Battling Burnout

For the past couple months, I’ve been putting in 75 hour weeks at Athletic Lab. Days typically start at 6am (with the first training session at 7) and end around 7 or 8pm. Add to that about 10-12 hours between Saturday and Sunday. And 2-3 speaking engagements a month that take me out of town. The past two days have been 15 hour days and yesterday I didn’t see my daughter other than coming home to find her sleeping.

So much for life balance.

Although difficult, I’m inching towards the long term goal of doing what I love while having financial freedom and some free time to do things outside of work. I’ve heard that one of the biggest problems facing start-up business owners is burn-out. Although I don’t feel anywhere close to this I can see how easy it could happen if someone lost sight of the progress being made. The financial, time, and emotional investment of pursuing something as all-consuming as a start-up business could easily become overwhelming. I’ve found it helps to make sure you learn from the inevitable mistakes while focusing on the progress being made.