In September 2015 it finally hit me…. I was burnt out.

I woke up on a Wednesday like any other day, however I physically couldn’t get out of bed. For the first time in my life I felt immobilised but I wasn’t sick or injured, I was physically exhausted.

11 years of start-up and early stage businesses, navigating high growth periods and the unrelenting challenges that come with being in the arena had worn me out.

On this particular Wednesday I found myself incapable of simply standing up.

For the next year and a half I changed very little. I continued to get little sleep, eat poorly, exercise rarely and grind through.

Because the business side of things had become even more demanding, if anything my behaviours and habits had become more unhealthy which meant for 18 months I was running on 20%.

With the high demands of the culture we live in, it is easy to think that to live in an unhealthy state is normal.

One could be forgiven for thinking that not sleeping well, waking up tired, pushing through stress, energy dips, craving sugar, food, coffee, wine or whatever it might be, is normal.

It isn’t.

It’s a natural byproduct of our unnatural habits.

These are all symptoms of a lack of wellbeing and what I’ve learnt recently, is that they are very easily fixed.

Upon reflection it is clear to me that the first chapter of my life was fuelled, like so many of us are, off pure will.

However more recently I learnt that in order to continually climb the next mountain I wasn’t going to do it by repeatedly ‘getting more out of myself’, I had to learn how to more wisely invest into myself.

Over the last few months I have been experimenting with ways to optimise personal performance. I have been learning from people who are the best in the world when it comes to fitness, physical and mental endurance, recovery, nutrition, resilience, mental clarity and flow, brain activity and optimisation.

What I have learnt and implemented in recent months has been one of the most powerful transformations of my life.

I have more energy, less stress, significantly more mental clarity and flow,  am sleeping deeper than I have in a decade, and a refreshing…almost surprising… feeling of physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.

We decided to film this episode of Unscripted on Sunday, to give you an insight into some of the rituals that have helped me to realign over the last few months.

If you have any rituals that you use to prevent the burn out, realign and rejuvenate… I’d love to hear them.

Let me know in the comments below.