Blog - Dr Sacha Simon

Avoid Burning Out By Finding the Right Work / Life Balance

Dr Sacha Simon / January 29, 2025

I am sure you have heard the saying, ‘you cannot pour from an empty cup.’ This is why you need to learn to take care of yourself. Keeping yourself motivated is an inside job. You might do an excellent job at creating the right environment and getting the requisite resources to succeed, but if you are not taking care of yourself, you will not be able to stay motivated for very long. It is hard to keep pushing yourself to do more when your body is already falling apart under the pressure. Achieving success at the expense of your health is not a very wise idea. It is equally unwise to neglect your family and friends in the process. While it is true that sacrifices will need to be made, your health and relationships should not be one of them. In short, it will be much easier to motivate a healthy mind and body. Pay careful attention to these 5 areas that are often neglected in the pursuit of success: Nutrition How, when and what we eat, has a huge bearing on how well our bodies will perform under pressure. It is easy to begin to neglect your diet when you are focusing all your time, energy and resources on becoming successful. Purchasing cheap junk food might be convenient now, but you are not looking ahead to the disaster coming your way. A large percentage of the illnesses we face are in fact nutritional disorders that could have been prevented if we paid more attention to our diets. Nutritious food helps our bodies to grow, gives us energy and helps our bodies to repair themselves. In order for our bodies to functional optimally and not burn out, we will need to consume the recommended amount of each nutrient. But there is no need to become jittery about your diet and make any rash decisions. Here are a few suggestions to make eating well a lot easier. Avoid foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid overly processed foods Read food labels before you consume the item Include food from each food group in each of your meals Drink more water and less carbonated beverages Don’t skip meals Replace your snacks with healthy options like fresh fruits and nuts Never try to replace meals with dietary supplements Rest The average human being needs about 7 – 9 hours of rest each day. Getting sufficient sleep is one of the most essential aspects of finding the right work / life balance. Unfortunately, with the demands of earning a living, caring for your family and pushing yourself to meet your goals, sacrificing sleep might seem like the only logical solution to getting everything done. In fact, some people even reason that sleepless nights are synonymous with success. Once again, sacrifices will need to be made to reach your goals, but sleep should not be one of them. Not getting enough sleep will mean that your body will not get enough time to repair and charge itself up. We are basically like dead batteries when we do not get enough sleep. This means that our minds will not be able to work optimally if we are sleep deprived. A lack of sleep has even been linked to depression. How can you motivate a mind that drained? Get enough rest and your mind will be ready to conceive your success. Exercise There are very few people in this world that enjoy exercise. Thankfully, that number is steadily increasing as more and more people are beginning to realize the benefits of doing so. Constantly feeling fatigued and achy is a sign that you may need to get more exercise. One of the main reasons why people dread exercise is they fear it might be too hard. They assume that they have to start with the difficult things and it will just gradually get worse. That is really not how it works, nor is it what is recommended. If you are new to working out, you will need to start small at first and gradually work your way up so to speak.You may even hurt yourself by pushing to do too much, too soon. It is also best to vary your workout. Monotony will only make this task a lot harder than it has to be. Find what works for you and engage your mind by mixing up your routine. You would be surprised how much good just exercising for a few minutes each day will do. In fact, here are a few benefits of getting sufficient exercise: Regular exercise helps to strengthen your bones People who exercise often sleep better at nights The condition of your skin will improve as you sweat and excrete waste from your pores You will be better able to manage your weight Exercise also reduces the risk of suffering from certain ailments like diabetes and heart disease You often feel better after you exercise because working out releases the hormones that will improve your mood Regular exercise can reduce stress Family Your family is your strength. The stronger the relationships in your family unit, the happier you will be. When you lovingly make time for your family despite your endeavors to be great, they will in turn lovingly support your hopes and dreams. You cannot surround yourself with the right people if you keep pushing away the only group of people who are determined to watch you succeed. Making time for the ones you love should always be a priority. This is especially so if children are involved. A child will not understand that you are busy now because you are trying to build a better future for them. They only think about the here and now. And the fact that right now you are not here for them can have serious implications on the kind of person they will become. Money cannot buy you happiness and all the successful accolades

stop your addictions

Reward Accomplishments if you Break your Habits

Dr Sacha Simon / January 29, 2025

Life becomes more worth living when you know that for every good thing that you did, a reward is bound to come your way. By this time, you already know that stopping your addictions is possible only if you will really put your heart and mind to it. The last but definitely not the least tool for you to completely free yourself from your bad habits is learning to reward yourself for every accomplishment that you make. Through meaningful rewards, you can be more motivated to do better the next day and you will strive even harder to make sure that you will get another great reward in the future. With this kind of inspiration and motivation, you will have the drive to become better and better every day as you finish your journey to complete recovery from your addiction. Every Accomplishment Deserves a Good Reward Reward systems are being used in many situations today. At home, in schools and even in workplaces, a reward system is considered as a helpful tool for people to do better. This serves as a motivation for the children to do their chores at home. Students learn to embrace their lessons better and complete their homework because they know that they will be rewarded for everything that they do. Employees feel more valued and appreciated when their employees reward them for their achievements. Reward systems can certainly do wonders when it comes to inspiring people to strive better and even in your recovery from addiction, rewarding yourself for every accomplishment that you make can inspire you to move forward and finish what you have started. Maybe you were able to say no to your friends’ invitation of going to the bar after work. Maybe the sight of marijuana no longer made you feel any cravings to take a toke. Maybe you were able to stop yourself from watching the porn video that popped up during your search. These things might seem like a simple accomplishment for others but for those who are addicted to alcohol, marijuana and pornography, these simple actions are a giant leap on their way to recovery and these things definitely deserve some reward. The rewards will be all up to. You can either set it for yourself or you can ask your family and friends to give you something for every accomplishment that you make. The main point here is that you will get something good out of being able to resist the lure of your addictions. At the end of the day, it is not really the reward that matters. What matters is that even if there is no reward, it will now be easier for you to say No to your addictions. This is because you have already accepted it in your heart and mind that your bad habits will never do you any good and letting them go is the only way for you to be able to live the kind of life that you want, the life that you deserve. Hopefully, this article has helped you in learning how to stop your addictions. Use the tools that you discovered to finally break free from all your bad habits.

mindset and goals

How to Plan and Achieve Your Goals

Dr Sacha Simon / January 29, 2025

So now you have the goal, you need the plan. To do this, look at where you are now and then look at all the things you would need to build the life you are picturing. For instance, you might find that you need a certain amount of money to make your dream of travelling happen. In that case, you need to look at the options available to you to make that money. Or maybe you want to achieve a certain thing in your career and you realize that in order to get there, there is a certain amount of experience you need to acquire first. How can you acquire said experience? There are many similar examples of how you might go after a particular goal but the thing to remember in every case is that you need to focus on small steps that are just ahead of you. That might mean the next small promotion. It might mean a small upgrade to your home. It might mean developing any form of small income. With that in mind, you’re then going to break these smaller goals down even further. Now the objective is to look at the smallest possible steps that you need to take on a daily or weekly basis to get there. So if your goal is to have a body like Brad Pitt, then that smallest daily step is simple: diet and exercise. Look around, find a training plan and a diet that works for you, and then commit to sticking to that every single day without one flaw. Likewise, if your goal is to be a top novelist, then your daily goal is going to be to write X number of words per day. Make the goals easy to accomplish but ensure that they take positive – if small – steps in the right direction. This is the key target. This is the primary directive. You’re going to imagine that vision and let it motivate you when the times get rough. But you are going to forget anything other than the daily target. Right now, that is all that matters. To help you visualize this, here is what it basically boils down to: Dream/Vision (Overarching Goal) > Plan (Stepping Stone Goals) > Daily Target (Daily/Weekly Goal) Changing Your Thinking So why is this change in thinking so important? The answer is that focusing too much on a distant goal will make you too detached from what it is you’re trying to accomplish. For instance, if your only ‘goal’ is to become a novelist, then you lack any real structure or any plan. This is going to make it very hard for you to stick too. It’s all too easy for you to get lazy, to take shortcuts or even forget all about it. Even if your goal is more specific and time-sensitive – such as losing 15kg in 6 months – you are still too detached from it. Why? Because a) you might still think it’s okay to skip a workout or to cheat on your diet one day and then ‘put off’ the goal. By the time you have 1 month left and you’re still no lighter, you might give up. Or what if you stick to the plan as much as possible but you still don’t see the results you want? How disheartening is that? So instead, the goal is the target. You focus just on the one day. You either succeed or fail. It is entirely down to you. It’s entirely your responsibility and no excuses cut it. But if you keep focusing on the daily targets, you will find that the overarching vision takes care of itself. It’s like building a house brick by brick, or taking a journey step-by-step. Some Final Tips Just to help you stick to your path, consider a few pointers. One: keep your daily targets easy to accomplish. Introduce them slowly. Don’t be in a rush to get anywhere. It is better that you just start to enjoy exercise than letting yourself get burned out or put off. Two: keep track of the days you succeed and lose. Jerry Seinfeld uses this technique and calls it ‘the chain’. Every day he does what he sets out to do, he puts a big cross on his calendar. This is rewarding and addictive in and of itself and his desire to ‘not break the chain’ is reportedly enough to keep him from giving up. Three: use the most practical and proven methods to get where you want to be. You must believe in your plan. Why are we willing to go into work every day but not work on a plan we enjoy and that could make us richer? Simple: because when we go to work we definitely get paid. You need a similar plan. Something that will help you to definitely get where you need to be at least in your mind. And finally: don’t get disheartened if you miss one day. The aim is not to of course. But if you slip up, go easy on yourself and just jump straight back on that horse!