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Work/life balance is a hit topic these days. As work gets more and more mobile, separating ourselves becomes harder and harder. Gone are the days of 9am-5pm jobs that you can leave when you go home for the day. It is common today to wake up and check your phone for new texts or emails, always have your phone on your hip waiting for alerts all day, and processing a little work every night before bed. Add to all of this the work from home culture that has come with COVID. Separation from work is almost impossible. Thus, work/life balance isn’t getting any better.
Balance Before Burnout
In this episode of The Stronger Revolution, we sit down with our Athlete of the Month for November 2021. Nathan (“Miz”) Mizla talks to us about how burnout smacked him in the face in 2015 and he decided he really needed to make a change. He read about at motivational speaker that asked, “If your 40 year old self could tell your 30 year old self to make one change in your life, what would it be?” Miz knew instantly. He needed to make room for health and wellness in his life. He didn’t want to turn 40 in worse shape than when he turned 30. So, he started to make space.
Start Small
At first, Miz said it was hard. He would take his running clothes to work in the beginning. Before he had a chance to go home, he would head out after getting off of work and run around downtown Pittsburgh. For a while, that worked great. However, he discovered, as any recreational runner does, that plateaus come quickly. He either had to increase his pace or increase his time. At the same time, a co-worker of his started talking about CrossFit at Industrial Athletics. The one hour classes scheduled after work fit within his running window, so he decided to give it a try. He’s never looked back since.
After being at Industrial Athletics for a few years, Miz decided recently to take it to the next lever. He started dialing in his diet, adding work to increase his endurance, and adding in barbell work for his strength. He comes to CrossFit around five times a week and is part of our Coach’s Corner program to help him meet his individual goals. The process has been a long one. But, he has successfully designed a healthy work/life balance. He still works hard every day, and he puts time in to make sure he is healthier at 40 than he was at 30. He started small and let it grow.
