Why recovery time is as important as taking action:
Recently, I told my email group about how I had a small attack of the crazies which I thought at the time was just down to not doing my usual morning routine, but when I reflected further, I realised it was more than that.
A few factors had stacked up on me:
1: I’m going through a period of change in my business at the moment from coaching clients one-to-one to leading groups.
2: I’m developing a 28 day programme with my partner, Kev, at the same time as delivering our new 90 day one.
3: I’ve recently joined an online coaching masterclass that’s pretty intense.
All good stuff, and I’m excited I’m doing it all, but on the night before my “fried head” morning when my ADHD symptoms went wild, the coaching class that was scheduled to take 2 hours (it was delivered live) actually went on from 7pm to 11pm (well past my bedtime) and I found it really hard to get to sleep that night.
If I didn’t already have the other two factors stimulating my brain I might have been OK, but I think all those things together created mental overload for me.
The course ran again the next evening from 7pm but I chose not to join it live (I have the option to watch it on catchup).
Initially, I wanted to do the whole thing live, because I knew the danger of saving things for catch up is that they get forgotten about, but that night I knew I needed to calm everything the f*ck down.
So, instead of joining the masterclass, I had a big, long, lovely bath and plonked myself on the sofa in front of a blazing fire with a cup of hot chocolate in hand, to mindlessly watch the latest two episodes of Silent Witness.
It did me a whole heap of good, and I felt great again the next day.
As with physical training, recovery time is just as important as taking action when you’re working on yourself mentally.
It’s really important to me to not just tell our group what to do, but to live the personal development stuff with them.
Sometimes, it feels tough: sometimes we can push things further than we’re comfortable with, and this is good because this is where growth happens - so long as we notice when it’s time to take our foot off the gas and recover, because constant pushing isn’t sustainable.
So, it’s not all about feeling the burn - remember your cool-downs, too!