Jonah Larkin helps leaders and entrepreneurs with recognizing burnout and self-mastery through principles of habits.
Table of Contents
Recognizing Burnout
Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion. It occurs when you feel like you’re giving more than you can physically or emotionally handle.
Burnout is often caused by working in a high-stress environment. It can also be caused by caring for someone who is ill, caring for a young child, or dealing with a major life change.
How much are you laughing?
Chances are, if you’re like most people, not as much as you’d like. Life has a tendency to get in the way of laughter, don’t you think?
But did you know that laughter is actually good for you? It’s true! Laughter has been shown to have all sorts of benefits for our physical and mental health, including reducing stress, boosting our immune systems, and even helping to improve our cardiovascular health.
How well-rounded is your life?
We’re so wrapped up in our work, our families, and our everyday lives that we don’t have time to just let loose and enjoy the time we have.
What role do substances have in providing an escape from your day?
We all have our ways of coping with the stresses of daily life. Some of us exercise, some of us meditate, and some of us turn to substances like alcohol or drugs.
What are some signs of burnout?
There are many signs of burnout, but some common ones include feeling overwhelmed, feeling exhausted all the time, having difficulty concentrating, and feeling irritable. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s important to take a step back and assess your situation.
Are you taking on too much? Do you need to simplify your life? Are you getting enough rest and relaxation?
Answering these questions can help you start to make changes that will reduce your stress and improve your well-being.
It helps to ask others to give you perspective on how you’re doing
How to Recover from Burnout
If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’re feeling burned out. You might be feeling exhausted, cynical, and disconnected from what once gave you joy. If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent study, nearly one in five Americans report feeling burned out at work “often” or “very often.”
If you’re feeling burned out, it’s important to take action. Left unchecked, burnout can lead to serious health problems, including depression, anxiety, and even heart disease.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to recover from burnout.
Three Steps to Recover from Burnout
- Take time to reflect on your life (and get help if needed)
- Create meaningful goals
- Take daily actions towards your goals
Listen to the full interview with Jonah Larkin for 6 Principles of Habit that will help you when recognizing and overcoming burnout.
In This Episode
- How Jonah started a successful click-and-mortar business selling skateboards
- Despite the success, Jonah Larkin was not doing well and recognizing burnout in his life
- Looking for the root cause of what troubles your life
- The money is never worth it
- Taking the time for yourself – reflect, create goals in life, action on daily habits
- Think beyond the realm of the possible – go for that impossible dream
- Questions to ask yourself to design the life you want to live
- Figuring out the root cause of our troubles
- Take action to remove what’s causing you harm
- Creating a nest egg to make the transition to what you want
- Morning routines to create the day you want
- Basic Principles of Habits
Jonah Larkin
Jonah Larkin is an expert in the field of attaining peak performance and well-being. Using his diverse experience as a health and vitality expert, entrepreneur, and team builder, he helps founders, executives and those in the helping professions create higher levels of self-mastery.
His coaching is a combination of an executive coach and a life coach, with expertise in mindfulness, communication, interpersonal dynamics, and entrepreneurship (while still maintaining your health and well-being).
Many people think excellence in one area of life means sacrifice in another. Jonah doesn’t believe that. Jonah believes that when a person aligns their daily habits, actions, thoughts, and feelings with their most important values they create personal power and agency that creates unstoppable momentum. This can create change and transformation that can be so rapid it’s almost shocking.
In addition to 1-1 high-performance coaching, he runs mastermind groups for male entrepreneurs and executives and has an online class to master your habits and morning routine called the Morning Rhythm Reset.
Jonah holds professional licenses as a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac) and herbalist from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He’s been certified as a functional medicine practitioner by the Kalish Institute of Functional Medicine. He currently holds a position as a facilitator for the famed Interpersonal Dynamics Program at Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, and is currently obtaining his professional ICF certification. Jonah has also been involved in men’s work and has led men’s groups for over a decade.
Resources and Links
Stay in touch with Jonah Larkin’s services, blog, and resources at JonahLarkin.com.
Show Rodney Olsen some love. He’s published episode 100 of Bleeding Daylight this week, and I was one of the 100 guests in that batch. Here’s that interview he did with me.
Related Past Episodes of Beyond the Rut
Overcome Burnout and Get Your Family Back – Paul Hastings – BtR 310
Episode Credits
Host, Editing, and Production: Jerry Dugan
Transcript
Jerry Dugan 00:00
Hey, Rutter Nation. I’m one in a hundred. What? Should I be one in a million? Anyway, the podcast Bleeding Daylight is celebrating its 100th episode this week, and I’m one of those 100 guests and that’s why I meant I’m one in 100. So, go check out Bleeding Daylight. And you can also find my episode at https://bleedingdaylight.net/e/Jerry-Dugan-beyond-the-rut. I’ll just put it in the show notes of this episode https://beyondtherut.com/317. But go check out bleedingdaylight.net. It’s on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, all those places, Bleeding Daylight. So go check it out. Rodney Olson is the host of the show. He’s from the land down under. I think I even made the joke about shrimp on the barbie because that’s what us Americans do. We here in Australia, and we think you know, we’re gonna put another shrimp on the barbie. I’m sorry, Rodney, but you are a great host. And you treated me well. And it was a really good conversation, so congratulations! You’re only on episode 100. May you have 100 more and many more after that.
Jonah Larkin 01:13
Here we go. Well, I mean, I will say that the money is never worth it. The money is never worth the drain on the energy. Because if you think about it, what’s more valuable than money and that’s time that’s every breath and every heartbeat You have,
Jerry Dugan 01:29
Hey, Rutter Nation. This is another episode of Beyond the Rut, the podcast that shares encouraging stories and practical tools to help pull you out of your rut and into a life worth living. I’m your host, Jerry Dugan, and in just a moment, we’re going to be joined by Jonah Larkin. Jonas started entrepreneurship in his life at a young age, he was selling NFL pencils in school, and in his early 20s had opened what they call a click-and-mortar business selling skateboards online. Now, over time, though, despite his success, he began to burn out he was recognizing burnout in his life, and just lost the joy of the business. He wasn’t laughing anymore. He just was tired. He was turning to substances to cope with the day. And if this sounds like you, then you want to listen to Jonas’s six ways to immediately boost your energy when you’re recognizing burnout. And that’s what we’re talking about. So what did burnout look like for him? What did he do to overcome that? And what are the six ways he recommends all of us to build a life that is meaningful for ourselves? So sit back and relax, unless you are assembling tacos. Because Taco Tuesday is coming? Actually, you could listen to the show and assemble those tacos. And on top of that, find out my address and send me some tacos because man, this is so good. Okay, here we go. All right. Hey, Jonah. How are you doing in the great land of California?
Jonah Larkin 02:56
Pretty good. Jerry just sitting out here looking over the tide drain out of Morro Bay. So yeah, if you aren’t feeling well, this morning. Thanks.
Jerry Dugan 03:05
I shared with you earlier. You know, California is my home state. Fortunately, my wife doesn’t listen to the show. So she’s not gonna put me in the doghouse for saying that. She’s like you’re in Texas now. Just buy a Cowboys jersey and get it over with.
Jonah Larkin 03:17
You got to claim it. Man. Where’s your 10-gallon hat? No, just kidding. Not everyone in Texas is a cowboy. I know that.
Jerry Dugan 03:23
They’re shocked. I don’t own a truck. And I don’t go hunting. They’re like, really? The army. I don’t get it. Like it’s okay. It’s called diversity. We got this. But the reason why we had you on the folks over at interview valet reached out to me and shared with me your biography, your business and you help people achieve daily habits to achieve their goals. And then I dug a little bit deeper into your story, and was like, Okay, we got to have John on here, because we can all benefit from your story. And so I think I want to just dive right in. What I understand is that I mean, if we go back to the early 2000s. So for those of us who are really young, that’s right after the late 1900s. And I hate you guys for thinking about time that way. But yeah, about 2005. So when we lead up to 2005, you’re a young man, you’re making your wealth, you’re building riches and people are looking at you like you’ve got it made. And the reality is deep down inside, you don’t feel like you’ve got it made. Can you tell us a little bit about where you were and where you were stuck in that timeframe?
Jonah Larkin 04:23
Yeah. 100%! So I had I’ve been an entrepreneur pretty much my whole life ever since I started selling NFL football pencils to my classmates when I was in fourth grade. Yeah. And I had started several different businesses and at the time in 2005, I had a started a, what’s called a click and mortar, I guess. So we had brick-and-mortar stores, and also e-commerce. I was one of the first people to sell stuff. ate boards online, on the internet. And so grew that company into a pretty solid business. And yeah, like you said, people would walk into my stores, they would see the website and they’d be like, oh, man, this just must be a cash cow. This must just be a moneymaker.
And while it was making money, I was not a happy camper at all. I was working 80 hours a week wasn’t exactly the healthiest, I was drinking too much. And really had lost my connection to the things I love. One of those, which is surfing. And funny enough, I owned a skateboard shop and a surf shop, and a big website that was selling all those things. And yet, I wasn’t doing the very thing that originally got me into doing it in the first place. So I sold the company. And I didn’t know how burned out I was, I didn’t actually realize how depressed I was, uh, nonetheless, I took two years off, did a whole bunch of sitting on the couch and watching movies. But I also went and started traveling all around the world. I don’t know how many countries I went to. But one of the things that I ended up doing was, I ended up going on a six-week meditation retreat. And what is a six-week meditation retreat? Well, that’s basically where you show up. And you sit and meditate for 12 to 14 hours a day, day after day, for six weeks. And it was such an incredible, deep, profound, challenging, amazing, wonderful, hellish experience. But it showed me things about myself that I didn’t know about myself. And that was, I wouldn’t say the beginning. But it was the start of a much deeper dive into finding purpose and finding meaning in my own life.
Jerry Dugan 07:08
Now, looking back, what would be some of the things that you would say, ah, that’s burnout. That’s what I was going through. And I just had to get out of there, because there may be people listening in right now, like, going through this now realizing, Oh, I’m going through the same thing. That’s it?
Jonah Larkin 07:23
That’s a great question. Jerry, I think, you know, for me, number one is just how much you actually laugh. Like, how much time are you spending, laughing with people that you love and care about, and the truth was, is I was pretty isolated at the time, I was just nose to the grindstone, really just like focused on business, business business business, to the detriment of everything else. The second thing was, is that I wasn’t very well-rounded. At that point, I wasn’t really exercising. I was using substances. I mean, I’ve never been a big drinker. But I was drinking, you know, almost every night, not a ton. But for me, that’s a big deal. So I was using substances to relax, and I wasn’t well-rounded in my overall health and well-being and wellness, it was just all business all the time. And that, to me is a sign of stress, essentially. So if you can only focus on one thing to the detriment of friends, family, exercise, health, well-being creativity, purpose, and connection, then by definition, you are burned out. And the reason why I didn’t know I was burned out, it’s kind of like, you know, when you put a, in a crab in a pot to boil it, it doesn’t actually realize it’s being boiled because the temperature goes up so gradually, and it’s the same thing with stress. Humans are incredibly resilient, we can handle tremendous amounts of stress, and we can actually handle chronic stress for quite a while before we, you know, keel over and die. But, you know, if you see yourself not doing the things that you absolutely love, if you see yourself not in a state where you feel like you’re performing really well and happy and have time to spend with other people and do those things. You might want to check in and ask other people. Hey, how do you think I’m doing?
Jerry Dugan 09:29
Yeah, I’ve heard that time and again, where it’s like, something that you jumped into, because it was your passion, whether it was a nursing career business. Gosh, some folks get into coding and program it because they loved doing that. They wanted to create their own game someday. And they were passionate about it when they dove in and at some point, it’s a gradual shift. And if they found themselves just thinking, I’ve got to go in today, or I have to do this, or how do I get this thing done? Instead of having I get to go in today and work on this project, or I get to go in today and help patients go through the worst time of their lives, I get to be a bright spot in somebody’s life because of the work I do that, yeah, that they’ve hit that point and probably sounds like it was the same thing for you, like, your passion is surfing. And you know, the offshoot of that is skateboarding. And, you know, it’s the Internet of Things, I can sell those things to other people here. And it sounds like you also hit that point of, I gotta run the business, I have to do this. And yeah, as you said, it took you away from the very things you love doing
Jonah Larkin 10:31
here. 100%, right about that. That’s, that is the thing if you’re waking up going, Oh, God, I don’t know if I can do this another day. I don’t know if I want to do this another day. That is definitely a sign of burnout. And there are also lots of other signs of burnout. I mean, I have a client right now who’s having panic attacks, and trying to do all these things to mitigate the fact that he’s having panic attacks. And he knows it’s his job, he knows that it’s the one place he doesn’t want to be. And yet, there is such a tremendous amount of resistance to saying, hey, this isn’t working for me, I need to do something else. We are cut off as a culture as a society and as individuals from the signals that we’re getting from our own bodies. It’s one of the reasons why so many people are taking pharmaceutical medications for, you know, mood disorders and things like that. It’s because we’re essentially cut off from the things that make us well, yeah, that’s and nothing and, and I say that without anything against taking pharmaceuticals, I have members of my family who are taking them and who benefits from them. And so it’s not a critique of the individual. But it’s a critique of what’s happening in our culture and the fact that we are actually so removed from what works for us,
Jerry Dugan 11:56
That whole person approach to it’s just like, he’ll speak this one little thing. And it’s like, what if the problem is something more systemic, its outlook on life, its daily habits. It’s the environment, I put myself in the diet, I’m bringing it into my body. And yeah, one simple pill or one chemical change may not be enough to really offset what’s going on. It’s not the where they call it the root cause if you’re doing a root cause analysis,
Jonah Larkin 12:22
100 100% Yep, yep. Yeah, I, after I was after I got completely burned out, did my travels actually become an acupuncturist, because I was looking for health and wellness for myself. And, you know, one of the fundamental principles of acupuncture is to forget about the symptoms, the symptoms are literally the symptoms of the problem. You never attack the symptoms, you always, always, always look for the root cause, and you know, the root causes, once you start going down that rabbit hole, it’s like, Oh, holy crap. You know, it’s like, what is actually the root cause, but it’s deeper. And the deeper you get in terms of finding out what the root is, well, the easier it is to understand what’s happening, the easier it is to get better, the easier it is to perform better and, you know, ultimately make a contribution, if that’s what your goal is. And you know, I know, I know, that’s what yours is, and certainly, mine as well.
Jerry Dugan 13:25
Oh, yeah. I personally believe that the best goals to pursue are the ones that pour into other people’s lives. It’s, for me, it works for other people. I don’t know if it works for everybody. But I think at some level, if you’re doing something for others, and contributing to society, and the world is whole, it just feels like Ah, okay, now I can die. Well, not right now. But yeah,
Jonah Larkin 13:46
yeah. Yeah. It’s a it’s a it’s a fundamental I believe that. Yeah, that’s, it’s like a fundamental desire of, of humans is to be useful. You know, unless of course, you’re a sociopath or a psychopath. And it’s all about you. And you know, we do have those people. But, you know, I don’t want to hang out with them.
Jerry Dugan 14:04
They’re scary. They you make series on Netflix about their documentaries. I haven’t seen it yet. And my wife and I are watching the show called The worst roommate ever, and it’s about roommates who do some kind of crime against all the roommates. Now, she has been watching me with a little bit more Kenai. No kidding. I’m just kidding. You start to,
Jonah Larkin 14:27
like an average. And I’m like, what’s
Jerry Dugan 14:29
she plotting? Oh, you cook dinner today? No. Okay. That had nothing to do with our conversation, but it was there. And it’s gonna stay about a couple of neat initial steps that I noticed that you had taken. So you hit this point where we’re just like, Ah, I gotta get away from this. And you took action. You didn’t just stay in that rut. And while this is just what it is, I’ll work out of it. Eventually. He said, I gotta get this out of my plate. This is gone. So you sold that business. And then you took time for yourself to take a break. Back to soul search to really get that clarity. And it sounds like you went on a 10 year journey. I mean, of course you earned income during that time you became an acupuncturist. I think the key thing that a lot of people may miss though is that I mean, you sold the business, which probably provided you the means to launch whatever it was you did. And for somebody else, it might be cashing in their savings, maybe it’s, you know, creating a nest egg so they can make that escape from whatever it is that’s just draining their energy. And those are decision points, too. I think people need to make, especially if they need to get away for something that’s just burning them out, sucking the life out of them. No question. They’re just
Jonah Larkin 15:40
Well, I mean, I will say that the money is never worth it, the money is never worth the drain on the energy. Because if you think about it, what’s more valuable than money? And that’s, that’s time that’s every breath and every heartbeat you have? And so the question is, you know, how much are you actually willing to sacrifice? And what are you sacrificing for because, you know, we have this, we have these internal built in biases that basically allow us to get up and do the same thing, day after day, week, after week, year, after a year, and pretty soon, you know, you realize, oh, my God, I haven’t done the things that I actually want to do the things that really bring me alive, the things that bring me joy, and the things that like make life worth living, and the money is never worth it. So if you are doing the thing for money, you know, that’s a personal choice. I’m not going to tell anybody not to. But but the question is, Are you are you living as your best? Right? And, and, you know, the thing is, is we as individuals, I’m like, not a very good arbiter of that. But if I asked a friend of mine, Hey, man, how do you think I’m doing? They’ll tell you the truth. You know, it’s the people around you. They’re the ones who you need to get feedback from asking yourself, How am I doing? We know it inside. But we can lie to ourselves way easier than we can lie to other people. Yeah,
Jerry Dugan 17:09
I forget the name of the phenomenon. It’s that one where you think you’re doing better than you really are?
Jonah Larkin 17:14
Yeah, I don’t know. It’s some. It’s some cognitive bias we Yeah,
Jerry Dugan 17:18
to find that and put that in the show notes of this episode. But yeah, sometimes we’re asked about our own performance, we might just feed ourselves a line like, oh, yeah, it’s going great. I’ve got this go. And I got that go. And then, you know, the reality is, maybe your family life’s falling apart, or your health is not as good as you think it is. Or, yeah, it’s just, yeah, it’s there. Yeah, takes takes courage to take a look at that and say, Oh, I’m not where I wanted to be. So, you know, shifting gears a little bit, let’s say somebody listening to this has hit that decision point, I’ve got to make a change. So maybe I’m leaving the job I’ve got, maybe I’m not leaving just yet. But I’m at least gonna take a week or two off of work. Finally use that paid time off I’ve been accruing. And just tell my boss, hey, tough luck, I need to take this time. I’m falling apart here. And take that time to really reflect so they’ve taken the time they’ve separated, it’s just them, they’re now taking some time to either meditate or reflect or journal, whatever it is, that’s going to help them hone in. And now it’s time to start creating some goals. Where do I really want to go with my life? And I’ve got those goals written? How do they go about achieving those goals through daily habits?
Jonah Larkin 18:30
Yeah, great question. I mean, I, I’m a big believer in first principles, thinking, first principles thinking is basically the idea that you can take any, any practice or discipline, like physics, for instance. And it can be broken down into its fundamental, fundamental pieces that can note can’t be reduced to anything deeper than that. And so first, when I think of goals, and achievement, and all that stuff, there are some first principles that I think are super important. The first thing is one to take 100% responsibility for what’s happening in your life and the results that are happening, like Hey, you, you, you know, you’re not getting along with your wife, you think you think she’s being mean to you? It’s your fault. You don’t like your job, it’s your fault. It’s not your jerk boss to you. And, you know, is that necessarily true? I don’t know if it’s true. But without that mindset, you’re just gonna blame other people, other circumstances. Everything else in your life, instead of taking responsibility, you know, you’ve, you owe a bunch of money on your credit cards that’s on you. And the thing is, is if you can get to that point and not blame yourself, oh my god, it’s incredibly freeing, and the best way to do it is just to tell another human being who’s not going to judge you for it. Hey, you know what? I’ve got a gambling problem and I’m eight $2,000 in debt, tell somebody you know, get a therapist do something like that. So that’s, that is the number one thing is just start off with where you are. And then after that, then you can decide where it is that you want to be. And when you, you know, one of the big mistakes that I found in my coaching, is that when people think about where it is they want to be, they think about what’s in the realm of the possible, which is a really horrible way to think about what you want. Right, Jerry? It’s like, it’s not a good way because like, if you’re like, ah, you know, I’d really like to, you know, lose five pounds, like, cool, great. But is that really what you want? Or do you want to like, you know, do you want to, like, look great on the beach? Do you want to run a marathon? You know, do you want to compete in Jiu Jitsu, like, think about things in terms of what would really fire you up inside, and one of my mentors, Chris cluver, incredible coach, you know, he says, he says extraordinary lives in the land of the unreasonable. And so you have to be willing to be unreasonable just to actually find out what it is that you want. If you’ve read a Will Smith’s book, it’s a great book for a lot of different reasons. And very interesting and, and he gets to this point where, you know, he’s never really done anything in his life for himself. It’s all about this performance anxiety. And he gets to this point, and he’s talking with a therapist. And she’s like, Well, what do you really, really want, he’s like, you know, I just want a harem of women. And he, they go through this whole process of figuring out who’s going to be in it and all that stuff. And he, like, makes plans to call them and then he realizes, Oh, my God, that’s actually not what I want. But the point is, is allowing himself to think like that pointed him back to what he really wanted. So you’ve got to decide what it is that you want. And once you’ve decided what it is that you want, then you can start designing the behaviors, putting yourself in the environment, and doing the things that will start to get you there. And I recommend, you know, taking the first tiny, tiny step. So let we can do it right now, like our listeners, if there’s something you really, really want, here’s the question. Like, maybe you want to earn a million bucks, maybe you want to marry the woman or man of your dreams. Maybe you want to, you know, go on around the world adventure. What is one thing you could do? Right here right now? Simple, small. Could you call somebody? Could you fill out a dating profile on an app? Could you write down five ideas about a business that you might want to start? Like, what is one thing you can do right now it’s very important to always follow momentum, because momentum is what helps us do things. And so, you know, that’s my question. What can you do? Right now, it doesn’t have to be big. It can be really small. But what is that thing you’d like to do?
Jerry Dugan 23:20
pausing for a fact.
Jonah Larkin 23:24
That dramatic.
Jerry Dugan 23:27
That is, I mean, it’s just like, it takes them beyond that, you know, one day I ought to do blank or, you know, that’s so far away. But then when you really ask that question, What can I do right now, to get that ball rolling? Now you’ve taken that first step, and that’s like that, that was a Chinese proverb. The, the way you complete a 1000 mile journey is you take that first step. Yeah. And then just
Jonah Larkin 23:50
100% 100% I mean, that’s, and that’s one of the things that I use for habit creation is you really want it whatever habit it is that you want to do, say, like, so I’m, I’m writing a book right now. And I’m slated, I’ve given myself 30 days to finish my first draft. So April 11, and I’m writing a ton, but the habit for me is to literally write one sentence. So you know, I wake up early in the morning, and I write for an hour or two, but throughout the day, if I’m thinking, what should I be doing, I should be writing and I think to myself now, I’m gonna have to like sit down at my computer and I’m then I’m gonna have to really focus and write a lot. No, write one sentence. That is the non negotiable chunk it down habits. So no matter what you’re doing, if you want to learn to meditate, sit down on your meditation cushion or in a chair and take one deep breath. You know, you want to run a marathon, put on your running clothes. You want to do yoga every day do one son saw you dictation, like literally break it down into something that you could do if you’re late for work. And if you do that, that is where momentum comes from. And so, you know, I, I always say like, chunk it down and keep it simple, stupid, like, make sure it’s so small and so dumb that you could do it. If you’re late for work, you know, hey, I’m like late for work. Oh my God, I didn’t meditate. Oh, you know what, I’m just gonna sit down here and take one deep breath. Okay, you do that you start to do that every day. Pretty soon you’ll be sitting for longer and longer and longer.
Jerry Dugan 25:38
I know you were on a podcast with somebody named Ryan Cote.
Jonah Larkin 25:42
Cody Ryan co T Jota. Yep.
Jerry Dugan 25:45
Yeah. The third way I was gonna shoot that pronunciation. So Ryan cootie. You guys cu T, co T. CO T I think? Yeah, Gosh, this guy. Man. What I loved of it was you both were talking about morning routines. And so part of mine is two hours personal development, whatever I want to do. Because I can go down rabbit holes. Well, the thing is starting out Yeah, it’s like start a rabbit hole, the ADHD will just take over and at seven o’clock, you’re done. So it could be a fitness thing. It could be writing, it could be podcasting, what have you. But the thing it’s not supposed to be is social media, which once in a blue moon, it does happen. What I liked about Ryan, though, is he did something similar as far as like time commitment, he, he found himself getting overwhelmed with a one hour to two hour morning routine that if he was in a rush to get kids to school or a rush to get to work, he felt bad because he didn’t do the routine. So he truncated it down to like, I think 20 minutes. And so I remember you both talked about that a little bit. And, and it just it makes sense. You know, you know, what are those simple building blocks that, you know, if push comes to shove, it’s a winning day. And I’m sure that plays off in the psychology of it all that you have that sense of victory by having that one little win. And if I have that one little win, you’re still building that momentum over time.
Jonah Larkin 27:12
Yeah, I mean, we’re talking about we’re talking about the cocktail that happens in your brain, dopamine and serotonin gets released, it’s the same thing that makes you want to reach over and grab your phone and check social media. But if you know that you did what you said you were going to do, right? I am going to sit down on my cushion meditation cushion no matter what I’m going to put on my workout gear no matter what that actually gives you that sense of victory. And that creates that, you know, secretes dopamine it creates secretes serotonin. And what that does is that helps to myelinated the neurons in your brain basically turning those nerves into information superhighways, if they’re repeated enough, and pretty soon you’ll be doing that thing. And yeah, I mean, look, I’m a huge fan of, of morning rituals and morning routines. And sometimes my morning routine lasts two or three hours, depending on what I’m doing. But most of the time it lasts. Yeah. 20 To 30 minutes, right. And so again, yeah, you want to really want to chunk things down, just to their basic core, and give yourself just a little bit of space. And who was it? I don’t remember who said this, but they said, you know, if, if you have if you don’t have 10 minutes to meditate, you better meditate for 20 Right? Yeah, yeah,
Jerry Dugan 28:44
we did a similar episode where it was like, if you don’t have time to, like, sit back and reflect on your life and where you are now where you want to be, then you definitely need to make time to sit back and reflect on what your life is right now. Where you want to be. Yeah.
Jonah Larkin 28:59
Yeah. Yeah. So would it be helpful if I just kind of ran people through the basic principles of of habits just real quickly? Yeah, definitely. You read my mind? Because that’s gonna lead us Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. So basically, the first thing like I said, you want to like take 100% responsibility, you can journal you just want to like get to the point of like, owning where it is where you are. It doesn’t matter. Like try to do it without shame. I know. We like shame and blame ourselves and should all over ourselves. Don’t. Try not to do that. Just get real present with where you are. Secondly, decide what it is that you want. And remember that extraordinary lives in the land of the unreasonable so be unreasonable, like make a goal so crazy that it feels good to you that it feels exciting to you. Right? So that’s, that’s the second thing. The third thing is decide what habit it is that will help you get out there and chunk it down into something that will take you less than 30 seconds. So you want to chunk it down. Next, you want to remove any obstacles. And this is this is a thing that people like, get wrong all the time like, oh, yeah, I’m gonna get up and I’m gonna meditate in the morning. Well, where are you going to meditate? Oh, I’ve got a, you know, I gotta clean up first, I got to do this first. No, don’t if you’re gonna put on your workout clothes, make sure your workout clothes are right next to your bed. So that’s the first thing that you do. And next, you want to link or stack your habit on top of another habit. So for me, the first thing I do is I get up. After I brush my teeth, I drink my water. After I drink my water I meditate after I meditate, I do my mobility. So notice I like have those things stacked on top of each other. And my, my foundation is drinking my glass of water. And I can stack everything on top of that. Surfing is also have it I’m injured right now. So I haven’t been surfing. But you know, sometimes I drink my glass of water and I go surfing and I don’t meditate until later. So I can I can change those up. Step five is you want to team up with somebody, you want to get an accountability buddy, or you want to team up with a group and you’re 95% more likely to perform a habit if you do it with somebody else. And then last but not least, you want to anchor your habit by celebrating no matter what. So let’s say you do your habit. Yes, you celebrate, put your arms up in the air in the victory pose and celebrate because that will help to again release dopamine. And here’s the place where everybody goes wrong, is when you don’t do your habit and you realize you didn’t do it and you start to blame yourself. I didn’t do my habit. Celebrate them to throw your arms up in the air and say yes, I realized I didn’t do my habit. Why? Because the human animal turns towards what is pleasurable and away from what is unpleasant. And if you make missing your habit, an unpleasant experience, what you’re going to do is you’re going to blow it off and say you know what, I didn’t do my habit. I’m not going to do it tomorrow, screw it. I’m a bad person. I don’t have this No, celebrate. And then here’s something I learned in meditation start again. Because meditation is contrary to popular belief is not about clearing the mind. It’s about being present for what’s happening. And so what happens is, the mind goes off on a tangent, and then you realize, oh my God, I’ve been thinking about like my eighth grade girlfriend for the last like two hours. Come back and focus on the breath, start again, start again, start again. So those are the basic principles. If you do those, if you do those six steps, you you will be successful, it’s impossible for you not to be successful. So and Jerry actually put up a URL for your, the listeners, it’s Jonah larkin.com/beyond, the RET and you can go on there and you can download some cheat sheets and all that stuff. Because I know it’s a little hard when you know, I’m just yammering on here about habits. But there’s some checklists and things like that you can download
Jerry Dugan 33:33
that also was my next question, which is how can folks find you get plugged in for the first time and that’s the perfect jumpstart Jenna larkin.com/beyond the rut? So rudder nation, that’s you and you’re looking for that next step, go check it out. And then you I know you challenge yourself to write a book. So we’re gonna have to keep in touch. And when that book is ready to launch, let me know and we’ll get you on here again and plug that bad boy out here. Yeah, this is awesome sauce. Awesome stuff. And any final words of wisdom though, before we go? There we go.
Jonah Larkin 34:08
Final words of wisdom. That’s that’s always a it’s always a tough one. But you know, I think I think the biggest thing is to just make space for what is true for you. Like really make space for what is true and whether you’re pissed off angry. Whether you’re calm, whether you’re stressed out, whatever it is, like can you make some space today even if it’s one minute just to get really present with the truth of where you are because you know they say the truth will set you free but man the truth scary a lot of times this, you know, it’s like I don’t want to accept a lot of things about myself, but pack actually getting to the point where I can be truthful a little bit creates, create some space around that. And, you know, contrary to popular belief, it’s actually motivating. So that would be my, that’d be my my reminder to myself today.
Jerry Dugan 35:16
I think that was the perfect end cap to this conversation. And again, Jonah, thank you for being on here. And we’re gonna stay in touch.
Jonah Larkin 35:23
My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Jerry, really great conversation.
Jerry Dugan 35:27
And there you have it, Jonah shared with us his story of facing burnout, recognizing burnout, what he did to overcome it and providing you with six ways you could immediately boost your energy and life, have some direction and find success that is meaningful for you. What I’d like you to do now is hit the share button on however you’re listening to this episode right now, and share it with your social media circles, somebody that knows specifically and individually, who would love this type of information and apply it to their own lives. So don’t just keep it for yourself, be that person who gets some good news, some good information, and shares it with others to help life better for them, life become better for them, you know what I meant? Alright, so maybe you’re looking for more information as well. Go check out the show notes at beyond the rut.com/ 317. There you’ll find the audio for this episode, as well as some of the notes that came out of this show. So if you want to write up a tweet or something, you could pull some content from that web that blog post. But maybe you want to click on John’s website and you don’t remember it. But you do remember being on the right. So that’d be a great way to go there. So beyondtherut.com/317. Now, I’m glad you joined me this week. I look forward to joining you again next week. But until next time, go live life beyond the rat. Take care
