Memorable Quotes:
“How do I shake off all of the definitions of success for how to build a business?” – @escroberto
“[Burnout] is an initiation. There’s something [in burnout] for you to discover, to learn.” – El Harrison
“How can we walk the talk? How can we live out what’s going on?” – @jerrycolonna
“What, actually, is going on, and how do we build an organization simultaneously that is sustainable, that is financially sound?” – @jerrycolonna
“You can’t build an innovative organization if you can’t build a sustainable one. – @escroberto
“How can we walk the talk of living and working differently?” – @jerrycolonna
“Your problems are not going to be solved when you build a business. Your problems are not going to be sold by a dream job.” – @escroberto
“Transformation takes patience, and it takes courage.” – @jerrycolonna
“It’s so uncomfortable to realize all the ways in which you are a stranger to yourself.” – @escoroberto
“Never, ever, ever stop the practice of growth.” – @jerrycolonna
Rob is the founder of Escape the City, which is a community for career changes.
Rob experienced a debilitating episode of burnout, which took him to a place of exhaustion and not working for six months. He is now sharing his experience to help others understand they are not alone in experiencing burnout and to share some things which have been helpful to him in moving past this episode.
In his period of burnout Rob first saw some traditional counseling which he did not find helpful. He later connected with a coach in London named Elle Harrison. She suggested to Rob that the experience of his burnout was actually an invitation to to discover things about himself. To be curious and to learn.
Rob reports that his top challenge is “Undergoing a business transformation process. From vision to strategy to people, process and operations whilst keeping the show on the road whilst recovering from burnout. Trying to build a progressive organization along b-corp, reinventing organizational lines. Also, trying to ensure business survival and progress.”
Jerry articulates two challenges Rob is facing: “how can we walk the talk? How can we live out what’s going on? What, actually, is going on, and how do we build an organization simultaneously that is sustainable, that is financially sound?”
Rob correlates his burnout experience with a lot of surmounting fear which both he and his cofounder faced.
Jerry notices that burnout is not restricted to just what we think of as high stress, high stakes professions but that often it’s the organizations whose values are the highest aspirations. It’s those who commit themselves in this conscious way of doing good without actually exploring the fear behind the fear.
Rob has a deep rooted fear of not carrying himself with integrity.
Jerry articulates that this fear and Rob’s drive for perfectionism is carrying forward in all he does. That noticing it has not eliminated it.
Jerry and Rob then look at how this drive has drawn him to connect with his colleagues- people who are also committed to escaping the violence of that fear and perfectionist mentality.
At Escape the City they organize small groups which run for three months called tribes. These groups share with each other in an act of support.
Jerry shares that true transformation does not happen in sweeping movements, but instead happens slowly, gradually over time.
Jerry guides Rob in trying to reframe the critical voice and fear that is holding him down and instead see it is as the voice of a friend who is trying to guide and protect him.
If we want to become the person we believe we are capable of, we need to learn to love those parts of ourselves we may not like, including our internal voices.
Transformation, happiness, reaching our potential is a journey, not a destination. To remain resilient, we must learn to live in the practice.
