The last two months were very busy: a lot of things happening, new projects opening up, and internal things that needed attention, resolving, and healing. I don’t mind it really, I got used to having a relatively busy and fast life pace over the last 2 years. But lately, something felt different. 

Even though the last couple of weeks were very busy, they weren’t that much more difficult compared to the past. Yet during this time, I found my pace, busyness, and life in general much more difficult to handle - sometimes even to the point of feeling like I couldn’t handle it all. Recently, I even felt on the edge of burnout and really exhausted, which terrified me since it hadn’t happened in a long time.

So what’s changed?

Anyone who has experienced a slice of burnout probably knows the awful and desperate feelings and emotions that come alongside burnout. It’s a feeling that shakes you to the core of your being, numbs your mind, and paralyzes you with fear, anxiety, and unknowingness of what the future might hold for you.

When these feelings and emotions connected to burnout arise, it’s a good opportunity to analyze the situation and your life in general.

Am I really exhausted and burnt out or is it just the accumulated tiredness that’s coming out? Am I feeling tired and exhausted because I’m working too hard and because I’m under a lot of stress? Or is it because I’m not taking care of my body, lifestyle, mind, and inner self? Maybe it’s some other aspects of my lifestyle of mental health that I’m not aware of that’s causing me to feel exhausted and burnt out.

Over the last couple of couple of years, I learned a ton about how different aspects of my lifestyle, mind, emotional realm, and mental health impact my energy and well-being, and how to optimize them so I can keep exhaustion and burnout at bay. 

But then I forget things and fall into the old patterns. It’s one of the greatest human conditions: we forget the lessons that we learned and we make the same mistakes, until life warns us that we got astray and helps us remember - often through pain and struggle.

I spent some time wondering and analyzing, what was going on at the time in my life that I felt so exhausted and got to the point to gaze at the scares of burnout. After some time and introspection figured out that the cause behind was probably one of the most underrated and not talked about aspects of burnout.

Here on Conquering Burnout, I wrote a handful of articles about the importance of Vital Energy for our energy, happiness, general well-being, and even burnout prevention and recovery. 

Vital Energy simply encompasses the energy that we have, get, and receive when we do things that we enjoy doing, that we feel passion and purpose for, and things that give our lives meaning. 

For me, the difference is very distinctive: when I’m enjoying and loving what I’m doing, I feel a strong sense of passion, purpose, and mission, my energy is almost endless and I feel almost unstoppable. However, when I lack this VItal Energy, that’s when things slowly start to fall apart and collapse. 

That’s been the case recently. In the business and productivity of everyday life, I lost myself a bit and got caught up in a mode where I wasn’t operating from myself. Most of the things I was doing, didn't originate and come from me, from my heart and my being. I acted too much based on what others would want from me to get approval, validation, attention, and love from others. Because I wasn’t doing what I really loved doing, I wasn’t getting enough joy, satisfaction, enjoyment, passion, and purpose, resulting in exhaustion and burnout. 

I had to take a step back, take time and space to recover, heal my nervous system, and set new intentions and direction for the future. The strategy is obviously to operate from my own unique self and do more things that I love doing and that bring me joy, satisfaction, enjoyment, passion, and purpose.

So I would urge you to take a closer look at your current life. Analyze which things are robbing you of energy and how you could implement more joy, satisfaction, enjoyment, passion, and purpose in your life. When you do that, you’ll conquer burnout once and for all.

That’s all for today, thank you for reading! 🙏😊

If you’d like to read more about this topic, here are some newsletters about joy, passion and purpose and how to integrate them in your life:

In this article, I will present a simple and easy way that helps me achieve more peace, love, beauty, and fulfillment in my life.

When I started my personal development journey, I invested in my first online course in the summer of 2019. It was 's online course called Master Your Mind Academy. To this day, it’s still one of the courses that I learned the most from and gave me the most.

The course was designed to help participants master their minds, thoughts, and improve their "space between the ears" so that they could achieve everything they want in this life. The course also included an exercise called “Peeling The Onion: Going 567”, the goal of which was to gain more clarity and direction for life.

In the world of self-help and personal development, is often emphasized that for long-term happiness and satisfaction, it’s necessary to find deeper motivations and deeper reasons. When we face challenges in life, only deep causes and motivations help us get through those difficult times.

The exercise “Peeling The Onion: Going 567” asked us to choose a goal we wanted to achieve and write it down in the workbook. Once we had a goal written down, the exercise led us through a series of questions ("Why do I want this?" and "Why would it be great if I achieved this goal?"). The goal of this exploration was to break through the shallow reasons and motivations that make us think we want something and get to those deeper motivations that are truly "ours" and not from others, and that come from our heart and soul.

I still remember my first exploration of this exercise. It was late September afternoon. I could feel the change of seasons in the air brought by autumn. I was in the library and fell into deep focus and flow. I chose the goal to master and conquer my mind. Through the exploration I broke through the shallow reasons why I want to obtain this goal and got to the deep reasons why.

I wanted to master and conquer my mind because I wanted more peace, beauty, love, and fulfillment in my life.

The result of the task surprised even himself. I had no idea where this answer and realization came from. The explanation that subsequently shaped in me was that during the research process, I turned off my analytical mind and fell into the flow, where my soul, being, or the real me - whatever you call it - emerged.

How to get more peace, love, beauty, and fulfillment?

The question then became: how to get more peace, love, beauty, and fulfillment in my life?

I shared my results with Ryan and asked him how do I get more peace, love, beauty, and fulfillment in my daily life.

The next day, Ryan sent me this reply: 

“On the 567: YES, you did it perfectly! Almost brings a tear to my eye. THESE are things you want. So when you catch yourself thinking I want to look like the Rock (awareness), remind yourself (choice) that what you really want is PEACE, LOVE, BEAUTY & fulfillment. None of those thing are dependent upon the way we look.

Here's something that might help you with this. I bet you have MORE peace, love and beauty in your life right now than you realize. Do this exercise (if you choose to accept): start a peace, love and beauty journal and write down 1 thing each day that falls into those categories. (Example: peace = making morning coffee and watching nature, love = hugging spouse or time with parents; beauty = the mountains on the horizon or the smile from a stranger when you hold a door open)

Do this daily and you'll realize the 567 you're seeking is already within you.”

Ryan also recorded a short episode for his podcast at the time called The Better Human Project where he shared these insights and the exercise on how to get more peace, beauty, love, and fulfillment in our lives.

It is interesting that to this day, what I want most in life hasn’t changed. I still want peace daily, the beauty of every moment and every day, the feeling of love and fulfillment. Over the years, I've added to that list that I want more fun and freedom.

Recently - a few weeks ago - I remembered about this "Peace, Love, Beauty, Fun, Freedom & Fulfillment" exercise and started regularly writing down and listing the things and moments in the day when I felt feelings of peace, beauty, love, fun, freedom, and fulfillment.

I began to realize that my life was much fuller than I thought and that I already had all these things that I wanted the most - I just didn't realize them.

Conclusion

It is easy to fall into the trap of wanting more things in your lives and to be happy and satisfied when you get those things. But I bet you already have a lot of things you really want - you're just not aware of them.

That is the gift and beauty of gratitude and similar practices. They help us become aware of the things we have in our lives and begin to appreciate them more. When we are aware of things and appreciate them, our lives become immediately and much fuller.

So if you want more peace, love, beauty and fulfillment in your life, take a step back, look at your life from a different perspective and find some things to be grateful for and moments in which you felt peace, love, beauty and fulfillment.

If you’re interested, check out Ryan’s course Master Your Mind below:

https://ryanmunsey.com/product/master-your-mind-online-training/ 

In this newsletter, I’ll present to you the alpinists’ and mountain climbers’ approach to conquering challenges and obstacles.

The mountain is a metaphor for great challenges and difficulties in life. We all experience them in our life: whether that’s in our personal lives, relationships, health, business, etc. 

To say it’s challenging would be the least. Sometimes it’s daunting and overwhelming. You feel like it will take you an enormous amount of time and effort or that you’ll never be able to make it. 

But you can approach the mountain like the alpinist do. 

Mountain climbers always start at the base camp - at the foot of the mountain. Most of them and confident that they’ll be able to do it: they’ve succumbed an intensive physical and mental preparations before the ascent and they’ve reached other mountain peaks before. 

But among them, there are always a few - or many - that haven’t done it before. They are overwhelmed and doubt if they can achieve it.

Despite this fact, they stare the peak right into its eye and start the ascent. 

They start walking and climbing. Slowly and steadily, step by step, not thinking about how much time and distance is still ahead of them.

After much struggle and work, they reach the first camp, where they stop for a while, rest, adapt to the altitude, and regain their strength.

After that, they restart the ascent until they reach the next camp, where they again stop for a while, rest, adapt to that altitude and regain their strength before continuing. They repeat the process until they hopefully - if everything aligns - reach the peak and conquer the mountain.

This metaphor came to me last night before going to sleep and it shifted my beliefs about challenges and obstacles. 

It helped me realize that big challenges and obstacles in life that seem overwhelming and unattainable, can be accomplished by small and continuous steps towards or through it. 

But the crucial lesson here is adaptation: you have to stop or even take a step back after a certain time and the path taken, or even periodically. Continuing and pushing forward for too long is the path towards burnout. 

There’s a reason why for every athlete's periotisation and physical preparation there are planned off days and deload weeks: the body must adapt to the progressive overload of stimulus to become stronger, before being exposed to more and greater stimulus.

That’s also the reason why we sleep 6-8 hours a day: so our body and mind can recover and refill their batteries before starting a new busy day and accomplish new things.

How to overcome any challenge and obstacle in life using alpinists’ and mountain climbers’s approach.

1. Start in case camp, at the bottom of the mountain, totally overwhelmed because you have never achieved this before. 

2. Begin walking and climbing: slowly and steadily, step by step, without thinking about how much time and distance is still ahead of you.

3. When you reach the first camp, stop for a while, rest, adapt to the altitude, and regain your strength.

4. Repeat points 2 and 3 until you reach the top.

While you’re climbing the mountain, it’s also crucial to find ways to maintain the hope and motivation to continue and that you can do it. 

There are many ways and it’s up to you which one you choose. Whether it’s visualizing that you have reached the top. Reminding yourself that not to alone, that they’re others before you that have already succeeded. Or that you make yourself believe that you will succeed. Or enjoying the journey to the top.

Whatever it is, the goal is to help yourself keep going. There will come times when you’ll feel like giving up and quitting, but those motivations will help you stay on the path and keep going.

Before you start the climb…

Before you decide to take on the challenge of triumphing the mountain, also take into consideration this:

Every quest has a price that has to be paid. Maybe the price of conquering the mountain is too high. Maybe the quest is too risky. Maybe the potential dangers outweigh the results.

If the challenge is worth take on or not, depends on the type of challenge and obstacle. If the challenge you have of health related - let's say you're trying to lose 50kg (100lbs.) of weight or beat burnout - that’s a quest worth taking.

If the obstacle is a business endeavour - if you're trying to build your dream company - that will require a lot of time and energy from you and will also cause you unexpected and unimaginable stress. 

Choose carefully and watch out for warning signs.

If you watched the movie Everest, the alpinists on the quest of conquering the mountain, experienced a lot of warning signs, but they chose to ignore them and reach the peak of the mountain anyway. This resulted in many death and casualities that could had been avoided. 

Now go on and conquer your mountain: I’m rooting for you! 🙂💪

In this newsletter, I share with you my 2023 year, my plans for 2024, and the biggest lessons, insights, and teachings from 2023 that I will implement and integrate into my everyday life and personality in 2024.

My Year 2023

At the end of every year, I try to analyze the past year: what went well, and what didn't, gather together lessons, and insights, and set up a plan for the next year: goals, intentions, and things to improve.

The year 2023 was for me was very busy, but at the same time very good! I am quite satisfied with the year and with the progress that I’ve made in various areas. However, there are also some things that I would like to improve in the coming year.

It is also true that some areas are better than others, and this should not be taken as a bad thing. If everything were great, you wouldn't have anything to improve. Also, if everything is fine, you probably aren't being honest and open with yourself enough and you don't want to admit that you struggle in some areas of life. And because of that, you don't do anything to improve these things.

In 2023, I am most proud of:

• Podkast Benessere: my Slovenian podcast, the consistent work, growth, success, growth, and new opportunities that are opening up within it.

• Achieving balance in my life between everything I do, which I have maintained more or less well throughout the year: work, fitness, work on projects, socializing and, on the other hand, relaxing, recharge, and recovery.

• My personal progress: Progress in health and fitness, personal growth, confidence, insights, lessons, etc

• New acquaintances, new friendships, and personal relationships.

Good and positive things in 2023 that I want to continue and maintain in the second half of the year:

• Work on myself, insights, and life lessons on a weekly and monthly basis,

• Health and fitness maintenance

• Podkast Benessere

• Hanging out with the people I love the most, I feel the connection with and fill me up

• Finding and maintaining balance between everything I do and relaxing, recharge, and recovery.

Analyzing the year, in addition to my diary, where I write my thoughts and personal "confession" (sometimes daily, sometimes a few times a week), and the planner where I write daily highlights of the days and insights, lessons and teachings of the week, I also used the so-called the wheel of life and the online evaluatorMindvalley Life Assessment.

The wheel of life works by dividing the circle into 3 parts: health, relationships, and work, and then dividing each part into 3 parts: health into body, mind, and spirit, relationships into romantic relationships or love, family and friends, and work into growth (personal growth), money or finances, and job, career or mission.

For me personally, it was quickly evident that the categories that limp the most are romantic relationships or love and money or finances. This was also confirmed by the Mindvalley Life Assessment, which said that the category I need to focus on the most is the quality of life (Life Quality), which, among other things, consists of money (money enables life experiences and improves the quality of life) and romantic relationships and love, which improve the quality of life.

I would know that money and romantic relationships are the "worst" for me right now even without analyzing it, because it's obvious. I am aware on a daily or weekly basis that I am missing and lacking this. I've been trying to improve both areas for some time now, but I just couldn’t get them right.

At the same time, I know - this was one of the biggest lessons and lessons I learned this year - that things take time - especially love - and not everything always depends on you.

So in the coming year 2024, I will put more emphasis on these two categories: money and finances and romantic relationships.

In terms of finances, I have to overcome the blockage and the fear of charging for my services, start offering various services, monetize the podcast, and successfully execute some projects - including the online course.

In romantic relationships, I have to open up more and go out more, meet new people, and make new contacts. Only in this way will I be able to create opportunities for a romantic relationship and love to open.

6 insights from the previous year that I will implement in 2024

There were many insights, lessons, and teachings in 2023. I came up with them weekly through my research, real-time learning, listening to podcasts, reading books, watching YouTube, interacting with others, etc.

Below I share the biggest ones, the ones that reoccured throughout the year, and in my opinion are the most important of this year. I hope that they will come in handy and maybe spark some (new) knowledge for you too.

1. The mental aspect of healing and recovery

In the late 2023, I got sick and spent New Year's Eve in bed with a high fever. On the first day of the new year 2023, I visited the emergency room, where I was given antibiotics for a viral infection. Antibiotics did their job, but also wreaked havoc on my gut.

Since the gut plays a large and important role in overall well-being and mental health, I felt the effects of the antibiotics as lack of energy, malaise, and also mental health issues (anxiety, melancholy, and some depression as well).

Shortly after stopping the antibiotics, I began the protocol to heal the gut and repair the damage caused by the antibiotics, and restore the gut. At the same time, I realized that:

During various challenges and events in life, it can quickly happen that we fall into the trap of our mind. Our mind creates an illusion and reality that we live in without realizing it. It often happens to me that I fall into victim mode and self-pity, which can be difficult to get out of, and if you stay there, it prevents you from growing and progressing.

Healing and recovery are not only physical: mental, emotional and spiritual aspect also helps a lot. It is necessary to focus on all areas.

Focus on directing your mind in the right direction. Support and work on your emotions, harness the power of vision, joy, passion and purpose, and work on strengthening your mental health.

2. All the things you are looking for and want, you can give yourself.

This realization came on one difficult day in a strange and difficult period of late May and early June. I was not an easy period for me. I didn't feel well. I had a lot of pressures inside me, and behind those pressures was the desire for approval and attention.

Towards the end of the year, I found out on Jordan Peterson's podcast that attention = love and if we didn't get enough attention - or enough 'real' attention, the attention that we need according to our personality type - in our childhood years, in adult life results as a feeling of lack of love and, as a result, craving and searching for attention.

Throughout the year, I realized that I put pressure on myself, push myself, and force myself into a workaholic because I want to prove myself, to be seen by others, to get people's approval and attention, because of the feeling that I am not enough and that I am not loved.

Based on this, I heard an inner intuition that told me:

This is not science fiction. These are known things, and many people talk about it, but we all fall into back this trap of seeking approval, attention, and love from others - although it is always inside us, we just don't know how to give it to ourselves.

So this realization serves as a great reminder for me to focus on working on myself - especially working on self-love.

3. Persistence and delayed gratification

Instant gratification is one of the biggest problems in today's world. We don't like doing things for which we are not immediately rewarded because we are used to the immediate dopamine from social media, video games, series, porn, etc.

The best and most illusory example of this that come to mind are Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari after the end of the 1995 season. At that time the racing world was convinced that Michael would lead Ferrari to their first championship title after almost 20 years.

But to everyone's surprise, in the 1996 season Schumacher lost the world champion title in the last race.

Things went similarly wrong in the 1997, '98 and '99 seasons where the title narrowly eluded Schumi and Ferrari. After the end of the 1999 season, many, both critics, Ferrars fans, Ferrari team and Michael themselves, began to doubt the Schumacher-Ferrari combo, but at the same time they persisted and did not give up.

What followed was something incredible and made history: Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won 5 consecutive titles, both in Drivers' Championship and in Constructors’ Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004).

If you’re not a sport fan, then look at the example of chinese bamboo: You plant a seed of a bamboo tree and nothing happens for 5 years. Then after 5 years, something starts moving and suddendly the bamboo tree grows 30m (90ft) in just 6 weeks.

The lesson of the stories: you never know when things will turn around and work out for you, so you just have to work hard, persevere and wait patiently. The more you want and long for something and the longer you patiently wait for it, the more you will appreciate it when you get it and achieve it.

This lesson ties directly into the next one, which is:

4. Work without expectations

After a long time I came across an idea that is very familiar to me, I have already written about it, but I forgot about it (this is the "human condition").

This is the idea of ​​the British philosopher Alan Watts called The Law of Reverse Effort" or the Eastern philosophy of Wu Wei or Effortless Effort. 

The main point behind this idea and philosophy is that the more you want something and the more you chase it, the more it slips away - be it success, happiness, love, etc. When you struggle to stay afloat, you sink; but when you let go of control, you float.

Blessings and magical moments come when you least expect them. Life would not be interesting if you had a drawn and marked path.

Therefore, Wu Wei, Effortless Effort or Effortless Action: Do your best, no more than you can, and don't be attached to the outcome and result

PS: The best life philosophies are so very simple. :)

5. You can't change deeper things on a conscious level

The weeks of October were very turbulent for me: some emotional and subconscious things opened up for me and I really didn't know what to do about them.

Then, during and through the psychedelic experience on LSD (more on it maybe another time), I realized that what you can do with the conscious mind is limited.

Rational and positive thinking will help to deal with current things, but it will not help solve deeper things, things that you carry in our subconscious or are not even aware of.

You can't change the deeper things on a conscious level: you can't consciously with your mind change the sub/unconscious things on an emotional, emotional, soul, and deep personality level.

The deeper roots things have, the more we have to choose tools that turn off the mind and take advantage of the "unlimited" power of the subconscious and unconscious mind (eg deep meditations, hypnosis, psychedelics...).

6. What will really count and matter in the end?

Throughout the year 2023, on 3 different occasions, I came to insights and realizations about what will really count and really matter in the end.

First, on vacation in June. I was on the beach, I went through the diary, analyzed the first half of the year and came to the realisation that:

Most of the problems and challenges we face will not really matter in the long run. Maybe we feel as if the things, challenges and problems we face are terminal and fatal and will mark us. Maybe some things really chart our path forward in life, but in the end none of it will really matter.

When we really - but really - stop and when we come at the end of our life, we will not remember the challenges and problems - we will forget about them. We will only remember the good things and live in the moment. Then nothing is as important as it seems to us while we are in those difficult moments.

Death can also be a great teacher. In the last year, there were 3 deaths around me and in my life - 2 family members and 1 neighbour in our village. Thinking about death puts things into perspective.

It seems to me that in the end, it's only what you leave behind that really counts. Are you chasing personal successes and achievements that boost your Ego? Or for things that leave an impression on people and help change and improve the world?

Knowing that our time is limited is not a reason for regret, but an opportunity for a strong inner drive to leave something behind.

A final thought

I saw a very interesting post on Instagram around Christmas. It talked about the fact that from a numerological and astrological point of view, 2023 was a year of inner work, work on oneself and inner knowledge, and that 2024 will be a year of abundance, success, and an opportunity to step into your potential.

Although these things are a bit woo-woo, I think there is something to it, because I have this feeling and intuition that the year 2024 will be very good and successful year.

So I take this opportunity to wish you a happy and successful 2024! Be brave and enjoy it! 😊❤️

---

I hope you liked and found this article interesting and useful!

In this newsletter, I’ll share the new insights I gained and how I’m going to implement them going forwards.

Even tough and all-in-all I’ve had a very good period and a really good year in general, sometimes I still fall and have to figure out what was the cause of that fall and what should I change going forwards.

My last breaking point this past weekend was a combination of several factors. I was pushing my body and mind too much for too long. I had accumulated a lot of things and had to process them. I had been ignoring the whispers and therefore had to hear the screams.

Even though I’m feeling really good most of the time, on my hard days and tough periods I still find it hard to admit that I'm tired, fatigued, exhausted or feeling burnt out - to myself and others.

It’s because partly I don't want to show my weakness. It’s because deep down a part of me still believes that I am good enough and worthy only if and when I feel good and am my best self. It’s hard to admit because I want to feel good and do the things I love. And because I don't want to let myself and others think that there is something wrong with me if I feel tired, fatigued, exhausted, or burnt out.

I’ve done a lot of internal and emotional work this past year and all of the false negative beliefs are not as strong as in the past and don’t influence me as much as they had. But I still struggle with them, especially on those bad and hard days.

On Saturday I had an interesting conversation with someone on social media. When I started to feel bad, I remembered one of my quotes explaining the reason for feeling burnt out and I posted it on my Instagram stories.

“A reminder and note to self: If you feel like you can't take it anymore, it's not because you're weak - it's because you've been too strong for too long.”

That story initiated an interesting conversation. This individual replied to my story :

I knew the quote: it’s was David Goggins’ The 40% Rule which says that whenever you feel you are at your maximum, your mind is playing tricks on you. At that point, you are at 60% of your capacity and you can go much, much further. There is 40% more to go.”

In the past, I would agree with this 100%. As an athlete, I knew that most tiredness and fatigue was mental and that if I pushed through the mental resistance, there was energy and performance of the other side. That’s why for most of my young adult life I pushed through the fatigue and resistance. Until a certain point: Burnout.

Now, I don’t fully agree with the 40% rule. I do agree that a lot of times tiredness and fatigue are mental and if you push past them, new capabilities open up for you. But at the same time, sometimes fatigue and tiredness are real and are a sign that you need to slow down, rest and recover, and if you don’t, you might get in trouble (burnout knocking on the door). 

Conversation this individual went on and he wrote that when you feel tired, just push on! He also sent a reel of a monk that explains why so many people today are depressed.

The monk in the video talked about that we as society have become weak and lost the fortitude that ancient civilisations (eg. the Spartans, Ancient Romans) had. In his opinion, mental health problems and diseases are the result of spending too much time sitting and staring at the screens.

This individual went on and said that

Again, while I partly agree with him, there’s an aspect in these arguments that doesn’t apply - to me or anyone who experienced burnout and has been affected by burnout to a certain amount. 

It’s hard to explain to people who never experienced burnout: burnout affects you and changes you in some ways that people will never understand and get it. 

The energy levels in people with a history of burnout are not as contant and as high as before the burnout. The mood is more swingy and things affect us more than other people. We have to be more careful about our energy expenditure and can’t push past our limits for too long because will we run our of energy and ended up depleted or burnt out. 

That weekend for me was really tough and challenging. I was tired, so f**ing tired. I had to spend the whole Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday in bed, resting, recovering and replenishing my energy.

I was afraid that I would burn out - the fear that burnout left in me - because of all the things that i’m currently doing and having on my plate.

But at the same time, deep down I knew that I was going to be okay. I knew I just need a longer break to rest deeply, destress, process accumulated things and recharge my batteries.

And I was right. Afterward, I felt much better and have recovered almost fully.

Over time I’ve learned that the biggest challenges and the darkest times bring a lot of lessons, insights, and blessings. 

For me, the breakdown was an opportunity to take a step back, take an inventory of my life, analyse things and change what must be changed.

I took that breakdown as a chance to:

1. Destress and process accumulated things and recharge

2. Analyze what I’d been doing wrong: what were my biggest stressors, energy consumers, where and when I pushed too hard for too long, etc

3. Get to better know me and know where my limits was.

Now I have to options: 

1. Either respect my limits, lower my outputs and not cross them again, or

2. Raise my limit: with biohacking, some new supplements, substances, etc… 

Remember: the biggest challenges and the darkest times bring a lot of lessons, insights, and blessing. Breakdown is an opportunity to take a step back, take an inventory of your life, analyse things and change what must be changed.

I’ll leave you guys with this thought by Aubrey Marcus  in a newsletter from some time ago, 

Thank you for being here and reading! Until next time, take care,

~Jani✌️😊

In this newsletter, I’ll talk about the “Passion Paradox” or the “Dark Side of Passion and Purpose”. 

This past weekend I watched Kevin Hart’s documentary Don’t F**k This Up! on Netflix and it got me fired up! 

Kevin Hart is such an inspiring guy and one of the most driven and successful actors in Hollywood.

His inner fire and desire to do more, be better, and impact the world on a grand scale is contagious!

I remember back to 2019 when I first heard Kevin Hart talk about all these things on the Joe Rogan Podcast (episode #1275). I remember I was outwardly moved and inspired by his story of how he came from nothing and became the biggest comedian in the world, running his empire consisting of businesses, production houses, supplement lines, etc. 

Binge-watching the series on Sunday - one of my favorite ways to totally and completely relax, chill out, and destress - reminded me of my desire and mission to impact the world and people around me in a positive way, trying to make the world a better place, and hopefully leave some legacy behind. 

But achieving success, and making an impact on the people and the world requires sacrifices - the bigger the mission, the bigger the sacrifices required.

The Dark Side of Passion and Purpose

As I talked about in one of my recent newsletters, even though passion and purpose are some of the most significant factors for our energy, well-being, and resilience against fatigue and burnout, there’s a dark side to it.

It’s the so-called “Passion Paradox” or the “Dark Side of Passion and Purpose”. 

Passion and purpose are like fire: they light up a spark in us, unleash a reservoir of energy and well-being, keep us motivated and focused on the now and path forward, and lower life stress, anxiety, and even depression.

However, we have to be careful: if we don't know how to play with fire, we will get burned. When demands and ambitions derived from passion and purpose surpass our capabilities, that’s when problems can occur. 

Pushing ourselves forward while being in red REVs is the road to disaster - burnout is one of them.

Kevin’s Secrets For Success and Avoiding Burnout

Why is it that some people can just keep going? Why is it that some people can just keep pushing and never run out of drive, energy, and strength?

The way I see it, there are a couple of major reasons why: genetics, lifestyle, mindset, psychological and spiritual factors, among others.

1. Discipline

Ask any super successful person about what made them successful and the answer “discipline” will probably be very high in their list. 

It’s the same for Kevin Hart. Discipline is a huge part of his identity and most of the credit for that goes to Kevin’s mom who was very strict with him growing up and taught him to work hard and never quit or give up.

Besides clearing time and space for us and enabling us to do things that we need to do, discipline also provides Energy for us. In the absence of distractions and indecision, focus and energy flow to activity at hand, giving us more energy to complete it.

2. Drive

Kevin Hart's relentless drive and determination are awe-inspiring. His pursuit of continuous improvement and his relentless quest to leave a lasting legacy remind us of the importance of ambition and striving for greatness. 

However, this unyielding drive can sometimes push us beyond our limits, leading to burnout. 

As Kevin himself exemplifies, the desire to be better, do more, and leave a legacy should be balanced with self-care and mindful attention to mental and physical health.

3. Find The Switch

Balance is hard to obtain. Sylvester Stallone in his new documentary SLY - lately so many fantastic documentaries came to Netflix (Kevin Hart’s, David Beckham’s, Sylvester Stalone’s, Robbie Williams’, Ilary Blasi’s - ex-wife of footballer Francesco Totti) - says that you have to learn to juggle. 

Each thing that we’re doing in life is like a ball, so we have to learn how to switch our focus from one to another and not lose sight of the wrong one.

Kevin seems to nail this one. On the Joe Rogan podcast, he explained that he found his switch and learned how to turn it off. When he comes home from work, he puts his phone away and leaves his laptop at the office so he can be fully present in the house with his family, wife, and kids. His home is his safe place where he can switch off completely, rejuvenate, and recover his energy. 

Kevin also says that he’s a “cat napper”. He can fall asleep and take a nap very easily, which is a great tool to reset the nervous system, refresh the mind, and recover some energy. 

Kevin’s found his switch and is using it daily. What’s your switch and how can you use it more?

4. Love and Family

Kevin Hart's emphasis on the significance of love and family serves as a crucial antidote to burnout. 

Amidst his packed schedule and tireless pursuit of success, Kevin finds solace and restoration in his family.

5. Community

Throughout the documentary, Kevin repeatedly acknowledges the vital role of community and support systems. 

He emphasizes that success isn't achieved in isolation; it's a collaborative effort. Kevin said multiple times throughout the series that he couldn't have done it alone, not without his brothers.

Building a supportive network, seeking help when needed, and being part of a community that shares similar goals and values can serve as a buffer against the detrimental effects of burnout.

As Kevin Hart's journey illustrates, achieving success and pursuing one's passion requires a delicate balance. While ambition and purpose drive us forward, it's essential to temper them with self-care, family time, and the support of a nurturing community. 

Striking this balance not only safeguards against burnout but also ensures a sustainable and fulfilling pursuit of our goals.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll explore the idea of “Kintsugi”, Japanese art and philosophy, and how we can use its principles and core message and apply it to our health and embrace it. 

Kintsugi: The Art and Philosophy of Broken and Imperfection

Kintsugi, also known as kintsukuroi (in English "golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, which makes the pottery even more beautiful and valuable than before.

As a philosophy, Kintsugi embraces the flawed, broken, or imperfect: it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

When a piece of pottery gets broken, it's seen as worthless: it doesn't serve its purpose, and it can't do anything.

But then when the broken pieces and pieced back together with gold solder, the pottery is even more beautiful and valuable: it's seen as a piece of art and it's more valuable than it was ever broken.

Mat Fraser: Broken to Best

I first encountered the idea of Kintsugi by following Mat Fraser, the 5 time CrossFit Games champion and the fittest man in history. 

Kintsugi is at the core of Mat’s philosophy of “Broken to Best”: Mat’s journey from his lowest point of having broken his back to his career highlight of winning his 5th Crossfit Championship.

Ever since he was a teenager, Mat had one singular goal: to compete in the Olympics. After high school, Mat moved to the weightlifting training center where he could dedicate his life to Olympic weightlifting and achieving the goal of competing in the Olympics. 

In one training session, a few weeks from a big competition, while doing clean pulls, something in Mat’s back pooped and he felt how the pain and inflammation started to spread from his back throughout his body. He felt that something was wrong, but he was forced to continue the preparations for the big upcoming competition in Romania, Europe. A couple of days later, during a heavy squat session, Mat reinjured his back. Later he found out that he’d broken his L5 in two sports and he needed surgery. 

It took Mat one year to fully recover and get back to where he was physically before the injury.

Mat says that people don't realize how bad his injury was and how “broken” he was. After his surgery and as he was healing, the doctors were telling him that his sports career was over and that he would be lucky if he could ever walk, jog and function normally again.

Mat’s lowest point was the realization that his dream of going to the Olympics was over and that he might never be able to lift anything heavy ever again. Just the thought of not being able to play with his future kids, not being able to run, or always worrying about his back slipping was horrible to him.

Because he wanted to be healthy again and have a functional life, surrendering and coming to terms with his condition wasn't an option for Mat. He refused to believe that that would be his life. Instead, he decided and made the commitment to heal and come back, even stronger. 

And he did. Mat holds the record for the most wins in Crossfit: he won 5 back-to-back consecutive CrossFit Games. 

Resilience and Anti-Fragility

The back injury made Mat more resilient. In the podcast, Mat said:

Mat says that now he's built better, that he's better at what he does than he was before his injury, and the reason why is because of the life lessons he learned from the injury and because of the grit he got from it.

He embraced the injury that broke his, healed it, and got better and stronger because of it - just like he identifies so much with the art and philosophy of Kintsugi.

Embracing the Wounds

One of the long-term consequences that burnout left in me is tough days where I struggle both physically - physical energy and well-being - and mentally and emotionally.

Although there are far fewer tough days than in the past, they are far less dark and challenging, and I’m able to snap out of them much quicker, sometimes they’re still quite challenging. 

Through recent tough, bad, hard, or dark days (whatever you want to call them) I realized two things:

1. The Gift of Hard Days Is The Revealed Gap 

Tough days show us what we’re struggling with, what unconsciously causes us problems, what things we need to work on, and the gap between who we are and who we want to be.

For me, bad days reveal to me what I’m subconsciously struggling with (eg. seeking approval and love because of the belief that I’m not enough and won’t be loved) and remind me to work on those things. 

2. Embrace The Wounds

Some wounds heal fast, some wounds take a lifetime to heal, and some unfortunately don't ever completely heal. But we shouldn’t treat these unhealed wounds as a weakness: we should be proud of them and wear them as a badge of honor because they make us beautiful and valuable.

I often emphasize that burnout is a blessing: It is an opportunity to make an inventory and to reinvent our lives.

We can take burnout as an opportunity to take a step back and analyze what caused us to burn out, to fix the reasons and causes for burnout, to leave behind things that don’t serve us anymore, and to start living differently. This way, we’ll first overcome burnout, learn its lessons, and become stronger than we were before the burnout.

The Process of Rebuild

The process of healing the wounds and brakes takes time - sometimes years - and a lot of patience and perseverance.

In its traditional form, the Kintsugi technique required more than a month, recovering from physical injuries or burnout could take months or even years.

Mat described the process of healing his back as a step-by-step process: 

The process of healing may be slow, and it may require immense patience and perseverance, just as in Mat Fraser's back injury recovery. But in the end, we discover that it is the golden cracks, the scars, and the lessons learned from adversity that truly make us beautiful and valuable. 

So, let’s remember that in our imperfections, we find our unique strength and that, like Kintsugi, our lives can become masterpieces of resilience, courage, and growth.

If you want to learn how to figure out the root causes behind burnout and how to overcome it, you might want to check out my online course called Master Fatigue, Exhaustion, and Burnout.

In Master Fatigue, Exhaustion, and Burnout, I'll be sharing with you everything that I've learned and has helped me master fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout and achieve lasting well-being in every facet of my life.

In the course you will:

• Learn what are the underlying factors behind the fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout that keep you from being your best self and achieving the state of well-being,

• Develop awareness of the unknown and unconscious factors impacting your well-being,

• Learn how to tackle physical, lifestyle, mental, emotional, and spiritual triggers,

• Acquire practical tools to take control of your energy and vitality,

• and Achieve well-being in all realms of life!

If you’re interested in learning more about the course, comment with “I’m interested”, reply to this email or check out the article below:

In this newsletter, I’ll explore the significance of identifying and addressing internal patterns and how doing so can promote well-being and reduce the risk of burnout.

I haven’t felt the best the past two weeks and this weekend had a small breakdown: I experienced some burnout symptoms and had to take some time off, disconnect, destress, and recharge more.

I’m a very analytical person so my default mode is to start looking for patterns. What brought me to this? What caused these burnout symptoms? What did I do wrong?

This analytical approach to things is the reason I was able to learn so much about myself and burnout over the course of the last few years and why I’m sharing and writing about burnout in the first place.

I’m always learning and growing my knowledge about tiredness, exhaustion, burnout, and well-being: either from books, studies, content online, or other people, but mostly from my own experience. Sometimes I learn entirely new things, other times I relearn a lesson I’d learned some time ago but had forgotten. 

Remember the Lessons

A few days ago I saw a post on Instagram from Erick Godsey, where he talked about the importance of taking care and paying attention to his inner child and how he usually forgets about it, but when he remembers it and starts doing it it makes his life much better. 

Erick wrote:

This is an eternal problem, the human condition: we forget.

First, we forget the lessons and insights we have learned, and then we forget that we have forgotten them. Then something happens and we remember that we forgot them and that we forgot the forgotten. After that, what we remember sticks with us for some time until we forget it again. And that's the cycle of life. 

Progress means reducing the gap between forgetting the lesson and remembering it again.

So this past weekend, after some reflection and seeing Erick’s post, I remembered a huge burnout lesson that I’d forgotten: It was my internal “destructive” patterns.

The Role of Internal Patterns

I believe that for me and a lot of people one of the primary reasons for burnout are our own internal patterns. 

Internal patterns are the intricate web of conscious and unconscious internal processes - thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors - that shape our daily lives and influence our overall well-being. 

These patterns are deeply ingrained in our psyche and unconscious behavior, often developed over the years through repeated experiences and responses to various life events. 

Internal patterns serve as the guiding framework through which we perceive and interact with the world around us and can be both constructive and destructive. Constructive patterns help us navigate life, make informed decisions, and adapt to changing circumstances. However, destructive patterns can be detrimental, leading to issues like burnout. 

For instance, perfectionism, people-pleasing tendencies, and overcommitment are internal patterns that can drive us to work excessively, often neglecting our own well-being and boundaries. 

Over the past few months, I’ve come to realize that I can operate and live out of two modes within myself: out of my “Ego Self” and out of my “True Self”.

Since previous weeks were very busy and I forgot about this realization, I slipped into the first mode of being. It’s my default mode since it’s more ingrained and has been with me for longer. 

When I operate and live out of my Ego Self, I’m doing things in a rush and living out of necessity. I have a sense of pressure and tension, I feel that I’m not good enough and that I have to earn love and validation, which drives me into workaholism. Since I’m not doing things and living with passion and purpose, I end up energetically empty and depleted. I also end up not prioritizing my needs and my own well-being and also not taking enough time to clear up and process accumulated stuff and emotions.

When I’m in that mode, I eventually crash and burn: after all, it’s this mode of living that first brought me to burnout. 

This weekend I realized that I slipped back into old patterns and it made sense why I was feeling so bad and burned out. 

You have to step out of the situation you’re in to see the whole thing and analyze it.

After this realization, I made the commitment to reinvent my life and live in the second, better mode of living: My True Self. 

So I made the commitment that in the future I will:

• Be more gentle and compassionate to myself and put less pressure on yourself by lowering the expectations for myself,

• Remind myself to do things and operate with a sense of joy, passion, purpose, and love, 

• Remind myself that I’m enough the way I am and that I don’t have to prove and compare myself to anybody,

• Release and let go of the things that I’ve been accumulating in my body, mind, and soul more consistently,

• Cultivate Self-Love practice and transfer Self-Love into my thoughts, actions, and behaviors. 

  ---

Changing patterns is never easy: it requires a lot of commitment, daily work, persistence, and patience. But it’s only by recognizing these patterns, understanding their origins, and learning how to manage and reshape them is crucial for achieving a healthier, more balanced life and preventing burnout. 

You’ll be able to learn more about internal patterns and how to change them in my upcoming course Mastering Fatigue, Exhaustion, and Burnout. I'll give a hint: one of the strategies to master internal patterns is to utilize the power of positive affirmations in specific ways and times to make them more efficient and our brains more susceptible to change.

if you’d like to be one of the first to get the course and a special limited offer, join the course waitlist below:

course waitlist

It’s my first week back from short holidays on the beautiful island of Krk in Croatia. 

Since I’m having a harder time getting back to my work routine and being fully productive - it’s the combination of post-vacation slugishness, the summer heat, ummer fatigue that I mentioned in a recent newsletter, and other factors - I’ve prepared a new installment of my personal insights.

Here’s my latest insight that I’ve learned, I hope you enjoy it and find it inspiring, at least a bit.

In our fast-paced world governed by social media and stories of overnight success, we all slip into the vicious cycle of high expectations and instant gratification. 

But the reality is that things take time to happen - and the bigger and important the thing is, the longer it will take to happen.

The best and most illusory example of this that come to mind are Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in Formula 1 World Championship.

Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari after the end of the 1995 season. At that time the racing world was convinced that Michael would lead Ferrari to their first championship title after almost 20 years.

But to everyone's surprise, in the 1996 season Schumacher lost the world champion title in the last race.

Things went similarly wrong in the 1997, '98 and '99 seasons where the title narrowly eluded Schumi and Ferrari. After the end of the 1999 season, many, both critics, Ferrars fans, Ferrari team and Michael themselves, began to doubt the Schumacher-Ferrari combo, but at the same time they persisted and did not give up.

What followed was something incredible and made history: Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won 5 consecutive titles, both in Drivers' Championship and in Constructors’ Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004).

If you’re not a sport fan, then look at the example of chinese bamboo: You plant a seed of a bamboo tree and nothing happens for 5 years. Then after 5 years, something starts moving and suddendly the bamboo tree grows 30m (90ft) in just 6 weeks.

How does this idea apply to burnout, health and wellbeing?

Well, like with most things, the work that we put into our health and the work on ourselves takes time to yield results. 

When you start exercising and eating better because you want to feel better and lose 10kg (20lbs), you probably won’t see any major changes and results in the first couple of weeks. But if you keep going, after a couple of months you start to see major changes on your scale, all of a sudden you start noticing that your waist is cut in half and that you feel great and you have double the energy as you did before.

You’ll also appreciate loosing the weight and having better energy more this way because you’ve put in the work and waited a long time for the results to come. 

It’s the same with burnout. If you’re stressed out, fatigued or burnt out and you decide to make radical changes in your life, it will take your body some time to recover and to feel better.

You just have to be patient, trust the process and have faith that results are coming even though you don’t see or feel the work that you’ve been puting in and the process of rebuilding your health.

And when you do come out of that stressed out, fatigued or burnt out state, you’ll appreciate being healthy and feeling good very much.

At this point I have to emphasize that this idea and principle apply only if you put in the work, consistently: It’s so obvious but it bears highlighting.

Patiently waiting without any input will leave you disappointed.

It’s the same as with manifesting. What people get wrong about manifesting  - whether they want manifest money, success, health, relationship, etc - is that wishing and “manifesting” stuff only in your mind, won’t make you achieve them. 

You have to put it in the work, consistent, daily work, be patient, have trust and faith that something is growing without you seeing it and it’s only a matter of time when things will turn out and fall into place.

So the main thing I wanted to leave you with this newsletter is that you never know when things will turn around and work out for you, so you just have to keep going, hang on and wait patiently.

The more you want, wish, and long for something and the longer you patiently wait for it, the more you will appreciate it when you get it and achieve it.

The longer you wait for things to turn around and fall into place, the more likely it is that what happens will be big and important.

That’s it for this short, “motivational“ newsletter, I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.

Next week’s newsletter is going to be an interesting and insightful one, so if you haven’t yet, subscribe so you don’t miss it.

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The past couple of weeks have been very challenging for me. 

It’s a shame because, before that, I felt really really good: energy and strength wise, mentally, emotionally, general well-being, everything. 

I don't know what had made the biggest impact on my improvement. I think it was subtle things like listening, honoring, and adapting to my body's signals and needs, doing things with passion and purpose, the mindset shift of trying to forget and not focusing on the things that I don't want, regular emotional work, etc.

I also think the consistent work on myself that I've been doing for the last half a year has started to pay off. 

But then a couple of weeks ago I started the next phase in my gut healing protocol that I’ve been working on for the past half a year with my coach Jessica Lamothe from In Health.

Parasites are bacteria that live in the gut digestive tract and can interfere with its normal functioning and cause a variety of problems: from digestion problems, low energy, fatigue, and brain fog, to mental health problems, etc.

The parasites protocol can cause die-off symptoms: As parasites die, they release the toxins they eat, which can cause the symptoms like bloating, gas, headache, nausea, fatigue, etc.

So the combination of die-off symptoms and gut discomfort can result in low energy, fatigue, brain fog, mental health problem, and also burnout symptoms.

Soon after I started the parasite protocol I started to experience the first negative symptoms (some headaches, feelings of cold, nausea, fatigue), and later on, I started to experience some burnout-like symptoms: difficulty waking up in the morning, poor energy levels throughout the day, increased stress levels, decreased strength and recovery, lower mental power and concentration, some mental health problems (fear, anxiety, and some low-mood and depression).

This experience reminded me of two things.

1. The importance of gut health and the connection between gut health and burnout and burnout symptoms.

The gut plays a massive part in our general health and well-being and is one of the biggest underlying reasons behind fatigue. 

Our gut breaks down, digests, and assimilates food that we eat which gives us energy and nutrients for our normal and optimal functioning. If our digestion doesn’t work well and optimally, we won’t get the energy and nutrients that we need which will result in decreased energy levels, low mood, and fatigue. 

If our gut isn’t healthy and our digestion doesn’t work smoothly, it can suck up a ton of our vital energy and can also cause a lot of stress, which then further sucks up our energy which can then result in burnout and burnout symptoms.

Another reason why our gut is so important is that it's in charge of the production of the majority of neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that in the body transmit information between neurons via synapses and signals and so "create" our well-being. The main neurotransmitters are serotonin (feeling of happiness), dopamine (well-being, motivation, and satisfaction), and GABA (calmness and relaxation).

If something in our gut and digestive tract is "not right" and doesn’t work properly, the gut cannot produce a sufficient amount of these neurotransmitters, which causes all sorts of problems: problems with energy, feelings of malaise, concentration problems, mood regulation issues, mental health problems, etc.

More and more studies show that gut problems, poor digestion, or bad microbiota can cause anxiety and depression, and when these problems are cured, the mental problems also disappear.1

The topic of digestion and gut health is of huge interest to me, so if you’d like to read more about this topic, let me know in the comments and I’ll make it happen!

2. The importance of the mind during change and healing

When it comes to change and/or physical healing, we often forget about the mental and emotional aspects of it.

Change and healing require a lot of energy, which can cause fatigue and other burnout-like symptoms and problems. When we experience these burnout symptoms the mind freaks out. The Ego, which is an evolutionary product of our analytical mind, wants to protect us, to keep us safe and alive.

Our mind controls our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, which influence our physical, mental, and emotional state and how we perceive and operate in the world.

This means supporting and working on our emotions, harnessing the power of belief, vision, joy, passion, and purpose, and working on strengthening our spiritual health.

One of the tools that has helped me the most recently is the exercise called The Priming Exercise by Tony Robbins: I’ve been doing it a couple of times every week and it’s powerful! 

So if and when you find yourself in a process of healing and change, remember to focus on your mental and emotional well-being. I guarantee you it’s a major factor that will help you massively!

That’s it for today, take care and see you again very soon! ✌️😊

It’s been a while since I last published a new and fresh newsletter, let alone my personal insight from my health and life exploration and journey - the last one was in February.

"My Personal Insights" is a place where I'm sharing my recent insights and reflections about life, nutrition, wellness, well-being, and my burnout journey.

My goal with this section of the Conquering Burnout Newsletter is to share valuable information and insights that I found useful that might help you in your own life and your own burnout journey.

Here we go: here are my three personal insights from April.

A Better Way To Gratitude

Since you’re subscribed to my newsletter, chances are that you’re into personal development and interested in wellness, well-being, and healthy living - and because of that you probably know about the importance and benefits of gratitude. 

Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood, and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain, and risk of disease. 

There are a lot of ways to practice gratitude, to be and feel grateful: journaling, expressing gratitude out loud, expressing it to others, etc. 

I’ve known about the benefits of gratitude and tried to practice it regularly for years, but I’ve always struggled with it - especially when I wasn’t feeling my best. How can I be grateful if I’m struggling physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually? Sure, I did my best to change my mental and emotional state by noticing and being grateful for small things in life, it worked a bit but it also felt a bit forced and ungenuine. 

However, recently I found new ways to practice gratitude and I find them very helpful!

I’ve been watching a lot of content from Alex Hormozi and I love it: I love his energy, how he delivers the message, and his practicality: just helpful and practical stuff, no unnecessary baggage, fooling around, and bullsh*t.

I came across an Instagram Reel and TikTok video where he shared his way of practicing gratitude - 2 different but very similar ways.

1. The first one is Imagining that what you’re doing is the last time you’re doing it. 

As Alex says, if you know that what you’re doing is the last time you’re doing it, you will probably appreciate it more. If you appreciate them for that, they taste a bit sweeter and you’ll be more grateful for them. 

2. The second way of practicing gratitude is “Gratitude from your 85-year-old self”. 

Alex says: “Imagine you’re 85-year-old self like you’re really old and that you woke up today in your body as it currently is. All of a sudden my morning coffee becomes this reliving of a moment that I have when I’m 85 years old.”

I tried them both and they’re very helpful! They make me stop, reflect upon my present and current life, and create a sense of genuine gratitude in me. 

So, if you’re struggling with gratitude - as Alex Hormozi or myself do - or you’re trying new ways to improve your general health and well-being, I would highly recommend trying them out!

The Importance of Emotional Work

Over the past half a year, I’ve been doing a ton of emotional work. 

Over this time, I’ve seen how things have been cleaning up inside of me: because of past feelings, emotions, and traumas that we haven’t processed - be it because we didn’t know how, maybe because we didn’t want to, or because we couldn’t - are stored in the body and negatively affect and interfere in our normal functioning.

What’s been helping me the most is the “Emotional Releases” that I’ve written about before here in my newsletter.

Emotional release is basically using different tools to process and let out stored and accumulated emotions - you can read more about them in the article below:

Conquering Burnout

How Emotional Release Can Improve Our Lives

The last few weeks I’ve been having a lot of emotional releases. I’ve been feeling how things have been cleaning up inside of me: how everything that I’d accumulated and kept inside me has been cleansing: things and stresses from school, sports and work; not working and doing what makes me happy; the feeling of being trapped, of being unseen and unloved…

Read more

3 years ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Jani Konjedic

The key to do this emotional work - for me at least - is to do it regularly: there are two reasons for that.

1. First, you don’t want to wait until your “Emotional Tank” is full to empty it and release what’s been accumulating.

You can do it this way, but it’s going to be painful.

Often the release and detox of accumulated emotions can have some negative consequences: Emotions can have the same flavor on the way out as it does on their way in.

Emotional detox symptoms can include:

• stress response,

• fatigue and exhaustion,

• bodily aches and pains,

• nausea.

• brain fog,

• vivid dreams and nightmares,

• urge to change your life radically,

• sadness, anger, resentment, insecurity, anxiety, depression, need to cry or scream, and other unpleasant emotions.

The longer you keep something inside of you, the more it will grow in size and the more painful it will be once it comes out. That’s why it’s important to do emotional work regularly: for me, this means having at least one bigger emotional release every week.

2. The second reason for regular emotional work - at least for me - is because of the “Emotional Weight” that I’ve developed over my life.

It’s as if you’re overweight: you’ve put on weight slowly, kilo by kilo, pound by pound, over the course of several years or decades, and because of that you won’t lose that extra weight overnight. You need to commit to doing the daily work: daily healthy diet, daily exercise, sleep, and supplement routine, etc. 

It’s the same with emotional weight. 

If you’ve never been taught about emotions, emotional work, and emotional intelligence, if you kept feelings and emotions for yourself, never share them, expressed them, or processed them, you’ve accumulated and gained a lot of emotional weight. 

I can tell you from my own experience that emotional and inner personal work is not easy: it’s hard work, and it requires a lot of time, dedication, and energy - but it’s worth it!

The more emotional work you’ll do, the less tension in your body you’ll have, the less stress you’ll feel, you’ll handle external stimuli and negative emotions better, your digestion will improve, the anxiety and depression will lift up, you’ll be happier, in a better mood and you’ll feel a sense of lightness and positivity. 

Forget and erase everything that led you to disease

Recently I learned about an inspiring story from a girl from my hometown who fully cured herself and reverse Multiple Sclerosis (MS) naturally without medications.

When I first heard of her story I was amazed: What was her secret?

At her lowest point, being in a wheelchair, being unable to walk and do anything, she decided that she would start living differently: that she will forget and erase everything that didn’t serve her and potentially brought her to disease: her mindset, her patterns - conscious, unconscious and subconscious - her beliefs, lifestyle, etc.

It made me think right away about burnout: I always emphasize that burnout is a blessing and a teacher because it gives us an opportunity to reinvent our lives and to start living differently. 

Like Albert Einstein once said: 

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

The patterns that brought you to disease and problems won’t get you out of them: you have to radically change how you live and operate.

So remember: In order to heal, forget and erase everything before the disease, everything that led you to the disease, and start living differently.

That’s it for this edition of “My Personal Insights”.If enjoyed it and found it interesting and helpful, please share it with someone who might benefit from it.

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Take care and see you again very soon! ✌️😊

And pushing and grinding through is draining: the energy that you give into that, doesn't flow back to you and doesn't fill you up, so you end up even more tired and fatigued. 

The worst thing about these hard days is that I don’t know the exact reason behind them.

I take really good care of my body, lifestyle, mental and emotional health: since I don’t know the root cause, I don’t know how to fix it and that creates a lot of fear and anxiety, which then in turn worsen these days. 

I’ve also had a lot of mental unease (brain fog, unclear mind and thinking, mental tiredness, etc) which trigger some trauma and past stressful events, which cause even more problems. 

On those days I also feel a lot of guilt and shame that I feel bad, that I have these days and that after all this time and all this work on myself, I still can’t figure my sh*t out. I tend to have a more negative and pessimistic point of view on myself and my life and often lack the ability to change that mindset and see the bigger picture.

One of the aspects of burnout that I still struggle with is the trauma and identity of burnout. 

On those bad and hard days when I don’t feel good, my mind connects how I’m feeling with burnout symptoms, triggers the trauma that burnout left in me and makes me feel that I’m burned out - that burnout is and will remain part of me and my identity.

I’m working on this trauma and identity, but that’s deep and hard inner work, and inner work is f*cking hard! (more on this below).

One of the things that helps me when I feel that burnout trauma and identity have be triggered and have been taking control of me, is the following question:

This question works great because it helps me put aside the emotional charge and think rationally - and normally I’m able to think and guide myself out of that mental state.

More about this tool in the following newsletter: 

Conquering Burnout

Fear Question, Who Needs my "A Game", Water and Hydration

Hi, welcome to the first installment of “Insights and Reflections” section inside the Conquering Burnout Newsletter. "Insights and Reflections" is a place where I'm sharing my recent insights and reflections about life, nutrition, wellness and well-being, but mostly about my burnout journey…

Read more

4 years ago · 1 like · Jani Konjedic

I think I know some of the reasons why I’ve recently had more bad and hard days.

The first one is that it’s currently my destress and deload week.

Destress and deload weeks is where I let out all of the accumulated stress and fatigue from the past weeks and allow my body to rest and recover. And the past couple of weeks have been very demanding and the more you accumulate, the more unpleasant the release symptoms will be, that’s just the nature of things. 

I write more about this idea of “accumulated stress” in the following article, check it out if you’re interested. 

Conquering Burnout

Is Accumulated Stress Burning You Out

We live in a crazy world. If you don’t live in a remote place far away from modern civilization — since you’re reading this, you’re probably not, but if you do, I envy you so much! lol — chances are that you are exposed to constant stimulus at the daily, oftentimes even on an hourly basis…

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4 years ago · 3 likes · 6 comments · Jani Konjedic

Another reason is that I’ve been doing a lot of Inner Work: processing and dealing with some deep emotional and spiritual things in therapy and workshops.  

The reason Inner Work is so hard and challenging is because it’s hard work - just like any work on yourself - except you can’t see it and can’t measure it. 

For example: When you work on your physical fitness and you go to the gym, you feel soreness and tiredness in your body, tendons and muscles for the next few days and you know that that’s the process of growing your muscles and making your body stronger, and over time you can feel and see the progress.

Another problem is that things and realms of the body, mind and psyche are interconnected and interdependent, so they affect each other

Mental, emotional and spiritual healing often shows on the physical and mental wellbeing as fatigue. tiredness, lack of motivation, drive and mental health problems (fear, anxiety, depression).

And if that’s the case, I have to focus more on my mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. 

More about emotional practices in the article below:

Conquering Burnout

How to Overcome Emotionally Challenging Times

We all have those bad and hard days when nothing seems to be going according to our wishes, and we don’t seem to find answers, reasons and causes to why that’s so… This week I’ve had a few hard and bad days — more than I’d like to admit. I struggled to get out of bed in the morning and to wake up. It took me until the afternoon to be fully awake and func…

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4 years ago · 1 like · 4 comments · Jani Konjedic

Ultimately, I think it’s about control - or better to say, illusion of control.

As fromwrote in the newsletter that I shared with you last week:

We live in a world focused on sense making.
We want to understand the cause of things.
And we are praised when we do it.

Universities invite critical thinking.
Psychologists ask us “Why?”.
Work invites us get to the root cause of problems.

This gives us the pretext to let our mind take over.
Assuming that we can get out of the discomfort by knowing its origin.

Paradoxically, understanding does not help.
It rather hinders the process.
It makes things more complicated.

We often use our minds to push away feelings of unease.
And analysing them is just another way to try to maintain control.

Instead, dropping sense making might be a better idea.

So on days that you’re struggling, here’s what you can try to do:

• let go of control,

• try about what you would do if you weren’t afraid,

• and focus on your mental, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing. 

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you again soon! 

"My Personal Insights" is a place where I'm sharing my recent insights and reflections about life, nutrition, wellness, well-being, and my burnout journey.

My goal with this section of the Conquering Burnout Newsletter is to share valuable information and insights that I found useful that might help you in your own life and your own burnout journey.

Here we go: here are my three burnout insights from February.

February was a weird and a bit challenging month for me - mainly mentally and emotionally. 

The month of January was very busy with a lot going on: working at my job, training and pushing at the gym, working for Conquering Burnout, and social media, etc. 

As much as I enjoyed the “grind and hustle” of those 3 weeks of January - it reminded me of my sports career as a volleyball player with busy days of going from school home, studying, going to practice, resting, going to sleep, waking up early and then repeating the process again - I also sneaked a bit back into some of my old patterns that in the past brought me to burnout. 

As I wrote about in my recent newsletter The Power Of The Mind: Harnessing the Power of Your Mind for Success and Conquering Burnout, our mind plays a huge role in our health and well-being and sometimes it works against us.

I used all the tools I knew to fight and shut down the analytic mind - from meditation, working out, releasing stored and accumulated stress and emotions with exercises like “Shaking & Dancing” and “Screaming and Punching”, to different Emotional tools to release and process stored emotions, cold showers which are a great way to quiet the mind and beat fear, more caffeine, napping, and power naps, binaural beats and music with specific frequency healing, working on chakras, etc… 

They all helped - but only a bit and for a short period of time. The mental pressures, anxiety, worries, and fears came back again and again. I fought them until I couldn’t anymore - I had to give up.

But after I gave up and take a step back, I gained a breakthrough and learned new insights and realizations. 

Don’t let the whispers turn into screams

Once I gave up fighting and I decided that I wasn’t going to push through the discomfort, pain, and rebelling of my mind anymore, I took a step back and took care of myself, all of a sudden my mind quieted down and I experienced relief. 

So what I think happened was that because I was ignoring, fighting against and shutting down signals from my mind and body for too long, they were getting louder and louder, until it was unbearable. 

As a quote from Aubrey Marcus, one of my favorite thought leaders and influencers, goes:

“If you don’t listen to the whispers, you’ll be forced to hear the screams.”

As I wrote in my previous newsletter, It’s hard to know whether signals, whispers, and intuitive feelings that we get are coming from our analytical, egoic mind or from our soul, spirit, psyche, or higher self - whatever you want to call that deeper, higher and truer part of us.

It’s especially hard when you’re dealing with burnout. It’s difficult to know whether the feelings of tiredness and fatigue are coming from Resistance and Ego that are trying to keep you safe and thus preventing you from growing and becoming better - or if feelings of tiredness and fatigue are coming from your body’s wisdom and trying to tell that you’re really tired and you really need to take a step back, rest and recover.

At the beginning of a burnout journey, it’s really hard to differentiate between the two. Still, with time, exploration, and experience you start to learn the difference between the two - mostly in how they feel.

Things and signals that come from the analytical mind and the ego feel more like a push (“I have to do X”) whereas things and signals that come from the soul feel more like a pull or calling (“I wish to do X”). 

The voice of the Ego is usually louder and has a stronger energy charge with a dopamine effect. In contrast, the voice of the Soul is more peaceful and has a calmer energy charge and a more serotonin effect.

So listen and hear whispers, respect them, and honor them so you won’t be forced to hear the screams!

Don't fall into victim mode and self-pity

The second lesson and insight that I learned in February was about victim mode and self-pity - aka feeling sorry for yourself. 

Because of everything that was happening, I got sucked into victim mode and self-pity without really knowing it. Victim mode is an internal pattern that runs in my family and has given me a lot of trouble in the past.

Our mind creates an illusion and reality that we live in without us being aware of it. Victim mode and self-pity are illusions in our mind trying to keep us safe and protect us, but they come with bad energy and low frequency: it can be very hard to get out of and if you stay there you won't be able to recover from burnout.

On one particular day, I called my healer and therapist and he made me aware of what was going on: that I’d been sucked into a victim-mode illusion of reality. After he made me aware of it, I was able to make the shift and it was like my world opened up and everything changed: it was truly an amazing and impressive experience.

I really liked what Angela Gargano, a fierce athlete, coach, international fitness model, and speaker said on episode 186 of the Forever Athlete Radio: 

"You can feel like this right now but you cannot get stuck here."

Don’t fall into victim mode and self-pity: take ownership of yourself and your life. During tough times, give yourself permission to fully feel and experience what’s going on in your body, mind, and emotional body and what you’re feeling, process it, let it go and move on. 

You're not exhausted and burnout because you're working too much

We often think - or at least I do - that we’re exhausted and feel burnt out because we’ve been working too hard and for too long, but that’s not always the case.

You're not exhausted and burnout because you're working too much: you feel burnt out because you’ve been working against yourself, your true self too hard for too long - that’s where the expression pushing comes from. 

Think about a time when you really enjoyed what you were doing: when you had fun and you felt a sense of joy, passion, and purpose for what you were doing. Even though you worked very hard and long hours, did you feel burnt out? Probably no. 

Energy in the body is not generated just with good nutrition - eating high-quality food and diet - and lifestyle practices - quality sleep and rest - but also with everything and anything that we do.

According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only altered in form, which means that energy is circulating.

When we do anything, we give it energy: when you really enjoy what you’re doing, when you have fun and you feel a sense of joy, passion and purpose, that energy circles back to you and restores that energy you gave to it. 

That’s why when you push against yourself and your true self you end up feeling burnt out. 

Commit to prioritizing yourself and your needs before others, and do more of the things that fill you up and less of the things that drain you.

That’s it for this edition of “My Personal Insights”. I hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting and insightful!

I would love to know your thoughts about it: Let me know in the comments below or by email response.

Leave a comment

Take care and see you again very soon! ✌️😊

For me, New Year has always been a weird time: a time of reflection and looking back which brings some feelings of negativity and “disappointment” about the previous year, and a time of planning and looking ahead which brings some feelings of pressure and anxiety. 

This year's New Year has been a little more difficult than usual. Although I had been feeling great in December and I really felt like things were falling into place for the first time after a very difficult period during summer and autumn, I got very sick last week with a very high fever and spent my New Year’s Eve in my bed. 

Although it was hard and challenging, it was also an opportunity for me to really slow down and reflect on the past year, 2023, and life in general: what has been happening in 2022, what did I achieve, the good things, the non-so-good things, what I want to bring with me to 2023 and what I want to leave behind in 2022.

I feel like the general opinion about the New Year and New Year’s resolutions - the “New Year, New Me” bullsh*t- are slowly changing and people view and think of transition from the old year to the new one more as a “fresh start”.

New Year As A Fresh Start

I talked about the idea of “fresh starts” in one of my personal insights newsletters back in August.

Conquering Burnout

Being present and mindful all the time, Challenges of Athlete Burnout and "Fresh Starts"

Being Present and Mindful All The Time I've always believed that you have to be mindful and present all the time - and if you're not, then you're missing out in life... I've felt guilty because of that. But I recently realized that you cannot be present and productive at the same time…

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4 years ago · 1 like · Jani Konjedic

When we’re feeling stuck not making progress and nothing we’ve tried has helped us out of the hole, maybe we need a fresh start.

A fresh start could be something as simple as a weekend off, a vacation or holiday, a working session in a different cafe, or something a bit more radical - eg. quitting our job, moving to a new apartment or new city, etc.  

Choosing a calendar date for a reset and a new start could also be a fresh start.

I and many other people I see start to approach New Year as an opportunity to have a new, fresh start. 

Being sick last week, I made a decision that I’ll take this New Year as a fresh start: to leave behind me everything that didn’t serve me and had been holding me back and work and double down on changes, things, and habits that will serve me in the future and help me become who I would like to become and be.

New Year’s Goal Setting

One of the things that I learned last year and didn’t talk about in my article My Lessons From 2022 was about goal setting. 

Conquering Burnout

My Lessons From 2022

2022 is coming to an end. I don’t know about you, but for me, this year has been very challenging in many ways and aspects. In January 2022 I quit my job and started my own entrepreneurial / freelancer journey. During this year, a lot of things came up from my past and I had to process them and deal with them. I had some health problems and I reached my…

Read more

3 years ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Jani Konjedic

In the past I was way more focused on goal setting: I talked about my system of how I set my annual goals in an article a year ago called How to set annual goals and achieve them successfully? and even made a free downloadable e-book of my exact strategy. 

Check out the ebook here

While I still agree and use the majority of the tools described in the ebook, I made a few changes in my goal setting. 

1. I reduced the number of areas from 5 (Personal, Physical, Professional, Financial, and Interpersonal area) to 3: Health and Personality, Career, Business and Money, and Love and Relationships.

2. In the right section, How will I achieve these goals? I focused more on building the systems and habits that will help me achieve the goals rather than solely on actions and behaviors.

3. The goals are not specific for 2023 but are more like a vision of life that I want: e.g. I want to be financially independent and not In 2023 I want to earn 20.000€.

I know that at this point some might say that you have to have SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), but for me, this just doesn't work. My opinion about myself and my self-worth is still too tied to outcomes and how I’m doing, and not achieving set goals affects me negatively and hurt me just too much.

That’s why I like to have a trajectory and bold vision of my life and daily, weekly and monthly tasks and systems instead of goals for the upcoming year.

At this point, you might be wondering how I’m planning on achieving the vision of my life. That’s where Reverse Engineering comes into play.

Reversed Engineering instead of Goal Setting

Reverse Engineering is an idea I learned way back in 2019 when I took my first online course, Ryan Munsey’s online course called Master Your Mind Academy.

As the name implies, with Reverse Engineering you take the reversed process: from the end to now. You Identify the end result, desire, and outcome 5 years down the road and you then identify what are the steps that will get you there. 

You make the vision for your future 5 years from now and then you break down what you need to do and what has to happen in the next 1 year, 6 months, 3 months (90 days), and 1 month (30 days). After that, you set up your weekly and daily goals and to-do lists that will help you achieve your vision 5 years from now.

When you break down your goals into small achievable steps, all of a sudden these goals are not that scary and intimidating and you feel more confident to achieve them.

Achieving goals and your vision in life is the byproduct of the systems and habits we put in place in our daily lives. So when we focus on actions (habits and work) and forget about the outcomes (goals), something just clicks, everything starts to fall into place and we achieve goals without even thinking about it. 

So if you haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions and goals, here are some prompts that might help you set your 2023 for success.

What can I leave behind me that did not serve me, my mission and who I want to be in life?

What core principles and habits do I want to cultivate in 2023 that will serve me and help me become who I would like to become and be?

What are my top 3 life goals in each category?

1. Health and Personality

2. Career, Business, and Money

3. Love and Relationships

How will I achieve these goals? What will I need to do in the next 1 year, 6 months, 3 months (90 days), and 1 month (30 days)? What will I need to do and how will I need to act and behave on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to achieve these goals?

I said it already, but again, Happy New Year everyone! I’ve got an inner feeling that this year 2023 is going to be a good year and that it will be the breakthrough year. We got it, let’s go! 💪

In January 2022 I quit my job and started my own entrepreneurial / freelancer journey. During this year, a lot of things came up from my past and I had to process them and deal with them. I had some health problems and I reached my lowest health point in the last 4-5 years.

But at the same time, this year’s brought me a lot of growth, insights, and lessons.

If you’ve been a subscriber for a long time and you’ve been reading my newsletter often, you might be familiar with some of these lessons because I wrote about them in the previous newsletters and in the “My Personal Insights” section of this Conquering Burnout newsletter. Some are also new and I haven’t written and talked about them before. 

Here are the lessons I learned this year. I hope you enjoy my insights and find them useful.😊✌️

PS: This is part one of My Lessons From 2022. Part two with even more insights will be sent out next week, but it will be available just for paid subscribers, so if you haven’t already, please consider subscribing: it’s a great way to support my work and this newsletter. 

Subscribe now

Also, happy New Year! May 2023 be the year that you achieve the success, happiness, and health that you’ve been pursuing!

What makes all the struggles, challenges, and hard times worthwhile are the lessons and insights that you gain and learn.

This was a somewhat recent insight and lesson that came to me unexpectedly and changed my whole view about the past year 2022.

Like I said in the intro, it was quite a challenging year, and sometimes it was hard not to be too harsh on myself and not feel like I made a mistake somewhere along the path and chose the wrong turn. 

But the insight that came to me one night in the bath, made me realize that all the struggles had been worth it: Knowledge, experience, and insights are invaluable and often come only through hard and challenging times.

Often throughout this year, there have been moments where I was wondering whether or not I made a mistake to quit my regular job. But if I hadn't taken the leap into the unknown, I'd still be in the same place, at the same job, dealing with the same problems, and without all these experiences and personal insights, I've gained while going through the challenges of this year.

So I realized that what makes all the struggles, challenges, and hard times worthwhile are the lessons and insights that you gain and learn.

You can read more about this insight and lesson in the article below:

Conquering Burnout

What Makes It Worth It?

Yesterday I was in my bath and reflecting about where I was a year ago. It's been one year since my first bigger burnout episode since I first burned out in 2017, but somehow I currently feel worse than a year ago - at least physically and health wise…

Read more

3 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Jani Konjedic

Sometimes I forget (and ignore) that I'm burned out

This was one of my first bigger lessons and insights of 2022 - and it was a really hard and challenging one!

After I quit my job in December of 2021, I begin January and year 2022 full of energy, motivation, and drive to work, be productive and make sh*t done! Before I felt like my job was really holding me back, sucking my energy, and causing me a lot of problems that were preventing me from being my best self. After I stopped working, I felt like I had a lot more energy left since the job wasn’t there to suck up a ton of energy, and the first few weeks of January I was flying high: paddling strong, sprinting, doing too much, drinking too much caffeine, working out too heavy and too often, … 

And as a proverb in my country goes: 

“Kdor visoko leta, nizko pade”, in English: “He who flies high, falls low”

And I did, I fell down hard and burned: I burned out a bit and had to take a few days off to fully recover. 

This however taught me a great lesson that no matter the situation in life and what I do, deep down I’m still going to be a bit burned out. Multiple prolonged episodes of burnout have left me with some permanent damage: I call it a “chronic injury”. It’s just like sports injuries: some injuries start out as acute and become chronic over time due to complications and poor treatment and recovery.

I have a limited amount of energy, and a limited amount of resources and I can’t go as long and as hard as others can. I can’t push my body physically as intensively as I would have liked. 

It sucks, but nothing can change that and all I can do is accept this aspect of myself, not push myself as hard, take extra care of my body, mind, and spirit, and love myself the way I am. 

During the past few months, I’ve worked hard and resolved a lot of the patterns that drove me to burnout and I’m much better and stronger now. :) 

You can read more about this insight and lesson in the article below:

Conquering Burnout

Sometimes I forget (and ignore) that I'm burned out

I couldn’t get out of bed this morning. It has been a demanding week: two days of sleeping less than 5 hours, two long road trips, two demanding workouts, and a whole day of skiing. To some this might not seem much, but for me, it was a bit too much…

Read more

4 years ago · 1 like · 4 comments · Jani Konjedic

Things take a lot more time than we expect

I read somewhere (I think it was in Tim Ferris’ book The 4-Hour Workweek, but I couldn’t find it out) that things take twice as much time and cost twice as much as we think. 

It’s true!

When I quit my job, my goal was to have it all figured out by the end of 2022: that I would have earned a living with my business by doing what I love to do, launched my online course about burnout, regained my fitness, scored new PRs in the gym, achieved my ideal lifestyle, etc. 

Things usually don’t happen as fast as we would like, they usually take a lot more time and cost much more than we expected. 

If we pursue conventional goals and goal setting (like I used to do), it’s a high probability that we might end up disappointed. But we can’t control the outcomes: we can only control our actions and behaviors. 

That’s why many philosophies across the globe and history emphasized the importance of letting go of results, letting go of what we cannot control, and allowing things to come and happen on their own. 

That’s also why I like the quote from my former mentor and coach Ryan Munsey “Focus on actions, not outcomes.” and the Italian quote that I have tattooed on my biceps “Tu in ogni case mettici il cuore, che poi al resto ci pensa la vita” (in English: “Do everything with your heart, life will take care of the rest”).

Give it your best, focus on actions and allow the outcome that you want to come by themselves.

Taking the leap is not the hardest part 

I always thought that the most difficult part of our journey is the start - the jump and leap into the void, but listening to Rick Alexander’s podcast about the call to adventure and the hero's journey, I realized that that's not the case and it all made sense! 

When I decided to quit my job in December 2021, I thought that that leap into the void was the most difficult part and that things will get easier and easier after that. But as the first months of 2022 went by, I couldn't understand why I was having such a hard time and things seemed to get worse and worse...

As Rick Alexander explained in that podcast episode, answering the call to adventure - taking the leap - is not the hardest part... The hardest part comes after that.

Answering the call in the hero's journey leads the character into the underworld - wonderland, hell, ... - where things get really scary and challenging.

That's why even if taking the leap feels like it's the scariest part, it's easier than what's about to come.

I wish I knew this when I decided to quit my job and go on a journey to start and build my own business because I would be more prepared for the struggles and hardships that were about to come. 

But there's no going back: as Rick explained in that episode, the only way is on and through.

If you're currently in the "underworld" and your life feels like hell, remember the quote from Winston Churchill:

Lack of Self-love is directly correlated to burnout

Over the past year, I have noticed in myself that my general health, well-being, and burnout condition depend very much on the level of self-love I cultivate for myself.

When I am too far away from cultivating true, conditional self-love for an extended period of time, I fall into my old patterns of perfectionism, workaholism, high expectations, limiting beliefs, internal pressures and contempt.

Also, when I’m too far off from cultivating love for myself for too long, I feel my burnout start creeping back in, which I think it’s the result of falling into the old pattern and belief systems that don’t serve me.

At the same time, I also felt the best and with no signs of burnout when my Self-Love is high.

I believe it’s because Self-Love is a “better” mental groove and it enables us to operate out of and live with joy, gratitude, compassion, love and patience which positively influences our thoughts, actions and behaviors, which then positively impacts our overall life and general health — including the burnout condition.

So I’m focusing a lot of attention and energy on developing a strong self-love practice: i’m planning on writing about how to develop a strong Self-Love practice in the future, so stay tuned for that!

Swapping Happiness for Meaning

One of the lessons I learned when I got sick during summer (which was the beginning of burnout) was that I’d been swapping happiness for meaning.

I’m the type of person who gains a lot of energy, well-being, and ultimately happiness from feeling and sense of purpose and meaning — but I was overdoing it. I’d focused too much on working and purpose and I forgot about happiness in the now. 

Deep down I’d been a bit unhappy and I tried to fill that gap with work and activities that would bring me a sense of meaning, purpose, and ultimately happiness, which led to overworking, high expectations, and mental pressures, which then lead to burnout.

This lesson helped me learn that it’s about balancing happiness and meaning, and I think that this can be achieved by following Vishen’s Lakhiani’s Formula for Daily Bliss and Magic, which consists of:

Happiness, Bliss, and Magic = Happiness in the now + Pursue of the goals and visions of your ideal future

So cultivate happiness in the now — choosing and engaging in the activities that bring us happiness, hanging out with people that we love and fill us up, doing things that we enjoy doing, cultivating Gratitude practice, doing the Self-Love practice — and pursue big goals and bold visions of my ideal future, which will bring a sense of purpose and meaning which will result in happiness in the now.

Welcome back to the "My Personal Insights" section of the Conquering Burnout Newsletter.

"My Personal Insights" is a place where I'm sharing my recent insights and reflections about life, nutrition, wellness and well-being and my burnout journey.

My goal with this section of the Conquering Burnout Newsletter is to share valuable information and insights that I found useful that might help you in your own life and your own burnout journey.

Here we go: here are my three personal insights from November.

Autumn Calming and Dying

In Slovenian, my mother language, the words calming and dying are very similar: 

calming = umirjanje

dying = umiranje

There’s just a j that differentiates the two words and that’s the reason why I like the phrase “jesensko umir(j)anje” (in English autumn calming and dying). 

Evolutionarily autumn and winter are periods in the year to calm down, rest, sleep and rejuvenate. In previous articles Feeling A Bit Burnt Out Lately? The struggles of “Autumn Burnout” and What can you do about it? and How To Overcome Autumn Fatigue? I emphasized the importance of adapting and adjusting our lifestyle to the changing seasons (the “calming” part), but I didn’t talk about the second part - the “dying part”.

I got this insight on one of my bad days: I had some emotional things coming up and after lunch, I had a big cathartic emotional release (you can learn more about what emotional releases are in this article:

Conquering Burnout

How Emotional Release Can Improve Our Lives

The last few weeks I’ve been having a lot of emotional releases. I’ve been feeling how things have been cleaning up inside of me: how everything that I’d accumulated and kept inside me has been cleansing: things and stresses from school, sports and work; not working and doing what makes me happy; the feeling of being trapped, of being unseen and unloved…

Read more

3 years ago · 4 likes · 5 comments · Jani Konjedic

After the emotional release, I went into a deep meditation. As I came out of it, I looked outside my window and saw how the sun was slowly coming out through the rainy clouds and how the leaves were falling off the trees. The trees were letting go of their leaves, letting them fall, and allowing a part of them that did not serve them anymore to die.

At that moment, it hit me: I too was experiencing something similar. Through emotional releases and catharsis, the parts of me that were no longer serving me were dying, I just had to let go of control, stop fighting against that and allow it to happen. 

The Benefits of Darkness

During October and November I spend a lot of time in the evenings in complete darkness - at least a few minutes to an hour once or twice a week. You might be wondering why? Let me explain. 

It all began at the beginning of October. One Saturday I was meant to go to my friend’s birthday party, but I felt awful: after dinner, I gave in and instead of going to the party I locked myself in my bedroom and just rested, in complete pitch darkness. I was forced to release and process all I had been accumulating up until that point. It wasn't easy, but it was super beneficial: the next day I felt brand new!

Coincidentally, a few days later, after I published the article How To Manage Mental Health Problems?from made an interesting comment: 

Everything started to make sense!

I first heard about something called The Darkness Therapy on Aubrey Marcus Podcast where he talked about his week spent in the darkness. The Darkness Therapy, Darkness Retreat, or simply Dark Therapy is a therapy that’s prevalent in Check Republic for treating psychiatric conditions and it’s a therapy where you go into pitch darkness isolation, and silence. In the absence of light and external stimuli, the mind can focus inward, process and heal things, emotional blockages, and unconscious patterns. 

Again, looking at things evolutionarily, autumn and winter are periods in the year with shorter days and longer nights. Before the invention of lighting, illumination, and electricity, during autumn and winter, our ancestors spent a lot of time in the darkness, which could mean anywhere from 12 to 16 hours a day. And because you simply can’t sleep 12h every night, what the hell were they doing in the darkness? They probably spend some time gathering around the fire, relaxing, chilling, and replenishing energy after working spring and summer, but I would argue that they were also doing the internal reflective work. 

As I mentioned above, last two months I spent more time in complete, pitch darkness. For me, it felt almost like a psychedelic experience with very viions. During these "Darkness Therapies" I was able to process and release a lot of stored, repressed, and accumulated things, stresses, traumas, and emotions: it was quite challenging at times but I was able to process some of them and I felt a release afterward.

Darkness can be a great tool not only for internal work, processing, or “psychedelic experience”, but since humans are visual beings and we take over 80% of stimuli through our eyes, some “enforced” darkness can really benefit you to detox and recover from light and external stimuli. 

If you want to learn more about the darkness therapy, check the trailer of Aubrey Marcus’ documentary about his darkness retreat below: 

Burnout is a result of working against yourself

The previous weekend I felt a bit burned out. On Saturday evening I spent some time reflecting on why I was feeling so empty and fatigued… Yes, it had been two good but also demanding weeks and the whole month of November was packed with errands, work, and obligations, but it felt like that was something else.  

Then it occurred to me: my feeling burned out was the result of working against myself for too long.

I was prioritizing the needs of others and putting others before myself, I was operating against my body, I spend too little time in nature, I hadn’t had enough sense of excitement, or fun, and I spend too little time doing things that bring me to flow and I spend too little time hanging out with friends and people that make me feel good.

One of the biggest reasons behind burnout is working against yourself and your True self for too long: this applies to multiple different levels: physical, professional, mental, emotional, environmental and spiritual areas.

Energy in the body is not generated only through proper nutrition and lifestyle. There's also a different kind of energy, capital 'E' Energy which is created when we do things that make us happy, when we engage in things for which we feel a great sense of passion, purpose, and mission and when we live a life that is meant for us. 

This Energy is extremely important for us and our well-being, but when we work against ourselves and our True Selves for too long, problems with tiredness, fatigue, burnout, and even mental health problems can occur. 

So make the commitment and choice to prioritize yourself and your needs before others, and do more of the things that fill you up and less of the things that drain you. I’ve been doing this week and I’ve been feeling a lot better. 😊

That’s it for this edition of “My Personal Insights”. I hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting and insightful!

I would love to know your thoughts about it and if you would like to read about this regularly - maybe once a month. Let me know in the comments below or by email response.

See you again very soon! ✌️

Yesterday I was in my bath and reflecting about where I was a year ago. 

It's been one year since my first bigger burnout episode since I first burned out in 2017, but somehow I currently feel worse than a year ago - at least physically and health wise. 

Thoughts running through my head: "You're a failure", "When will you get yourself back together?!", "When will you finally learn and completely heal from burnout?!" 

It's hard to face the fact that I was feeling better, stronger, healthier and in a better place professionally, financially and personally 1 or 2 years ago, despite the fact that I'm older and "wiser" now. It hurts…

But then a thought came: 

And I soon realized: The struggles were worth it. 

Knowledge, experience and insights are invaluable and often come only through hard and challenging times.

I still often wonder if I made a mistake to quit my regular job, because this year really hasn't been easy for me. But then I think that if I hadn't taken the leap into the unknown, I'd still be in the same place, at the same job, dealing with the same problems and without all these experiences and personal insights I've gained while going through the challenges of this year.

As cliche as it sounds, failure is the way to grow.  

It's like the classic lesson from the Hero's journey where the protagonist goes through hell and all the different troubles to get the treasure, bring it back home and share it with his tribe.

My prompt for you today is to change your perspective.

Whenever you feel like your progress has stopped or you feel like you're not moving anywhere, look where you were 1, 2, 5 or 10 years ago. Reflect about what you’ve learned in this time. Think about all the lessons, insights, findings and discoveries you gained and how much you’ve grown. 

All too often we see only the current problems and difficulties, so that we forget what we have overcome and how far we have come. So when we’re stuck in that place in our minds, something as small as a change of perspective can provide us with new insights and really change our state of mind and being.

Don't take anything for granted. Be proud of yourself and all your achievements.

That’s it for this edition of “My Personal Insights” . I hope you enjoyed it, found it interesting and insightful!

If you missed my previous personal insights, you can check them out in the link below:

My Personal Insights

Take care, talk to you again next week!

"My Personal Insights" is a place where I'm sharing my recent insights and reflections about life, nutrition, wellness and well-being, but mostly about my burnout journey.

My goal with this with section of the Conquering Burnout Newsletter is to share valuable information and insights that I found useful and might help you in your own life and your own burnout journey.

I haven’t done one in a long time, but here we go: here are my three personal insights from October.

#1: Having a sense of joy, excitement, passion, purpose, and fulfillment in our daily lives is one of the most important aspects for our overall health and well-being. 

When we live and operate with a clear sense of mission and purpose for our life, we feel great, we’re happier, we feel less stressed, we have the energy that we didn’t know we had in us and we have the feeling that we can do anything.

Every time I lose these feelings of joy, excitement, passion, purpose, and fulfillment, I remember how much worse I feel without them and how important they are to me.

So find out your why and you'll conquer your burnout!

#2: Lack of celebration and rewarding for completed tasks and milestones

One of the reasons why I was feeling empty, stuck and depressed the last few weeks, was because I just worked, grinded and pushed myself without celebrating and rewarding myself for the wins, completed tasks and milestones. 

This insight came to me on Saturday when I was reading a book called Forever Athlete: Connect with Your True Identity Daily, which is a collection of stories of former athletes, what they faced at the end of their sports career and how they implemented the “Forever Athlete” spirit and mentality in their further career.

As Darci Smith wrote in her chapter of the book, 

So in the future I’ll try to incorporate regular daily and weekly celebrations and rewards for completed tasks and milestones - even if they are small. 

#3: Something magical happens when you let go of expectation and let go of results and outcomes

One of the things that I struggle a lot with is my attachment to the desired results, the outcome, and success in life. 

It turns out that it is a universal law that is preventing us from achieving success and happiness: the more we want something to happen, the less likely we are to actually achieve it.

This idea of not chasing and letting things happen to us, is deeply enrooted in many Eastern philosophies - including Taoism, the Ancient Chinese philosophy:  Wu Wei, Effortless effort or The Backwards Law. When we stop trying, we’ll have what we want: give it all you’ve got, but don’t try to succeed, let it happen on its own.

So lower your expectations for yourself and your reality, let go of the desired results and outcome and allow it to happen!

Read more about this idea in my article on Medium.

That’s it for this edition of “My Personal Insights” . I hope you enjoyed it, found it interesting and insightful!

I would love to know your thoughts about it and if you would like to read about this on a regular basis - maybe once a week. Let me know in the comments below or by an email response.

See you again very soon!

I've always believed that you have to be mindful and present all the time - and if you're not, then you're missing out in life...

I've felt guilty because of that.

But I recently realized that you cannot be present and productive at the same time. You cannot live every moment to the fullest and make sh*t done.

You cannot be "enlightened" and productive at the same time.

Maybe there are some exceptions out there - some spiritual gurus and leaders who are able to achieve this - but for most of us, it doesn't work that way...

It will take you forever to get somewhere if you're driving 40km/h and trying to see and take in every tree you pass by...

To get somewhere, you take the highway, focus on driving and then when you arrive at the destination, you slow down, notice and take in the world around you and be fully present in the moment.

You’ll also appreciate it more when you slow down as you would if you're always going slow all the time.

But of course you have to slow down and live mindfully, if not life will really pass you by...

So in the future I'll try to life my life by analogy:

Sprint and Walk: Run and focus, then walk and relax.

Work and hustle on your craft and focus all of your attention on it. Then slow down, take a break, breathe and enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Challenges of Athlete Burnout

Athlete Burnout can be quite challenging - both physically and psychologically.

It’s difficult because our identity as athletes is partly tied to our physical body and health: when we are not physically well and fit, we do not just suffer physically - we also suffer personally.

It's hard for me to admit, but in the last period I've been struggling to get back in shape and working out consistently.

A month or so ago I experienced a mini burnout episode and I've been feeling like I'm back to square one. 

I've been an athlete my whole life and part of my identity is wrapped up into my physical body, fitness and working out.

I want to feel good, have the energy to workout and feel strong in the gym, but I can't currently, which is very painful...

But as painful and challenging as the burnout might be, it's also an opportunity for us to grow and to evolve: to love, accept and appreciate ourselves unconditionally despite not being able to use our body the way we would like to.

It's not going to be easy, but the obstacle is the way!

Forza e coraggio!

Do You Need A Fresh Start?

I recently watched a video from famous YouTuber Matt D’Avella where he talked about how something called “fresh start” changed his and his wife’s lifes for the better. 

At the time of watching the video, I was on a mini weekend vacation on the coast of Croatia and the idea of a “fresh start” resonated with me a lot. 

In the video, Matt explains that when we’re feeling stuck not making progress and nothing we’ve tried has helped out of the hole, maybe we need a fresh start:

• that could be something simple - a vacation or holiday, work session in a different caffe, choosing a calendar date for a reset and fresh start -

• or something radical - quit your job, move to a new apartment or new city, or in Matt's case moving half-way across the world from LA to Australia.  

For me personally, that weekend vacation served as a kind of reset and fresh start. After coming home and going back to my old routine and work, I was stunned to realize how much just a couple of days off to slow down, recharge, reframe things and put them into context means for my health and wellbeing. 

So if you’ve been feeling stuck and nothing from your regular practices has helped you get over it, maybe you need some kind of fresh start.

That’s it for this week’s “Weekly Insights” , I hope you found it interesting and insightful!

See you again very soon!

It was not easy for these individuals. Physical pain and disability can greatly limit us and prevent us from living and experiencing this world to the fullest and in the most beautiful way.

And yet, despite all the struggles and challenges, these individuals chose a different path.

They did not allow physical disability to mark them and “ruin their lives”. 

Instead, they embraced their condition and used it as a tool and catalyst for personal development and growth.

I learned a lot from these individuals.

Their positivity, energy and desire are enviable and virally contagious.

When you are with these people, you feel their kindness, warmth and loving soul, which are so rare nowadays.

Among the greatest realizations was the fact that regardless of what we have gone through and survived in life, we always have two options:

1. We can allow the traumatic experience to mark us and take away our better selves and let it “ruin our lives”.

2. Or we take the responsibility and embrace what happened to us, reframe the story that it happened for us and go on a journey to accept it, heal the trauma that’s left and commit to use the wound as a tool and catalyst that will help and enable us to become better and to be of service to the world around us.

Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, once famously wrote:

“The wound is the place where the light enters.”

When we go through any form of suffering, there’s always a hidden gem in there somewhere — even if it’s very hard to see it that first…

We can always transform the pain into growth. We can take that pain, suffering and wounding and use it to serve the world around us. We can go through that fire and emerge on the other side as a better person.

The road might not be easy. There will be lots of ups & downs. The conventional treatments may not help us, so we might be forced to look for alternative cures and healing tools. 

But that’s okay: it’s all part of the journey. 

As long as we’re moving forward, we’re making progress, getting better and stronger — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually!

Take the tough experience and let it transform you.

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Love and take care of yourself, forget about worries and enjoy life! ✌

~ Jani ❤