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Welcome to The Figuring It Out Podcast.
At 22, I took the plunge to go on the entrepreneurial journey and start a fitness business, 7 years later I’d been the nutritionist for 2 elite sports clubs and private coach to some of the worlds best sportsmen and women.
Now it’s my mission to show fitness coaches how you can put yourself in a league of their own, become the go to coach, and finally eliminate the self-doubt and imposter syndrome that's holding you back from building the business of your dreams.
This podcast will help you figure out how to thrive and conquer the fear that comes with the lonely entrepreneurial journey.
If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. Today, I am a bit sleep deprived.
Speaker 1:I really am. And on this episode, I am going to share with you the number one secret, the number one thing that you can do to ensure that you can overcome sleep deprivation as a fitness coach, as an entrepreneur, to make sure that it doesn't screw up your day. Now why do I kind of say this? Because you know I think I've documented this quite well on the podcast over the past few years. But you know over the past few years I definitely have battled with overwhelm, anxiety and this this real feeling of worry.
Speaker 1:And I do think that I'm definitely why I know I'm not alone. I think it is just part parcel of running your own fitness business. Not just specifically to fitness but running your own business comes with its huge challenges that can really kind of you know leave you feeling overwhelmed, anxious. And I know that these feelings are always heightened when I haven't slept amazingly. And first of all, I wanna like make sure that almost like we're aware of what I mean by kind of sleep deprivation because in all honesty, you're gonna think I'm nuts and you're gonna think I'm ridiculous but I actually slept for eight hours last night.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so I slept eight hours last night. So you're going well that's not sleep deprivation like and my partner would say get a grip, get on with it. That's not sleep deprivation. Some people run on five hours of sleep. Yes I agree.
Speaker 1:However, if we look at like the one of the primary purposes of sleep, sleeping really is around restoration, rejuvenation, getting that energy back. Now, oh my god, it's hailing. This is crap. I must say. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you can hear this. Wow. Oh my god. Wow. It is absolutely hammering it down with hail here.
Speaker 1:I really hope you can hear me. So hopefully you can hear me okay now because it stopped hailing. Oh my Honestly, I can't believe it was hammering it down with hail. It's it's May in two weeks time. It is May in two weeks time and we've got hail in The UK.
Speaker 1:Wow. Oh my god. I need to leave this country. Anyway, coming back to it. Yeah like you know I've slept for eight hours last night.
Speaker 1:Slept for eight hours and you know I can see why my partner would go oh get a grip like you know you've slept for eight hours that's fine. Yeah but the thing is that let's look at what makes us tired. I spoke about this on a fair few episodes in terms of there's two main drivers of what make us sleepy and what make us feel the urge to have to go to sleep. One is rhythm, our own internal body clock, but then the other one is adenosine. Okay?
Speaker 1:So this adenosine is effectively I'm gonna take you back to GCSE biology here in terms of something called ATP. So adenosine builds up. Adenosine triphosphate. Yeah? Now adenosine builds up throughout the day and it really comes off the back of like the breakdown of ATP.
Speaker 1:What is the breakdown of ATP? Well, that's us using energy. Now the thing that we need to kind of be aware of as fitness coaches and specifically as entrepreneurs running a business is that the amount of energy in which our brain utilizes is huge. Like, it is huge. And in comparison to someone who may not be running a business, and this isn't like kind of a an us versus them, but it kinda is.
Speaker 1:That like, you don't stop thinking about this thing. So don't forget that like, you know, us running our business, like, it is a twenty four seven three sixty five job. Do you know what I mean? We are constantly constantly thinking about our business and completely engrossed in it. Oh, bless me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we're constantly thinking about it, which means the amount of mental energy in which we exert is far higher than that of someone who may not be running a business. Because they can clock in at nine, they can finish at five, and then they can shut off. Whereas for me last night, I didn't shut off because I was dreaming about my business. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my business, and I'm sure that you do the exact same thing.
Speaker 1:So what I mean by that is that this adenosine that increases throughout the day is just the byproduct of us using energy, which means that if we're using more and more and more energy than the normal average person, then that means that we're breaking down more ATP throughout the day, which then means we have more adenosine left over, which means that everyone else might do perfectly fine on eight hours of sleep because they might only have eight hours of sleep worth of adenosine to clear out. That's what your sleep does. Your sleep basically just clears out the excess adenosine that's made you feel really really tired. However, we probably have definitely have more than eight hours worth of adenosine lingering around. And I know that because I slept for eight hours last night and I have still definitely got some excess adenosine flying around.
Speaker 1:So I think that what is that got to do with how you can overcome it? Well, I think first of all that the key thing is always that in order for us to figure out the antidote, we have to first be aware of what the poison is. Now I don't necessarily mean poison in a terrible way here, but what I mean is that the challenge that we are experiencing right now, so me right now, I'm tired. I feel it in my mind. I have this excess adenosine floating around.
Speaker 1:So I need to do two things. First of all, I need to make sure that throughout the day, I can potentially put things in place to ensure that I can clear out this adenosy. So naturally, it is what time is it now? It's 11:00 in the morning. So I'm fighting against my circadian rhythm because my circadian rhythm is naturally kind of pumping me up.
Speaker 1:So between the hours of kind of like ten and ten and one, we're kind of most activated from a circadian rhythm perspective. So right now, me trying to have a nap, for example, to rid of that adenosine is gonna be very very hard between eleven and one. But what we find is that around the afternoon, around sort of like 02:00, that's where we get this kind of slump because the circadian rhythm starts to decrease. Which means that with the circadian rhythm, in terms of like activation energy alertness going down, then I've got opportunity to clear out my adenosine. So the first thing is, okay, right, what I just wanna do at some point today is clear out that excess adenosine because that will make you feel more alert, that will make you feel more awake, and you'll be able to get whatever work that you need to get done, done.
Speaker 1:But the most important thing that I can push on to you in terms of really, really being able to ensure that this day doesn't capitulate because for me, like, I've had the days like today where I've really really pushed myself, pushed myself, pushed myself, but didn't have push myself in me. And that's just led to me potentially having a little bit of extra caffeine to wake me up. That's then caused me to feel anxious, more overwhelmed, and the day is just spiraled into this pure capitulation. So what has changed? What have I done to potentially change that?
Speaker 1:I change up my expectations. So on a day like today, I need to be aware I don't have pump up the jam in me. So being a day where I, you know, smash everything out, I do it perfectly and everything is amazing, that ain't gonna happen today. So one of my favorite books is a book called Soul for Happy by Mo Gowda. It is amazing.
Speaker 1:And he basically says, and Tony Robbins talks about this as well. He basically summarizes that that, he basically summarizes that unhappiness is effectively when expectations aren't met, that our reality doesn't meet our expectations. So actually, what we need to do is today, I could potentially run into a real rut of being anxious, unhappy, overwhelmed. I'm not where I should be because the expectation that I'm putting on myself off the back of the resources I have available to me is pretty stupid. So for me to expect perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, I'm just gonna let myself down and cause myself to be anxious and overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:So actually, it's like, right, what are the low energy tasks that I can potentially get done? What can I do with the amount of energy that I have available to me in order to just get through the day? And the beauty is that you have the capacity, the power, and the drive to be able to catch up. So remember as an entrepreneur, like, you know, you've if you've been doing this for a while or even if you're new, you've got that stuff. Like, you've got the substance, the stuff that means that you can really, really play catch up and drive it forward.
Speaker 1:So what I mean by that is I originally had planned, I'm gonna get loads of content done today. Maybe that's not going to happen, but the beauty is that when I'm firing on all cylinders, I can smash everything out that I have missed very, very easily. I can play catch up. So if you are in a sleep deprived state, there's three things that I really, really want you to, like, to summarize, really to kinda, like, take on. If you are feeling additionally tired, potentially listening to this today, first of all, make sure that you're aware that for us as entrepreneurs, naturally, we utilize more energy, which means that off the back of that, by utilizing more energy, then we're having more adenosine.
Speaker 1:So we probably require more sleep than the average person. Secondly, then what can I do today to potentially clear out a little bit of adenosine? Maybe not first thing in the morning because you're fighting against your circadian rhythm. So potentially best times to do that between the hours of one, 01:30 and three. Okay?
Speaker 1:So we can have like a little twenty minute nap or do some form of yoga knee drill or non sleep deep rest just to clear out that excess adenosine. And finally, change up your expectations for the day. Beautiful. Don't forget, if every single one of your clients gave you one new client, you have doubled your business.