I was so flattered when a former client (and fellow Middlebury graduate!) structured her latest blog post around one of our health coaching conversations from last year. She NAILED my philosophy on "fake sick days," preventative healthcare and listening to cues from your body on when you need to rest.
So read below and head to her website at Compass Maven for the full post!
In the words of Carolyn .....
About a year ago I was working with my friend and health coach, Michelle Cady of FitVista, on a sort of health reboot. I was super overextended from working full time, going to coaching school at night, working on business ideas, being in a relationship, and generally trying to keep up with friends and maintain a social life.
In the midst of all of that, I was trying to fit in exercise and eating healthy. I was on a vary obvious road to burnout (even if I couldn’t see it at the time).
At one point during our conversations, Michelle said, “You know, Carolyn, you should really take a sick day. Like a fake sick day, when you’re not actually sick.”
Michelle’s idea behind this was that often our bodies come crashing down when we’ve overextended ourselves and are exhausted. As a result, we get sick and all we can do is watch Netflix and sleep - and aren’t able to take time to do the things we really want to do outside of our day jobs.
Michelle said she used to go through cycles of burnout when she worked in finance. Every 5 weeks or so, she’d have to completely block out her calendar for a weekend and do nothing so she could rest and regroup.
She pointed out that she saw some of the same burnout warning signs in me: I was working really hard, was tired all the time, and I had all of these ideas for my business that I couldn’t really focus on because I was so exhausted.
So she wanted me to take a sick day when I was feeling good and could make time for some of the things I couldn’t seem to get to in my busy life.
Read the full post HERE at Compass Maven.
Xo!
Michelle
PS: Check out Carolyn's Instagram @CompassMaven for straight shooting advice on how to navigate your life and career in your 20's.