Chapter 6: How top performers avoid burnout?

I want to kick off with a huge celebration for Co.labx’s very own “celebrity”! 🎉

Meet Monica, she started playing football with a group of friends a year back.
It was her first time on the field, but she fell head over heels in love with the game!
Over the last few months, I have heard Monica share updates, her excitement and fun football  experiences.
Little did I  know how far she would go by the end of the year.

Drumroll, please… 🥁

She’s officially a part of the Inter Bengaluru Blues Football Club!🌟
If all goes well, she will grace the field in the Bangalore B Division tournament in January 2025.
I’ll keep you all posted on her journey.

Image 1: Monica Chauhan (first from left, kneeling row) with Inter Bangalore Blues FC

I asked Monica why she started playing football.

“I started to play to be more free.
Free from my overthinking mind.
Football forces me to be quick on my feet, and get into my body instead of my head.
In the process it’s also helped me reset and show up with energy and vigour”

This conversation took me down a rabbit hole to find what are some unique practices and rituals that working professionals engage in outside of work.
More importantly, why do they do it?
How does it help them?

This search took me to Nick Petrie’s work which had some fascinating insights.

Nick writes 

Here is a major insight from our interviews with top performers across a variety of fields-People who perform at high levels without burning out have an opposite world outside of work. This is an activity that puts them into a state that is the direct opposite of the mindset they have at work (and recharges them).

Nick further writes,

I asked Vivek Rao, a product management leader at Amazon, how he survived for 10 years without burning out in a work environment where 3 years means you are a veteran!  Vivek replied:

“I learned to dance. Argentinian Tango.
In my work day, I am in my head all the time, constantly using logic. My brain gets exhausted. That burns me out. But when I started Argentinian Tango, I learned that Tango was the direct opposite of my work. In Tango, you must be in your heart and your body. Two places I rarely am during my work day.”

This insight and framing was an aha moment for me!
And this also seemed somewhat strikingly similar to what Monica had shared.
Vivek had more to share. Read on. 

“Also, the currency in Tango is the opposite.
No one cares about where you work (or if you even have a job), how much money you make, or what your title is. The only thing that matters is, can you feel the music and communicate it to your partner through your body?
The currency is – can you dance?
So, for 2 hours in the evening I dance, I am in my heart, I move my body, I am absorbed.
My brain disengages, rests and recovers. The next day at work, I feel recharged.”

Having discovered my love for sports like running and swimming in the latter half of my life, this theme of an opposite world resonates deeply with me.

So I continued on my quest and popped the same question to a few other leaders whom we work with at Co.labx. Here are a couple of opposite worlds leaders have created for themselves.

#1  Opposite world

Image 2: The bowling arena

Every Sunday, a CXO I know heads to the mall—not for shopping, but for something far more intriguing. 

He books a bowling lane for a couple of uninterrupted hours and bowls alone.
No friends, no phone calls, just the rhythmic sound of the ball striking the pins.
It’s his sacred ritual, a deliberate escape from the demands of leadership. 

This activity, oddly enough, gives him—a rare moment to disconnect from the constant buzz of work. Sport has a powerful way of giving us a mental reset.

To me it seemed like bowling provided another opposite world for him. It requires a focus and intensity but of a different kind and one that is coupled with playfulness.   

An incredible side effect of this ritual though has been that his game has solidly improved and he is now planning to enrol in a couple of bowling competitions and go head to head with some of the masters of the game!

#2  Opposite world

Here is another one. On a slightly different theme but yet unique and impactful.  

This founder keeps sometime on his calendar for a date during his lunchtime on most days. Pretty cool right?

However this is not a regular date.

The date is between him and his food 🙂 

The practice is pretty simple – No phones. No conversations.
It is a lunch in solitude.
Just sit down, feel the taste of the food, chew it well and savour the flavours, – simply that. 

In the chaos of work, this small act of presence brings clarity and calm for him.
It feels almost like a power nap in the middle of the day.
He has always loved food and it seemed easier to build a ritual on top of something that he loved. 

So what is your reset ritual?
Is there an opposite world that you have managed to create for yourself outside of work?
Or if you had to now create an opposite world ritual, what will it be?

Write back to me please 🙂

I am compiling more of such opposite world, reset rituals.
And if enough people write to me, I promise to compile the list and share in the next edition.

That’s a wrap!  See you soon in our next newsletter.