A WorkLife Lesson: Andreas’s Story: Learning the First Secret:
Andreas had experienced severe burnout in his position as a recruitment consultant within the insurance industry.
He had been working long hours. Not only had there been excessive demands on his time, but there had also been unreasonable demands for the people he was expected to recruit. They, too, were expected to work long hours and do whatever they had to do to achieve the excessive targets set by their companies.
Something had to give. That something was Andreas’s job. And with it went his health and wellbeing.
There had been a ‘restructure’ within his department, and Andreas was told his job was being made redundant. He believed the ‘restructure’ was simply a way to get rid of him and engineered as such.
For months Andreas had been pushing himself to the limit. He had been exhausted but had somehow kept going. But the moment he stopped working, that exhaustion suddenly hit him with a bang. He was totally wiped out. He experienced extreme physical and mental burnout.
He needed to take time out to rest and recuperate. But his recovery time needed to be fast because he had to get back to work and earn a living as soon as possible.
His husband, Seb, persuaded him to take a holiday and booked them both into a hotel in a peaceful setting in the Andalusian mountains. A retreat of sorts, where they could completely switch off from the outside world and do whatever they felt like each day. Whether that was absolutely nothing other than relaxing by the pool and having spa treatments or walking or horse-riding in the mountainous terrain. Activities they both enjoyed.
At the end of their two-week break, while Andreas felt a lot better, he didn’t feel ready to return to work. He decided to travel north to do the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, something he had wanted to do for a long time but had never been able to take the required thirty days or so to complete the entire trail. Seb couldn’t join him because he needed to get back to work. He was OK with that. While he had felt he needed to be with Andreas in Andalusia, he now believed he would be OK alone. They both knew that Andreas needed this time on his own to figure things out. Doing his thinking while walking, was the perfect way for Andreas. Because these combined actions had always served him well when he needed to figure things out.
They were right. Andreas came back from the Camino with his vision of how he wanted his WorkLife to be.
In this lesson, you will learn about Andreas’s vision and how going about achieving it, he learned the first secret to getting to where he wanted to go.
You will learn how he discovered following his vision wasn’t such a lonely path after all.
In this lesson’s WorkLife Learning Assignment, you will learn to understand the connection between your vision and your motivated abilities.
In this lesson’s Continuous WorkLife Learning Assignment, you will develop a practice of self-feedback through insightful questions to help you remain motivated in following your vision.