Power of Play
Power of Play
The Battle of Burnout
In this episode Amanda and Kelly discuss the world of burnout and how you can battle it through play. They discuss Conative energy, the Kolbe assessment and how you can have to disconnect to reconnect.
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Hello and welcome back to the power of play. I'll come back guys. Yes. I'm your cohost, Amanda, and I'm Kelly. Great. We're glad you're joining us today. We have a really cool episode. We do. We are talking entrepreneurs and burnout. Have you heard anything about this, Amanda? Gosh, well I've experienced it first hand. Um, but a lot of clients call me and they're Burt towel and that's a huge part of why they want to travel, why they want to get away and you know why they need it so desperately. Yeah, I mean I'm sure every entrepreneur listening to this can relate to burnout. You know, it shows up as frustration, stress, shorter fuses, higher tempers.[inaudible] there's you go. Yes, we've all been there. Yes. And so we are talking about one of the remedies of this with burnout is play. You know, and I talk a lot about how play can seem like such a luxury, but until you really understand the utility of play, it can be so easy to blow it off, which is how we get to burnout because we haven't been taking that time to recreate. Right, right. And when you look at that word, recreation, think of that recreation re creation. It is through play where we are totally able to rejuvenate. And so yes, play can be super or sleep can be super restorative, but it doesn't build the emotional connections with our, with our loved ones that play does, you know, it doesn't restore the emotional batteries and the emotional juices play actually transcend sleep as it relates to being able to completely rejuvenate. Yes. Well, and I know for myself, I mean so often when I go on a trip, my trips are always kind of attached to a business meeting. I do it a lot at a day here. I add a date there and unless I actually plan to be away specifically for vacation in order to rejuvenate, I don't always come back feeling rejuvenated. So I think you have to go into it with intention. Totally. Yeah, totally. So one of the tools that I use when I talk about rejuvenation and the importance of play as it relates to burnout is Conant of stress. And so if you've taken the Colby index, yes, yes. Okay. So Colby is an assessment. It's a performance index that would indicate how people get their best results and like many unlike many other indexes on the market within Myers-Briggs or the disc or what color is your parachute or what Superman or star Wars character are you. Colby measures what we call Conant of energy and Conant of energy is how we get our best results. So when we look at productivity, if we're looking at the productivity of you or your team, what we're really looking at is three things. So the mind has three parts. Okay. All right. So there's our left brain. Our left brain is our cognitive brain. That's where we can learn and grow. It's what we can and cannot do. Okay. Right. Basic skills and abilities. And as human beings, we're always learning and growing. We're always learning new things. We would expect our cognitive ability to constantly be increasing. Right? Yep. Makes sense. Yeah. Next is the right side of the brain are an effect. This is the super complex part. This is the emotions. It's the moods. It's the morals, values, preferences. Yes. Right? Super dynamic is can change based on who we're with, can change based on how hungry we are, what environment we're in. So we would always, as human beings, we would always expect that part to be expanding as well and changing. Yeah. Yes. So if the mind is made up of three parts and the cognitive and the affective are both very dynamic, the third part is the Conant IV and the Conant of mind says how, what we know and what we love get expressed. So have you been working with somebody who is very similar skillset, similar passion, but the way that you go about your job is completely different? Absolutely. Actually our entire management team, it's like that. And it's really fun. When we took Colby, it was really interesting to understand how everybody does things very different. Yes. If that's our cooperative energy at play. And so what co the difference between Conant of energy and cognitive or affective is that our Conant of energy is finite. We have a limited resource. We can in fact run out of coordinative energy. And so here's how you know when you, I'll call it bond, but here's when you know, when you've completely hit the bottom, you're working on a task. It should normally take five or 10 minutes, two hours later you're like, what is happening? Like you're banging your head on the wall. Yes. Like that whole like, Oh my God, why can I not do this? I know this like this is easy. Yes, yes, yes. What has happened is you've run out of your Conant of energy. Okay. So yes, and as driven entrepreneurs, you know, our, our work ethic, our, our value, say persevere, push through, keep going yet be consistent. But if we've run out of Conan of energy, there is no more gas in the tank. Okay. Right. You can't just keep going until it gets better. No, no. You're just going to hit your head harder and harder against the wall because it's like if you pick up a cell phone that's dead and you just keep hitting it. Yeah. You know, like, exactly. Yes. And so it's counterintuitive, but when we step away and we go play, right, that's one of the things that starts to restore that battery starts to bring back that combat con or the conative energy so that we can continue to be productive. Ah, that's why when you do go and you come back, sometimes you're just so refreshed and rejuvenated. I had this recently because I was, I was so overworked and crazy and we took a break and it was like, and it wasn't even a long break. It was two days that we got away. But my brain almost restarted in the ideas started to roll again. And I felt like I knew almost. It's crazy how that works. Yeah. And that is from the playtime completely. And it's like of the things Kathy Colby is a woman who created this Colby index and one of the things she says is when nothing works do nothing. And so I remember one day I was having the worst day in my business. Like I was like ready to like quit. Like yeah, right. Break down. I was crying, I was awful. And my kid were, ha, they were having, my kids were having their traffic track with on at school and I was like, I'm done. I'm done. So I went to my kid's school, I helped out, I ran with them, like playing outside with their friends and it completely changed my day. And there's a picture of me with both of my kids there and you can tell that I've been crying, like I've got like crying[inaudible]. But yeah, it was two hours it'll, it took for me was to leave my desk for two hours and go be with my kids. And I got home and I'm like, what was the fuss about? Like, this is no big deal. Yes. It's so funny how your brain works. I mean, I, with the Colby index, I'm a Quickstart, so a lot of times I don't, I do my best work close in, but I almost have to like prepare my team and make them aware that that's how I work. Because they're panicked when the PowerPoint's not done and we're, you know, two days before the presentation and they're like, Oh my God. And I'm like, no, no, no, I got this. Don't you worry. And but it does, it comes to us all in a different way. But I do appreciate the fact that taking that step back sometimes is what we need in order to revitalize ourselves and re-energize ourselves and get our brain kind of flowing again. Yeah, it's a huge part. And, and I think with travel, it is something that allows you, once you disconnect from your, your home life and you kind of get yourself out of your comfort zone. And you know, we're here in Connecticut, so I'm two hours from Manhattan. So driving into Manhattan to have a day in central park is not unheard of in this area of the country. And so sometimes that break doesn't have to be a trip to Rome or something crazy. It can be going to the track of thought. And that's what I love about it. Yes, absolutely. And so when you talk about, you know, we're talking kind of in the framework of Colby here and that can really relate to travel. You know, when you say you're a quick start, people who are quick starts and I'm going to completely generalize and stereotype, but it would not be an like unheard of to say that most entrepreneurs have a fair degree of quick-start, which means we really thrive with the 11 power. Right. You know, we're the ones that can walk up to a microphone with, I mean look at us today like no, I've got a couple of notes. Like let's see what we can do with it. Oh my gosh, yes. But not everyone has that wiring and what's perception is reality and what feels so natural to us to be able to wing it. Yeah. Can feel really frustrating for our families. You know, when we're planning a vacation and they might want more of an agenda. Well in in what was interesting for us because at our company retreat this year, you had everyone in our company, all 150 of us do the Colby. And one of the great things that we started to get a really good idea of is how do you listen to your clients to be able to understand, are they a fact finder? So they're gonna want a lot of information about their trip, or are they a quick start where they just want to know they're going and they don't care how they're getting there? Just tell me where to be and when to be there and what to have packed. And you know, so for us, um, you know, it's funny because we do try to assess our clients to be able to work with them in a way that works for them. Because if you try to give like a quick start, a ton of information, they're going to be like, Whoa, I do not need this. But if you have a FactFinder and you're like, don't worry, I'll give you your itinerary and you just go to the airport, they're going to be like, Oh, I don't think so. I want to know what time breakfast that I want to know. Yeah. So again, for us it becomes kind of a, you know, one of those things where we're trying to feel them out so that we can understand the best way to relay information because planning is part of the fun. Yes. But when you're trying to do it in a way that doesn't fit someone's personality, it can also not be so fun. Yeah. So although I have to say in the Colby assessment fact finding and follow through, we're like the highest rated for everyone on my team. It was great and I thought that's a really good thing. Um, so yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, it was really great doing that with your company because it did, it brought up a lot of like, here's where there's a lot of, you know, there's a, this is why our meetings are taking so long and the same can be applied to our playtime. Like, here's where we need to go and spend more time and here's where, you know, my partner, my kids really want to know, like, who's the guide, who's the, you know, and to us it's irrelevant. So Kelly, if somebody wanted to learn more about this and put it into their life and you know, where could they go, what could they read, what could they look at? Can you just take the Colby assessment? Is that something that you do in a program? I know you do that a lot with companies when you do speaking engagements. Um, and you know, even with EO, you're going to their strategic coach, they do that. And where can somebody get more information on this? So you want to go to colby.com it's K O L B e.com and you can take the assessment there. Right now I think it's under$60. Okay. And once you take the assessment, you'll get your results back and it actually comes with an interpretation by Kathy Colby herself. If you want to go deeper and you want us to understand what it looks like in your organization as a whole or in your family. You know, I've done a lot of kids before where people are learning about how their kids are wired, which is so important. Oh my God, my son is like a prime example of how Colby can make such a difference. So my son is 21 years old. He has since joined into the travel industry. But when he took the assessment, um, he had no idea of his skillset or his personality traits and things like that and it really changed his whole perspective in as a person. He ended up being a unicorn, which was amazing. He's like straight across the board, the mediator, strong in every suit and you know, so it was, it was a really interesting thing to do. So if somebody wanted you, they could go to colby.com they could take the assessment, they're going to have that sheet. I would hide, and I'm not doing this as an advertisement. This isn't an advertisement, but if you have a company, Kelly does an amazing job of, of actually, um, helping companies understand the Colby and using it. We actually have our cubicles labeled with their different assessment scores or net scores, but, um, results, their results. So we all understand each other. And what I love is even our management team had combined the results. So we can see how we work together, how we best understand. Because as a quick start I can make people crazy because I do wait and do my work close in. Whereas I have people that are follow throughs that are way far out. They have to be prepared, they have to review their notes and that type of thing. So yeah, and the thing that I love about Colby is it doesn't make anybody wrong. And so when we talk about it from a business perspective, we can celebrate all of their strengths. We can celebrate, you know, this is where this person's really strong and this person picks up where I leave off. But as it relates to a family, like it completely changed my family's dynamic because I have a son, he is 12 now. But you know, this started when he was in second grade, I started getting the phone calls home, you know, he's staring out the window, he can't focus. And I knew him to be an entrepreneur, like I knew him to be very, he's very innovative. And so I have a background in this, so I see clear as day. He's just an entrepreneur, you know, he doesn't fit in this fact-finder follow through mode. And so when the phone calls start coming home about, you know, yeah he needs to go see a doctor. Yeah. I'm like, no. So because I had this tool, this resource I was able to have, we'll take the assessment, Kathy Colby personally Anissa analyze him and she's like, Oh yes it was, I mean I was in tears on the kitchen floor, inconsolable because it's me against the school nurse and the principal and all of his teachers. And I'm like, just, he's not broken. This system's broken. So when you have a, if you have a student that's up against the ADHD conversation, this is one resource in addition to all of the other resources. Because when, as soon as you start Googling this, you ever do, do you ever do like private consulting with people who take the Colby? Okay, interesting. Yeah, I have families that will call in the same thing. Cause I, whenever I talk about Colby, I always talk about my son. And that's when the phone starts ringing. Like, this is my son, this is my son or my daughter. And um, so I always talk about how it can impact a child because when somebody has a lot of quick start, which means they, they take action at the last minute. They're very innovative, they're very future focused and they have a lot of implementer is like, I need to touch something. Yeah. No, I need to like be in communication while learning. Yes. Yes. That shows up as what we would call ADHD in a classroom. And so I always talk about this as a resource in addition to everything else that's available because it completely, first of all, it gave me language to talk to my son about normalcy. Yeah. And how he gets his best results. And so it's just a good tool to use with families as well as businesses. Wow. Well this took a total turn that we didn't expect. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, this was an amazing[inaudible] episode and I think it gives us all a little bit of a different thought process as we three think through how we look forward to travel, how we prepare to travel and you know how we just interact with each other and fight that burnout and take the time to disconnect and reconnect so that we can come back re-energized. I know there's amazing statistics out there about travel and how it rejuvenates, but one of the most interesting statistic that I read most recently that there was over, I think it was like 600 million vacation days unused a year and I thought, wow, like imagine all of those people who aren't disconnecting from work and if they did disconnect and did take the time to travel and just disconnect from the world and enjoy themselves, how much more productive they would be. I mean, as a final side note, it's interesting because we do work with the wanderlust program and we have companies that actually purchase it for their employees and then actually give them a stipend every year for travel. They put a board up in their kitchen at the office and everybody shares their travel photos. So it is something that you can do going forward that really helps to increase productivity as well as make happy employees that love you and remain at your company for long periods sometimes. Yeah. Cause who wants to be at work with a bunch of burnt-out people? You know, you don't want to wait until that frustration sets in to, you know, realize that it's been too long. Like be proactive with it. Absolutely. Well, awesome. Well thanks guys for tuning in. We're signing off from the Island of misfit choice and we will see you in a couple of weeks on our next episode. Thanks guys. Bye.