This is not what I expected. You can actually get Bali burnout.
When I thought of Bali, I thought of paradise, beautiful skies, beautiful weather, and people living very simply, people with very little money, people who weren’t chasing much. I thought about it being a place where you would go and reset, do some yoga, meditate, and reconnect with your spirituality. And it is that. But that is only the postcard version of Bali. The reality is something completely different. There is sun, It is paradise. The people here are happy. They are happy because they understand that what they have is peace. The people working are smiling because they are living their lives in alignment, and that is something you can feel the moment you arrive.
And then there is another layer of the people who are not from Bali, the people who choose to come here, this is a completely different type of human. It is like a subset of people. These are the people you would normally see in cafés in the UK, in co-working spaces, building something, working on tech, spinning up websites, running ads, specialising in paid traffic, creating, designing, storytelling, coaching.
These are people who are deeply intentional about what they do and who they support. People who understand that to be the best at what they do for their clients, who are often not even in Bali, they need to be in an environment like this. And when I saw this, it just made sense.
Because the work that I do requires me to pour so much of me out, and at the same time it requires me to make space for other people to pour their stories in. And if I am going to make space for other people, I have to be very intentional about what I keep in me.
The way I see it is like a wardrobe.
If someone is bringing all of their clothes into your house, and you need to make space for everything they have, you can only keep a few items for yourself. You have to choose the most important things. That is how I look at my emotions, my memory bank, my mindset, everything that has happened to me. I cannot keep everything,
I have to choose what stays. Because when a client gets on Zoom with me, and we start working through their messaging, their communication, their story, their business ideas, I need to have the capacity to hold it.
The work that I do is multidisciplinary, built over the last 20 years. The first thing I do is help someone identify what they really want from their business or their career, and what that actually looks like. And once we know that, every question I ask, every story I pull and each piece of communication we shape is done with that outcome in mind.
I am coaching from a business and career perspective, while pulling the parts of you that make sense to be shared as you move towards that goal.
It is like editing your wardrobe.
Understanding what stays, what goes, and what works together, and then connecting it all. So that when you tell your story, it becomes visual merchandising. Your story becomes something people can see, understand, explain, and talk about when you are not in the room.
Because everything is marketing.
You, your business, your skills, your message, your mission. And your story is the thing that allows people to mention you into rooms you are not in.
To do that work well, I need space and Bali gives me that. But more than that, it has removed something I knew I was struggling with, the loneliness. Because, I had no-one to share my excitement, insights and client breakthroughs. The premise of the work I do means I’m privileged to life changing stories that impact me while I’m working on them. Here in Bali I am surrounded by people who think in a similar way, who are equally committed to their craft, who have chosen to be here because they know what they need to operate at their highest level and the conversations here are different. I have met people who have sold multiple tech companies. People who have broken down the inner workings of their businesses to me in a way that, in any other context, would be consulting worth thousands. I should have at least ten thousand pounds worth of invoices from the value I have received in conversations alone. And yet, nobody is trying to sell to you. Because we are not each other’s customers. The rest of the world is. So the energy is pure and collaborative.
It is what networking event tries to be, but rarely can be. You know when you go to a networking event and you meet one person and you think, yes, I connect with them? This is that, but amplified. You walk into a space and you meet multiple people like that and that is why it can be overstimulating. That is why someone said to me they have experienced Bali burnout. I had to ask them to repeat because they are two words I’d never put in the same phrase. But now I understand it. Because when you are constantly around people who are building, thinking, creating, evolving, it requires something from you. It stretches, and sharpens you. And if you are not intentional, it can overwhelm you.
Environment plays a big part on the way we think.
If your work requires you to pour into others…then where you choose to pour from is vital.
