Aerial View:

• Intro thoughts

• Mindful Minute: Burnout.

• Conscious Consumer: Snooz White Noise Machine

• Quote of the day

• 3 key questions to reflect on

What’s up men, welcome back. Important one this week. Burnout. Let’s talk about it.

Mindful Minute - Thoughts on burnout.

I’ve recently learned that my DEFAULT mode is to work. It’s to build. To be productive. If I’m not doing anything, I might as well be working. Turns out that although this has led to rapid success in certain areas in my life- it’s also my achilles heal. Why? Because guess what weeks/months of head-down work without coming up for air leads to? Burnout.

The last month or two, I let myself slip into the old ways of the grind, and didn’t realize I wasn’t prioritizing time off to unplug and reset until the proverbial water was boiling and about to overflow.

If the boiling water on the stove is getting ready to spill over, what do you do? You turn down the heat or remove it entirely. That simple analogy is exactly how to immediately handle burnout. You just need to find out what your personal heat source is.

First off, the good and bad news is that I now officially know what it is like to burn out and a few of the reasons it happens.

Does this sound familiar: You stay in progress mode long enough that you let the emotional dam get so backed up you feel as if you might implode. You fail, get back up, and keep going because there’s no other choice. Over time, feelings of solitude turn to isolation, and the weight of external and internal pressure feels inescapable. Despite your accomplishments, nothing ever feels like enough. Then before you know it, you’ve been grinding away for weeks, months, or even years, and have grown further from your original reasons for starting. This cycle leads to burnout. I’ve been there before- multiple times, and if left unchecked, it can become a dangerous, negative loop.

We, as men, often have a tendency to take our wins in stride, belittle them, and quickly move on. We constantly raise the bar, setting our sights on an ever-moving target. And that’s where the problem lies—before we know it, we’re struggling again. Burnout in action. 

Building a meaningful life is incredibly hard. The highs and lows are no joke, and the painful reality is that the lows often linger far longer than the highs. Burnout only exacerbates this, bringing more low periods than we need.

Silver lining here: we also know what it’s like to win—to feel proud, worthy, and in touch with our true purpose. To feel like we can kick down any door and conquer anything in our paths. So how do we tap into this mode more often and prolong these stretches of time and push back against falling into the burnout trap?

Here are my favorite tactics to prioritize daily. If these seem too simple, it’s because they are. Simple works. Simple = sustainable. 

Thinkitate-  Like meditation but with no gentle pull back to center. Just let your thoughts run their natural course with no steering of the ship, while sitting still, upright, head NOT supported, with no external stimulation (music, tv, lights, etc.) By cutting the mental stimulation out, you allow your brain to just process the day’s traffic. You’ll come out of this feeling like you just hit a great power nap. I promise. Just be still and let life happen.

Phoneless walks- Self explanatory for the most part. Strap up the sneakers, get outside, and walk. Pay attention to your surroundings and be present with your environment. Leave the phone at home. You’re not walking for the sake of exercise, that would be counter productive here. Walking for the sake of slowing down and tapping into presence.

Pre-sleep flow hobby - Preferably something hands on or mentally stimulating away from screens. I play my guitar for about half an hour in my office, with no lights on. The room has just enough light coming in from outside to be slightly eerie but also really cool, and more importantly, it allows me to be fully present with no distractions from the instrument/activity at hand. It enables me to tap into a mini flow state before bed, which has profound impacts on sleep. 

Leisurely reading- Early in the AM or at the end of the day- but not a technical skill book, something that’s just a leisurely read, NOT something you’d read strictly in an effort to level up. Phone away, screens off, just you and the book. You’ll either prime your mind for the day or allow your mind to unwind before sleep.

Experiment and find your own. These are just a few of mine. The underlying theme of these activities here is for a mental reset from external mindless stimulation. Find something that you can throw yourself into and be present with, that is NOT connected to your typical day to day priorities. Something you enjoy and can look forward to. There’s no secret trick here, it is straight forward. We just don’t prioritize this enough anymore, so we go, go, go, and don’t stop until our bodies/minds force us to.

Burnout is something that must be proactively worked against. Would you rather spend 30-60 minutes daily protecting yourself from potentially burning out or 1-2 weeks recovering from it happening? Offense over defense here guys. 

We deserve to feel our wins, celebrate our growth, & remain present along the way. A man who builds an incredible life, enjoys every step of the journey, and shows others what is possible, is a dangerous man. It CAN be done. Stay mindful fellas.

Conscious Consumer

I’ve been sleeping with this instead of earplugs lately and it’s far superior. I don’t have to worry about earplugs falling out and the gentle noise primes me for sleep and helps me stay asleep. It also prohibits me from waking up due to the noise of my pup moving from his bed to my bed! And it looks sharp on my night stand. Cool product here.

Quote of the week

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. This applies to our daily lives and the topic today. If we don’t first win internally, we’ll never be able to win externally. Mindful practices to prioritize our mental state are more important than the work we sign up for. The work will suffer without mental priming/care.

Rise and Reflect - 3 Questions to Inspire Impactful Action and Critical Reflection

1. What activity from my past, younger years do I just genuinely miss? What about it do I miss? How can I get back into it or into something similar now, for no other reason than enjoyment?

2. What can I do TONIGHT- to unplug and find presence, even if only for 5 minutes?

3. What actions am I already taking that I can make more of an effort to be present/aware throughout? Perhaps without my cell phone nearby.

My Ask of You

If you found value in this newsletter, I ask that you please share it with others:

• Forward it: Send this email to friends, family, and/or others.

• Talk about it: Share your thoughts on social media using #MindfulMan

• Invite others: Encourage those around you to subscribe here and join our community.

As leaders, it's our duty to help others. If you found this newsletter helpful, share it with someone who it can help. Change starts here, together.

Thank you for being here.

Sails up, eyes open.

Until next time,
Dan Baird