Stepping Away From Hustle Culture

Your body and mind can only take so much. When you stay in a constant state of productivity, eventually your body and mind will burn out and force you to stop.

Today we have a guest post from Lisa Trogdon, MSN, RN, CHC. As a long-time medical professional, she speaks from personal experience about a time when her body and mind finally decided to revolt against its state of constant activity.

Her message was originally intended for people in the coaching community, but as you'll see, her message is for anyone who struggles with slowing down!

And so...here's Lisa!

Can I take just a moment to speak my truth on this whole “nooks and crannies” mentality that seems to be prevalent in the coaching world? Maybe you’re not familiar with the term, but it can be a sign of overload in the life of an entrepreneur.

When the frantic pace of running your own business is compounded by multiple social media influencers, experts, gurus, go-tos, audiobooks, blocked times on a schedule, do this, do that, here's what you should be doing now and now and now…

Way back when I first started my health coaching business, I told my business coach I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and didn’t see how I could find the time to do everything she was recommending.

She immediately replied, “Are you using your nooks and crannies wisely?” Maybe she invented that phrase; maybe it originated with someone else. I don’t know, but it goes like this:

Fixing lunch? Listen to that personal development audiobook as you prepare the meal. Laying around the pool? Listen to this business coach’s podcast on the waterproof Bluetooth speaker. Driving to Walmart? Listen to this YouTube video on getting more clients. Enjoying your granddaughter’s ballgame? Find a quiet place outside of the gym and take that call.

In other words, plaster your ear canals with the words of others and fill your mind with constant planning, improving, developing.

The problem with this scenario is that there is no time alone, no reflective time, no be-still time, no time to breathe and rest and be...just be.

Eventually your brain will just disassemble in response to the endless clamor, the constant demand to take in more information, to hear one more piece of advice, do one more thing, try another tactic. That disassembly may manifest itself as burnout, anxiety, physical illness, or a total mental shutdown.

For me it was an attack of vertigo that literally scrambled the connection between my
brain and body, leaving me crumpled in the floor like a wasted piece of paper.

My body had been trying to warn me. In fact, a few months prior to the vertigo attack, I was diagnosed with diabetes and I did shut down for several weeks, personally and professionally. I wiped my calendar clean and rested for days. But then I got up one morning and said, “Well, that’s enough of that,” and went right back at it as frantically as ever, because I had to catch up, right?

Extremes are like wrecking balls, swinging way over here and then swinging way over there, destroying and damaging either side they strike.

Of course, if I want a health coaching business, there are some things I’ll need to do. No business is created by inertia or inaction. On the other hand, when the wrecking ball swings to the opposite side, we often find another type of inertia—an inertia created by too much noise, too much information, too many ideas, too little silence, too little self-care, too little time to experience the wonders of life.

Don’t miss the beauty of the leaves falling outside as you run to get your camera to snap a photo for the perfect Pinterest pin. Life is too short, too tenuous, too beautiful. Save large pieces of the nooks and crannies for yourself each day, lest you lose your humanity to the siren song to do more and more with less and less all. the. time.

Lisa is the author of My Angry Old Heart: A Nurse’s Journey and Guide to Heart Health.