True Patriot Love - Holiday Burnout vs Being a Grinch

00:00:00.000 horizonwithin.ca sim is the name and helping you is his game and at this time of year

00:00:10.060 it can be overwhelming and i think some people would call it burnout where you just can't go

00:00:14.980 to another store or another function or just do more preparation and i have to admit sim

00:00:20.840 this past weekend with my partner after about the fifth store i became the grinch did you oh i was

00:00:26.860 like i want to go home i want to watch into the bills game i want my coffee and my cookie no more

00:00:32.500 shopping i've been tapping out and i was very grinch like in my behavior about the fifth store

00:00:37.320 i could imagine now um did you have a long week like walk me through it it's a busy week i have we

00:00:44.120 had two functions the day before uh up early with the dogs and just like and it's i i can i could

00:00:51.340 there's a limit i got a time out i can't shop anymore i love the holidays i know we're doing

00:00:56.620 but why don't we just buy this just go home i don't know we gotta look at something else

00:01:01.660 and i think you know it's funny you say that because i've yet to meet um and i'm generalizing

00:01:10.320 you know a male person that has truly enjoyed being in the mall for three and a half hours

00:01:17.540 and going you know what just buy it i it looks great honey now i could understand when people go

00:01:25.220 to uh amazon other online functions to do their shopping like oh this looks good when's it gonna

00:01:32.580 arrive great click bought next done i'm not i hate shopping yeah yeah but i was i admit i was and i'm not

00:01:41.860 sure if it was burnout or just grumpy afternoon i need my afternoon coffee or my grouch but burnout at

00:01:48.740 this time of year i to me has to be a real reality so it is because like we already have a lot on our

00:01:55.780 plate like even if you take the holidays aside right and then you look at our everyday lives right

00:02:00.420 and you could be somebody that is you know of any generation right we have responsibilities we have

00:02:07.780 obligations we have things to do you know it's only so much you can do in a week to begin with right

00:02:14.820 so if you want to look at it and say you know what i experience a level six burnout on an animal

00:02:22.820 everyday week right and by the time you know saturday comes around like i'm like you know and then i got

00:02:30.340 a reboot restart and then monday right and it could be your um gen z yeah has to go to school

00:02:38.260 and it could be your late bloomer that you know is on the edge of retirement and you know once you

00:02:43.700 cap those two you're kind of looking at this have been flow of energy that's been pulling you in a

00:02:50.260 places and then you start adding the seasonal changes gets dark sooner it's colder you know if

00:02:58.580 you get a snowstorm now your 45 minute commute turned into an hour and a half commute like last week

00:03:03.060 when we was all and we got the alberta clipper come through and all of a sudden you're

00:03:07.460 stuck on the 401 for two hours and and now you're like completely flatlined because that hour and a

00:03:14.180 half had to go somewhere else yeah yeah add christmas shopping yeah add navigating parking

00:03:19.460 lots in the mall like your brain is doing 40 percent more work on a day-to-day basis so for you on a

00:03:27.460 saturday afternoon feeling like you know i'm turning grinchy all of us are there we have this in society

00:03:36.100 i've also noticed especially in the last few years there's this expectation of being buddy

00:03:44.980 health energy all the time how is that possible it's not possible but there's this false expectation

00:03:52.260 of it or like and you know it's everywhere right like we can't freely like then the last time you

00:03:58.660 could walk in and go i'll afford a grinch today and they're going to be like wow you know don't

00:04:03.700 be a baja rumba don't be a ruhu you know what i mean like cheer up it's a christmas spirit and you're

00:04:08.180 like no i'm just tired yeah right so it is not something that we should feel that needs to be ostracized

00:04:16.660 i fear that it's a conversation that needs to be had because it takes away from the joy of christmas

00:04:23.940 and even if you look at the story of the grinch right he was tied to the noise from who will and

00:04:30.740 because it was just getting more and more he became more and more to a point where he became two hearts

00:04:38.580 too small right and now we feel if i express that i'm two hearts too small

00:04:46.020 what am i wrong with you so then we just whiplash ourselves to being buddy all the time right and

00:04:52.260 all we've done is we've compounded our burnout even more right so another thing that we need to kind

00:05:00.420 of consider is our professional settings our personal settings and our social settings also increase the

00:05:08.340 demand on our needs right right so every day you look at your calendar like oh god i got two things here

00:05:14.820 three things here i gotta shop i gotta do this i gotta do that i gotta do that you know family's

00:05:20.180 coming into town i gotta go to the up so and you cannot take time out and say

00:05:26.740 i just need a minute right so um one of the common tools that i use in session a lot is is reframing

00:05:37.780 right because at the end of the day this time of year is going to pull energy from you whether you choose

00:05:46.820 to participate in activities whether you choose to participate in the holidays your environment has

00:05:53.940 become that much more right so if you do saturday afternoon grocery shopping well guess what man

00:06:00.660 you're competing for parking space you're competing for aisle space you're competing for that so

00:06:04.820 inadvertently you're burning out because in a in your routine of non-participation in the holidays

00:06:12.180 you're still exerting energy that you didn't have to right in your social setting in your professional setting

00:06:17.540 now all of a sudden you have to go to a christmas lunch yeah right anything you're worked on at the same time

00:06:24.260 right or they're like oh nobody has to do any more but you you you your crms require you to send the emails

00:06:30.020 out yeah because they may be working in a different time zone or they're working in a different country

00:06:34.820 or whatever the x values are so now all of a sudden you have this expectation to go sit through a christmas lunch

00:06:41.300 because you have to be social yeah but it's not something even to participate in and this is during

00:06:45.620 the the day of the week yeah so now all of a sudden you know it's three third in the afternoon one it's

00:06:50.260 a disruption of routine and two four o'clock you have to go pick up the kids it's no so uh one way to

00:06:59.540 reframe that sense of feeling because minute you start feeling burnout and you don't have a way to measure

00:07:06.020 it becomes very hard to then reorient yourself or find bursts of energy

00:07:11.300 so when you're reframing one of the tools that i i suggest is attention to traffic lights right so you

00:07:18.260 have your you go green to red right so the best way to frame your energy is you go okay if i'm in the

00:07:27.140 green things are manageable because you've account you've accounted for that there are more things

00:07:33.700 happening right the reason why i'm saying manageable versus i can do this because i can do this gives

00:07:40.660 you that sense of buddy the elf energy we have to also be truthful that there's demands coming of

00:07:46.580 you so like say on a saturday okay so green is manageable yellow is tolerable red is i'm too hard

00:07:57.300 it's too small right now if i had to ask you when you got out of the car what color were you i was yellow

00:08:04.820 on the verge of red so you were already on the low but when we started that's what i'm saying i was

00:08:10.340 entering yellow i was like okay i think i can get through rest that means we need to go okay that

00:08:15.140 means you woke up probably in the light green yellow range to begin with because you said you had two

00:08:20.260 activities the night before yeah that's cognitive reframing so when you wake up whatever you can do that

00:08:26.020 every day of the week you know and you could be like what am i waking up in am i waking up in are

00:08:32.340 things manageable today are things tolerable today that's it it's a simple match to it you're not

00:08:39.060 over analyzing it you're not questioning yourself you're not pushing yourself you're just taking a

00:08:43.700 step back right and i i brought this up in a in a previous podcast you know the center method yeah oh yes

00:08:51.220 yes yeah yeah now you can bridge them together so the sam method would be then see what it is so now

00:08:57.140 you're seeing unawake right you're asking where am i which color right you're naming it burnout at level

00:09:07.220 of et you're taking the it is what it is and then the last one active conviction and it is when the going

00:09:15.940 gets tough the tech keep going right now you've matched the two because you're telling yourself

00:09:23.220 hey listen i'm not being grinch out of purpose i'm being grinch because i'm being pushed in many

00:09:32.340 directions which i'm able to manage pre-holiday but all these extras i i'm not getting new energy

00:09:43.460 i'm still me i have to manage this so by doing santa with the color code right now a lot of times

00:09:51.700 what happens is and it's even with myself right because they start blending in each other if you're

00:09:58.020 stuck in a snowstorm well santa is not going to come in your mind no right you're two hearts too small

00:10:05.620 right away so another technique to reframe the mind is it's called uh twcw okay and what that stands for

00:10:17.380 is the world and weight okay so if you don't want to go with it is what it is because it sounds a little

00:10:25.780 bit more angry because you're like no it isn't what it is right fine just in that take a breath moment

00:10:36.100 you're still keeping santa where it comes to take a breath you inhale the world can wait so how do i

00:10:46.420 know if i'm just in a grinchy mood for a couple hours because i'm overdue for a coffee and a cookie and

00:10:50.660 how do i know if i'm really burned out uh by your color codes oh oh i see it's so icy you because

00:10:57.380 you're matching it to it because remember you're always going to wake up to manageable right things

00:11:01.540 are either manageable things are either tolerable or things are either two hearts too small few hearts

00:11:08.100 to smell you're only falling in three zones because we're accounting for the fact right that the holidays

00:11:13.620 and the season is is expecting an extra demand from you because you have it from all three areas

00:11:19.940 you have extra demands in your home environment you have extra demands in your social environment

00:11:25.060 and you have extra demands in your professional environment because you've got to get all this

00:11:28.500 extra work done before you take a break right or it's events activities yeah maybe like you know

00:11:34.340 you're a salesperson and now you got to take your top five clients out and one you got to take them to

00:11:38.180 a leafs game one you got to take them to a wraps game one you got to send them to a fancy dinner the

00:11:42.020 other one he's flying in from town you got that's an extra demand on your professional list or you're

00:11:47.860 the type that has to fly out of november yes and your client happens to be in europe right and when

00:11:54.980 you land now now you're you're personal and you're social what i'm trying to say is that by using that

00:12:01.620 gauge meter you're only measuring is my level of energy for today manageable which means i can get through

00:12:10.420 the day is it portable right i can get to the drill but i'm going to need support or i'm going to need

00:12:17.540 to find ways to pause or you know what i'm just two hearts too small now we can find a way to get you

00:12:26.340 more energy right so you know i think we discussed it in the um doom scroll podcast yes right out yes fat

00:12:33.460 proteins and carbs yes now i would encourage the listeners to go to that podcast because it's got

00:12:40.340 some valuable answers on how you can replenish your energy right but to kind of give a quick recap on it

00:12:47.060 basically what it is just like how in the middle of the day you're going to reach for something to

00:12:51.860 energize you physically right so either you're going to be like i have time and i'm gonna have a protein bar

00:12:58.660 right it's got a combination of all three right proteins carbs and fats right or you could be

00:13:04.580 like you know what i'm gonna have a wrap protein carbs and fats right or i'm gonna stop and grab

00:13:11.700 an actual bite the the replenishing energy same way you can replenish energy mentally right where your

00:13:20.260 simple carbs could be you know what i'm just gonna go on insta right and i'm just gonna go look at some

00:13:27.060 reels that i like and i'm gonna tune the word out and i'm gonna set a timer and in 10 minutes

00:13:33.380 whatever energy i got i'm gonna get going right same thing with your proteins now proteins are

00:13:38.420 more activities you could be like you know what i'm gonna put everything down walk gonna go walk the

00:13:42.180 dog i'm gonna go walk the dog or if i'm in the office uh guys i'm just gonna take the elevator down

00:13:47.300 yeah i'm gonna go into the lobby i'm gonna go to the front door i'm gonna open the door take

00:13:51.060 it a quick service of the breath close the door come back yeah because that's all the time you have

00:13:54.500 yeah maybe you only have four minutes right but that's enough to go and come back you did an

00:13:58.740 activity breaks that mental cycle right right because you may not have time to go for a 10

00:14:02.500 minute walk so why create a reality you can't fulfill right you're just giving yourself anxiety

00:14:07.780 the idea is carbs are something simple social media is really the simplest way to get a carbon

00:14:12.900 right that replenish replenishes you so you may be yellow watering red and you're like i need an

00:14:19.460 intervention because remember the only thing you can do is get to two hearts too small in any

00:14:24.660 environment other than a home environment right so now you can then use the proper intervention and

00:14:30.020 go okay i know what i can do because when you're near green life's okay it's your yellow to red

00:14:37.140 your issue is yellow to red your issue is not green to yellow when you're yellow to red when you're

00:14:41.860 like tolerable to burnout or too hard too small right you can use different tools you can use the world can

00:14:48.420 wait where you could be like you know what the world can wait from your standpoint sim is there a

00:14:55.460 difference between i'm i feel burned out or i think i'm depressed how do you identify saying i'm not just

00:15:03.220 burned out i'm feeling like charlie brown christmas depressed how do you know so i like that you brought

00:15:11.140 that up and i feel it it deserves space and conversation on its own okay and i feel we should

00:15:20.580 do an episode on understanding what it means to have a charlie brown christmas okay so that'll be our

00:15:28.500 next next episode getting into that for now uh i'm trying not to be a grinch um i know i'm gonna have

00:15:35.140 a coffee later with my cookie so i'll be a lot happier it doesn't take much yeah and i'll be more between

00:15:40.180 six and nine and six going to three right uh so or the easiest way is horrible yeah manageable tolerable

00:15:50.980 too hard too small i love that it's a great one that's cool that's why we watch you sim yeah

00:15:55.540 because it's perfect yeah you are very very manageable every day i talk to you

True Patriot Love - December 23, 2025

Holiday Burnout vs Being a Grinch

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