“We’re misunderstanding burnout. Instead of signaling lethargy, maybe sometimes burnout signals a desire for more life, not less.”
(Bustle)
After leading Encore for my entire adult life (our first artists registered on my 21st birthday!) and reaching the apex of burnout earlier this year, my 2-month sabbatical was nothing short of life-changing.
Across May and June, highlights included:
🇯🇵 Visiting Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, Tokyo, Okinawa & 🇰🇷 Seoul
🏃♂️ Running in every town and city, including a semi-spontaneous mountain marathon around Hakone with a can of bear spray to-hand
🚴♂️ Cycling high into the mountains north of Osaka and East of Seoul
🎹 Selling out my first gig performing my own original songs for piano and cello quintet with guided meditation beforehand and projected visuals accompanying the music (more on that later…)
🏴 Cycling the North Coast 500 in 6 days with a tent on the back of my bike
🪷 Going on my first Buddhist meditation retreat, which subtly transformed my relationship with my own mind
Amidst it all, I got to meet myself for the first time as someone simply enjoying life, instead of a cellist striving to excel in a music school, a student fighting to survive a Computer Science degree at Cambridge, or a CEO striving to succeed in a startup environment.
After 30 years of Yang, I fully embraced my own flavour of Yin.
I’m more energised than I’ve ever been, and excited to be back in action at Encore with a fresh and reinvigorated approach to my work.
If you’re experiencing burnout, you probably feel, like I did, that there’s never a good time to take a pause from your business. There’s never a perfect time, but I cannot stress enough how valuable this time off has been for my own levels of focus, energy, and wellbeing.