This episode is dedicated to all growth junkies who love to learn and grow. There is a downside to growth though, when we spend all our time learning we start to feel a little burned out or exhausted. I call it a growth hangover and it happens when we spend a disproportionate amount of time outside of our comfort zone. So, get out of your head, into your heart and let’s talk about growth hangoverserns. So get out of your head, into your heart and let’s learn about edge behaviour.
INTRO:
Hey, it’s Julie and welcome to the Corporate Yogi podcast. This episode today is dedicated to all you growth junkies who love to learn and grow. And if you’re like me, you’re addicted to personal development, in a good, completely healthy way, and love doing new things. Well, as with all good things, there can be a downside to growth and it happens when we spend all our time learning and start to feel a little burned out or exhausted. I call it a growth hangover and it happens when we spend a disproportionate amount of time outside of our comfort zone. Everyone, so long as they’re focused on growing, learning and doing new things, is susceptible to getting a growth hangover.
So here’s a look at what you’re going to learn today:
1) First, I’m going to explain what a growth hangover is
2) In the 2nd segment learn what causes a growth hangover
3) In the 3rd segment learn how to be more empowered when you have them
So get out of your head and into your heart and let’s dive right in shall we.
SEGMENT 1:
The term growth hangover is not something commonly understood, which is why I wanted to share this episode with you today. Often when I explain it to my clients they smile and shake their head, bc even though they didn’t have the label Growth Hangover top of mind, it is still something they have experienced in the past. It’s really important to presence these things and give them a label, bc then you can start to understand what is happening to you, you can start to be empowered about it and become proactive around it, instead of having to be reactive and burnt out all the time. A growth hangover happens when we spend a disproportionate amount of time outside of our comfort zone, and it requires us to exert a large amount of energy either because we are doing something new or because we are doing something that is intimidating to us. Growth hangovers are very real, and they affect us physically and emotionally, and most importantly I want you to be compassionate with yourself when you have one.
Think about what happens when you have a food hangover, or a hangover from drinking too much, what happens to you physically? You’re likely tired, you’re not at peak performance. So you might take it easy that day, rehydrate and take it easy on your body. And the same thing applies to a growth hangover. You need to acknowledge what you’ve gone through and then to give yourself the chance to recover. To take it easy, to relax and recognize what you’ve just gone through. If it is something really intense that you’ve just gone through, then once the adrenaline leaves your body, you’re going to feel pretty tired.
When we’re doing things that are new or that challenge us we use up more energy, a simple task we do normally might expend 2 units of energy, but something new that we’ve never done before might require 10 units of energy. Because there’s new elements to the task, we might require more focus and attention. And if you’re doing anything that is outside of our comfort zone, well – get ready for a really big growth hangover. Because your sneaky little Saboteurs (aka the negative, disruptive voices inside your head that tell you you’re not good enough) will always show up the most and THE loudest when you are on the cusp of big growth. And that is really part of what causes the growth hangover, is that we have a sword out and we’re battling through all the negative messages from our Saboteurs, bc they always show up the most and THE loudest when you are on the cusp of leaving your comfort zone and heading into your growth zone. So not only are you doing something new, but you’re battling your Saboteurs while you’re doing it. They’re like gatekeepers, that challenge you, and question you and try to negotiate all these reasons WHY you should just relax and play it safe and stay small. So, a growth hangover happens when we spend a disproportionate amount of time outside of our comfort zone, requiring us to exert a large amount of energy either because we’re doing something new or something that is intimidating to us.
SEGMENT 2:
So what are scenarios that can cause a growth hangover? Well a really obvious one is starting a new job, either within your company, or more intensely starting at a new company. There are so many things to learn, not just about the job, but you’re learning about the culture, how they say it works, and how it actually works. I’m not saying all companies have a different underlying and unwritten political code of conduct, but many of them do. You have all these new people to meet and get to know, learn their names, understand, learn what they do in their role and how their responsibilities dissect (if at all) with yours. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of logistics and hurdles to jump through when you have a new job. Depending on how senior you are or how big the organization, it can take anywhere from 3 – 6 months to get comfortable in a new role and really feel like you know your way around, all the while you want to prove yourself and make a good impression in this new role. So this scenario is a prime example of when you will likely have a growth hangover, bc there is just a sheer volume of learning and new-ness to tackle. Another example is hiring a new team member, or getting a new boss, having a reorg happen within your team, or maybe even when layoffs happen. This shift through the pandemic to working from home has caused a LOT of growth hangovers, bc it is a different way of working, and in the beginning, we were all keen on doing zoom socials and happy hours, and now that the novelty has worn off, I don’t think anyone is doing zoom happy hours. And parents that have had to home school – that has been a massive scenario for growth hangovers, because they’re playing many different roles and trying to do more with less time in the day, and really no downtime whatsoever. So remember a growth hangover happens in many different scenarios, we aren’t always conscious of it as we are going through it, but it does have a massive impact on us.
SEGMENT 3:
OK, so now that you fully understand what a Growth Hangover is, how can we be more empowered when we have them? Well, here are a few tips that will help you change the way you approach them.
1 – first off, you need to reflect on how you’ve experienced growth hangovers in the past. What were the common scenarios that impacted you the most, what were the warning signs. Was there anything that could have been avoided or managed differently? These are all important reflections and opportunities to mine the intelligence from, and will help you better manage growth hangovers in the future.
2 – Secondly you need to get better at predicting when they’re going to happen. This will help you to be better prepared and either avoid or at the least, better manage how you will navigate them. Now you might thing this is impossible, bc how are you supposed to know that something is going to be exhausting, before you go through it. Well, this is where your brilliant self-awareness really comes in handy! Because you can spend some reflecting and come up with 2 – 3 examples of when you’ve experienced growth hangovers and you will likely even start to notice that there is a pattern to how and when your growth hangovers happen. This is all important data.
3 – The 3rd tip is to proactively take action to either prepare for it, or take actions to prevent it. Years ago I used to run a lot of corporate events. And I can say with absolute confidence, even management has to be one of the most stressful types of work I’ve ever done, there are so many variables that you can’t control, it’s guaranteed that things will inevitably go wrong, although you won’t always know WHAT is going to go wrong and when, you just have to be prepared for all of it! So one way to proactively prepare for the growth hangover was that I would always book time off after the event. Sometimes this was one week, sometimes it was 2, and once when we had a massive launch event with clients I ended up taking 3 weeks off and chilling in the Dominican, which was amazing. So with certain things like event management, there wasn’t really anything I could do to take the stress off, but I could prepare to give myself lots of time to prepare. With other internal product launch events that I organized, I had the option to adjust my schedule to accommodate the extra workload. What this looked like in practice, is I would tap out of some of my regularly-scheduled weekly meetings and other reporting obligations for the month that I was preparing for the event, to give me the extra time and energy to focus on the product launch, and I also put together a cross-functional launch group to hand off a lot of the duties and responsibilities, so they didn’t all land on my shoulders. So those are a couple of things I was able to do to proactively prepare for the event and minimize my growth hangover.
So what about you? Can you take some time in the coming week to really reflect on when you have had growth hangovers in the past? What have you learned from them? And then how can you better predict them happening in the future? And then lastly what can you do to minimize the impact of them, and in some instances this can be proactively getting help or clearing your plate in advance, and in other cases it is about preparing for recovery time afterwards.
WRAP UP:
OK it’s time to wrap up this episode on growth hangovers. Whether this is a new concept for you or just a refresher of what you’ve learned in the past, this is a very important topic for you to really understand and create an action plan.
Let’s recap what you learned in this episode,
A growth hangover happens when you spend a disproportionate amount of time outside your comfort zone.
They impact us just like a food hangover or an alcohol hangover would, we get tired, we’re not at peak performance we might feel rundown or our immune system feels compromised. So you might take it easy that day, rehydrate and take it easy on your body, get extra rest and just focus on self-care until you can get yourself back in balance.
When we’re doing things that are new or that challenge us we use up more energy, a simple task we do normally might expend 2 units of energy, but something new that we’ve never done before might require 10 units of energy.
Our sneaky little Saboteurs show up the loudest when we are about to step outside our comfort zone, which is also what leads to growth hangover, bc we have to expend extra energy battling them off and fighting all the itty bitty shitty committee thoughts they’re putting in our head.
And 3 tips to help you deal with growth hangovers are
1 – reflect and notice when they’ve happened to you in the past
2 – Start to be able to predict them, there’s always red flags and warning signs, so start to notice them
3 – Proactively prepare for the growth hangover or taking the necessary actions to prevent it.
Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you are taking a lot away from this episode and I would love you to share this episode with someone who you think would really benefit from it.
And I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday for another great episode and remember, that any fear or resistance you hold deep inside of you, is simply your greatness in disguise.
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