TIME OUT ?
You need time out.
It is vital for progression. It is vital for your ability to stay motivated. It is vital for your mental health. It is vital for your relationship. It is vital if you don’t want to burn out and fall in a heap.
Whatever form you take time out in, make sure you’re doing it, regularly. More regularly than you think you should.
I go away several times a year. I aim to go overseas at least twice a year, plus take a few weekend trips to either the country, interstate or a night in the city.
Am I loaded?
Hahahahaha… no.
It is pretty much the only thing I spend my money on. I don’t have toys, I don’t go out on weekends, I don’t buy many clothes as I live in CrossFit clothes 95% of the time, I just save for trips.
I do this because:
  1. I love traveling. I want to see every little part of the world.
  2. I love Bali and treat it as a second home.
  3. I know how important it is for my growth, my families growth and the growth of my gym.
When you are so deeply involved in something, so closed off to everything around you, so insular, you have tunnel vision on your things… relationship, business, kids, sport… you end up overseeing so much on the things you think you are so focussed on.
By stepping away you get a chance to see everything from the outside, a chance to summarise, a chance for new ideas, a chance to see how it could be done differently.
When you’re deep in the trenches of your daily life it is so damn hard to see everything around you. Things become more overwhelming than they really are, things become worse than they really seem, it can sometimes feel like this is the only pathway available.
Relationship
Too often we put aside a night away with our loved one because:
  • too busy
  • too tired
  • feel guilty leaving my kid/s for 1 night
  • the thought of a night away just with him is daunting as it’s been so long
When if you were to just do it, you’d find out that you’ll improve all of the above problems.
You get a chance to reconnect and properly check in with each other without having to pause for all the distractions (good and bad ones) your kids and jobs slam you with.
You get to completely switch off and just be with your person like you did when you first met.
You re-find your appreciation and love for your partner and your kids and come home a better and more clear parent and lover.
“But I do love my kids without having to go away. I’m not leaving them for 1 night!”
Yeh no shit you love them… But like a said above, when you’re deep in the trenches, sometimes you don’t get the opportunity to look at everything from the outside in. You miss things. You get frustrated at the same silly things. You focus on the less relevant things.
Go and do it, but promise you won’t spend the entire time feeling guilty for no relevant reason. Don’t keep calling to check in. Don’t read them a bedtime story over the phone. Know that them having time away from you is also good for them too. Trust the person you put your trust in to care for your mini one/s. If they couldn’t do it they wouldn’t do it.
*having a night or 5 away from my Harper is one of the best things Court and I decided to do from an early age. The three of us are a solid unit and I put a lot of that down to the fact we have these times out.
Your Business/job
If you run a business or are a manager of sorts or you just generally have to problem solve or come up with new ideas where you work, you can get so caught up in the repetitive parts of your job that it is incredibly hard to freshen things up.
I absolutely love coaching classes. I love teaching people things. I love it when a class runs as smoothly as planned. I love helping people with a correction. I love seeing that spark when they ‘get it’. I love asking people about their day and weekend. I love that I know so many peoples story and get to be the person that can show interest in them outside of their close friends and family. I love seeing people make positive changes to their life as a result of our service.
But running systematically consistent classes with the same level of love and care takes a lot of mental and emotional energy.
It is why none of our coaches take more than around 16 classes a week or more than 3 classes in a row.
It is why I encourage my coaches to go away when they can. It is why I don’t care too much if Kristie and Shannon take an extra sick day or go a bit over their annual leave. Their energy, happiness and clarity is more important. And they come back more refreshed and more passionate than before.
Directing a place that has so many different people come through the doors, so many moving parts and is ever evolving requires a constant flow of new ideas and a demand to be continually buzzing with energy, positivity and support. I know that when I have my head down in the gym doing the daily tasks and coaching my classes that I am not as likely to come up with as many ideas. But more importantly I will sometimes miss things… a drop off in fist bumps and high fives after workouts, a lack of atmosphere in the class that always has a tonne of it, a mild drop off in overall motivation or slight lack of direction amongst the overall group.
When I go away I may not be in the trenches doing the daily work, but I ALWAYS have my most productive thoughts, ideas and revelations about where to go next and how to serve our members better.
Don’t put off or be afraid to take time out of ALL of your daily tasks. If you don’t, don’t expect much growth in your relationship with your partner or kids and don’t expect to tackle your job or hobby with the same passion and intensity you usually love to give it. Not only will growth not happen as well as it should, but that trench will become even harder to climb out of the longer you put it off.
Happy Thursday
Stu.
PS – Taking the last 10 days out in Bali was huge for me. I relaxed and reflected and my relationship with Court and Harper is stronger. I also have clarity heading into the Last Challenge at the box and have a good idea for direction in terms of content for the gym. But boy was it also productive in ways I couldn’t achieve here at home!
I got inspired by my sisters epic wedding.
I trained at CrossFit Wanderlust and learnt some cool and different ways to take warm ups.
I helped Harper turn from a bi-polar swimmer (confident one day, pussycat the next) into an absolute mermaid!
I ran two brilliant podcast episodes for Raise the Bar Radio that I cannot wait to release, and met 2 guys I have been closely following and drawing inspiration from for the past year, James Smith and Diren Kartal.
Taking time out for the win!


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‘OF THE WEEK’
Raise the Bar Radio Podcast Ep – #33 – Jarrod Martin – Langy local, great bloke, incredibly intelligent. Been in the fitness industry a long time. Awesome listening. Our releases have changed to Monday’s, so I’ll fill you in on next weeks too. #34 – Dave Driskell – CrossFit Wanderlust Bali owner. Just turned 40, looks 30. Lives his life against the grain and gives you the confidence to chase what is real happiness to you.
Instagram Page – @tamaraleetattoos – check out our awesome member and podcast guest Tam ninja about like a boss. Awesome viewing. Netflix Show – Just started Making a Murderer 2, Ep 1. Soooo interesting!