you choose (the app is filled with plenty of areas, from anger to happiness…)

And the best part? It only takes 10 minutes each day.

I personally use this right away every morning (along with my morning coffee) and since I started using the Headspace app, I haven’t found a day that I wasn’t productive.

That’s why I advise everybody to jump on the App store and download the Headspace app right away.

The first 10 days are free and if you want to move forward after that, I think it’s somewhere around $5/month to do so…

One of the best investments you can make, especially when partnered with the…

Item #2 Productivity Planner

As the old story goes, in the early 1900s, Charles Schwab was frustrated at the lack of productivity of his staff.

After dealing with this frustration for a short time, he finally decided to ask for help, and he did so by promising to reward the person who increased productivity for Bethlehem Steel.

In his search, he came across Ivy Lee, who gave him a singular life-changing piece of advice.

That advice?

Every evening before finishing work:

  • Write down 3–5 things you plan to get done the next day
  • Rank them from highest to lowest priority
  • In the morning, start working on the task of highest priority
  • Only move on to task #2 when you’ve completed #1
  • Repeat

And that was it.

I know it doesn’t sound like life-changing advice at first, but after 3 weeks of using this…Schwab sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 (the equivalent of $297,256.23 in 2015)…with a note mentioning that it was one of the most valuable pieces of business advice he had ever received…

And this is exactly what the Productivity Planner will do for you.

It does so by using the technique that Lee taught Schwab, and combines this with the Pomodoro Technique…a dynamic duo that allows you to stay focused and accomplish every task that you wanted to get done.

Item #3 Google Boomerang

In addition to keeping track of what I needed to get done throughout the day, I also used to find myself constantly checking email and writing down reminders for myself.

I used to look at email as the enemy of my productivity…but then I discovered Google Boomerang, and our relationship hasn’t been the same ever since.

Now instead of letting emails pile up in my inbox and ruin my productivity (because I’m constantly thinking about them), if I don’t respond to the email right away I simply “boomerang” it…

Or in other words, I delay the email until I’m ready to do something with it.

There’s a million different times where I have to do this, but a prime example comes when I sign-up for something that’s offering a free trial.

If I’m not sure about it and want to make sure I take another look before paying for a subscription, I’ll always “boomerang” their confirmation email until a day or 2 before the trial is up.

That way I receive this email right beforehand and it prompts me to look at this trial before moving forward, a simple trick that’s saved me thousands of dollars already….

But it doesn’t stop there.

In addition to “boomeranging” emails, I’ll also use this tool as a scheduling device.

What do I mean?

Well, instead of going through and making numerous calendar reminders…I now simply send myself a quick email that reminds me to do something at a certain time.

This works for one-time events like meetings, but it also works with recurring events…like lunch (yes, I used to set a reminder for myself to take lunch…I’d work right through it if I didn’t).

Lastly, I know what you’re thinking… “but Sean, I already get enough emails — why would I send myself EVEN MORE?”…

Great question, glad you asked — and here’s what I do.

I setup a separate GMAIL folder, one that I call “Optional”.

I then setup filters to capture all the typical “optional” messages (things like newsletters) and all these emails skip my inbox and go straight to the optional folder.

Then once a day, I check my optional folder and quickly skim through all messages. It really depends on the day, but sometimes I’ll go through and read all messages…other days I’ll just delete them all and continue working.

This might take some time to fine-tune (i.e. as you get new emails in, you can setup a filter for that specific address to hit optional)…but once you get it to a good spot — it works amazing.

Not only does this prevent you from getting distracted with worthless emails all day, but it also lets you know that if you receive an email in your inbox…it’s probably something important that needs to be taken care of right away.

Helpful hint: You should never have more than 10 emails in your inbox

Item #4 Laird Hamilton’s Superfood Creamer

Alright, so up until now we’ve been talking about tools and tactics that work great…

But for this one, I wanted to change gears and talk about the stuff that I think ranks highest on the list — rocket fuel for your brain.

There’s plenty of ways to achieve this, and I could talk about this for days…

But out of all the “superfoods” that I’ve tried, this one single item has always stuck with me — and that’s Laird Hamilton’s Superfood Creamer.

I used to think it was because I was a coffee fanatic and loved what it did to my Morning Joe, but then I realized it was created with foods that served as cognitive enhancers…

Ones that absolutely skyrocketed my productivity and helped me accomplish more things in the morning that I used to get done in an entire day.

And that’s amazing in itself, but when you combine this with healthy brain fuel that keeps you going all day long, that’s when things get amazing…

That’s also why I’m a huge fan of:

Item #5 “Fat Burning Mode”

Okay, so I don’t think it’s a secret anymore that I attribute productivity to the right food choices…

And you might think that’s slightly crazy by itself, but here’s when things get real crazy.

So I originally started to follow a diet, and okay — before I move forward…I just have to say one thing about the word “diet”.

Whenever I hear the word diet, I always think about starving yourself and eating kale salads for 8 weeks…but as I recently learned, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

This is something I explain more in my Free 5-Day Video Course, but in short — diet just means what you eat.

So if you wanted to, you could technically go on a pizza diet — eating nothing but pizza for 8 weeks…

But I think we can both agree that that’s probably not the best option for you.

Alright, anyway — back to the “fat burning” diet…

So this diet isn’t one that’s made to focus on kale salads or chai seeds, instead — it has one goal…

Focus on foods that create a healthy brain, because when you have a healthy brain…everything else just seems to fall in place.

Now obviously this is exactly what I needed on my climb back from rock bottom, and to be 100% honest — the results were 127x better than I expected.

How?

Well, I initially heard of this diet from a friend of mine in Silicon Valley…

Telling me how it was the new thing and everybody was noticing great improvements on it.

At first I was skeptical because when I think of Silicon Valley, I instantly think of crazy pills or quick fads that flame out…

But then I looked into it, and it wasn’t anything like this.

There were no crazy pills and there wasn’t anything crazy about the diet, it was just normal foods and when combined together — they created an amazing source of fuel for our brains.

There’s a lot more to it and I’ve explained it all in the video course, but here’s the crazy part I wanted to tell you about…

Not only did I notice an immediate increase in my productivity, but I also noticed a huge improvement in my everyday attitude…

Oh, and I was able to stop taking adderall after being on it for years, effectively beating “ADHD”…

And it still didn’t stop there…

In addition to increased productivity, better mood, and the overcoming of ADHD…it also cleared up all my acne.

Yes, you read that correctly — a simple diet change almost immediately eliminated all my acne, and I’m not going to lie — that felt amazing.

I’d always struggled with acne, particularly “bacne”…and it was pretty bad.

Like so bad, that I never wanted to go swimming — because I was always embarrassed to take my shirt off.

And I’d tried everything before that. I’d seen 3 different dermatologists in the past 4 years, trying every pill, cream and powder that they threw my way…

Only to see zero results.

I was actually at the point to where I thought I was just doomed to a lifetime of acne, and to be honest — a diet change was the last thing I thought would help me…

But sure enough, that was apparently the solution I was looking for.

Don’t believe me that this diet change was the sole reason for the elimination of acne?

Don’t worry, I was skeptical myself…until I did some research and found thousands of others who experienced the same results with this diet.

Now by this time, I was a HUGE advocate of this diet and started to tell everybody I knew…

But then one day I had a friend say something, and that absolutely put the icing on the cake…

“Dude, you’re really slimming down — what are you doing?”

And that’s when I responded with my favorite phrase:

“Just eating more bacon”…

(yes, I’m serious)

That’s a wrap…

There’s a lot of great productivity tools and tricks out there, but one continues to stand the test of time…

Feeding your brain the fuel it needs.

Now you can do this in a few different ways, but out of everything I’ve tried — the “fat burning” diet wins every time.

Why’s that?

Feel free to learn more in my (Free) 5-Day Video Course. It’s designed to help people lose weight by switching their body into fat burning mode, but if you can lose a few pounds AND increase your productivity — what’s wrong with that?

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