From Chaos to Calm: Achieving Life Balance & Avoiding Burnout (w/ Entrepreneur, Josh Schneider)

Ever feel like life is spinning out of control and you're barely hanging on? You're not alone! In the newest episode of the Imagine Yourself Podcast, called "From Chaos to Calm: Achieving Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout,"  we dig into some advice from an expert we met in season one, Josh Schneider.  He’s an author, entrepreneur, and speaker who’s got some killer tips on finding balance and keeping burnout at bay while still staying productive and passionate.

We talk about everything from creating a bit of "margin" in your schedule to why it’s so crucial to know if you’re an introvert or an extrovert when it comes to recharging. It’s all about setting boundaries, making mindful choices, and finding those little "tingly feeling" moments that make life special. He even shares a simple but game-changing idea that literally takes five minutes. 

So grab your headphones and get ready to dive in with us as and explore how to turn down the chaos and dial up the calm. By the end of the episode, you’ll have some new strategies to help you become the best version of yourself and connect more deeply with the things and people that matter most. Trust us, you won't want to miss this!

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Imagine Yourself is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach. Lanée is a TV writer and producer, motivational speaker and podcaster. Sandy is a radio personality, voiceover artist and podcaster. They come to you from the Detroit Metro area and invite guests from all over the world to help encourage you in your health, career, faith journey and more!

Transcript

With everything going on around us and in our lives, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. To get some help, we went back to one of our guests from our first season, Author, entrepreneur, and speaker, Josh Schneider, speaks to individuals and companies about achieving balance and combating burnout in both their personal and professional lives. Imagine finding balance in your life and career while you stay productive, creative, and passionate. That's what we're doing on Imagine Yourself podcast. Cheers, Josh.

Josh Schneider [00:00:38]:
When you look at maybe the wealthiest or the most successful people, what are they fighting for? They're fighting for margin. Margin in their schedule, margin to do what they wanna do, margin to breathe. If you say, what's your greatest dream? It's like, oh, I wanna sit on a beach and drink a daiquiri. And I'm like, well, that will probably be good for 3 weeks.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:56]:
And then you'll be bored?

Josh Schneider [00:00:59]:
You'll have tasted all the daiquiris, and now the desire for meaning and purpose will start to swell again in your life.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:05]:
Sure.

Josh Schneider [00:01:06]:
But it's that idea of peace. And I think peace can be different for all of us. It's not just about meditation. It's not just about finding silence. There's a 100 different ways. There's 19 different breathing apps. Sometimes we just need to, like, hear our own thoughts or be a filter.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:25]:
So getting that time is hard, but I read once in one of your blogs where you said taking 5 minutes of silence during your commute is a good time to collect your thoughts.

Josh Schneider [00:01:37]:
Getting in that car and finding a little bit of breath, a little bit of margin, because by the time you get home, the kids are going at a 100 miles an hour. And then how was your day? What's going on? And all of a sudden, you forgot that tomorrow is cookie day and now you gotta run back out to Kroger and, like, we're in a beautiful connected world, but it has brought on all of these extra challenges.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:00]:
Right. Those connections can make life easier, but like you said, more challenging as well, especially when everything is fighting for our bandwidth. And even a notification on our phone can pull us away. Right?

Josh Schneider [00:02:13]:
A 100%. And that's where I have some friends that have turned their phones into black and white, so it's less stimulating. I have almost all notifications of, like, text messages. I use a separate email app, so that way my business, my lead generating emails, I get a notification. But if it's kind of normal day stuff, believe me, I'll check my email enough. Yeah. I don't need to get to it this moment. Now if I get a lead, I wanna be on that fast.

Josh Schneider [00:02:43]:
I use my mail app on my iPhone, but then I use a separate one that has a notification.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:48]:
So getting that important stuff that you need to act on in the moment, but setting boundaries on the stuff that you don't necessarily need in your face all the time.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:58]:
Right. I saw this quote that says balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. And balance means making choices and enjoying those choices. And the things that you've just mentioned are about boundaries that you have with yourself, that you have with others. And I find that fascinating. And like you said, taking 5 minutes in silence as you drive with no other external stimulation coming in at you might be the key to helping you have that self reflection that leads to what your next step is going to be in life, what you do and don't like about what you're currently doing and living with and might even bring some creative thought to your brain that you just didn't have time to manifest before. Right?

Josh Schneider [00:03:46]:
And that 5 minutes is going to feel like an eternity. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:50]:
Feel like an hour.

Josh Schneider [00:03:50]:
You need to pick up your phone or, like, oh my gosh. What if this happened? And what if when we begin to create some space and open it up, even to reflect back on a conversation, you cannot quantify what comes through your mind at that point. It begins to replay the day. I can't tell you how many times it's like, wow. I I interact with that person that way or, oh, I said that. And sometimes I go in and organizations, how do we prepare people for the future? The future is a little bit unknown. To me, it's so beautiful what work will become, the tools that we'll get to operate with, and the progress and the creativity. However, if we cannot control what's going on in our brain, meaning we are just caught up in the chaos, then we're not gonna be able to slow down enough to have those fresh ideas come through in order for us to utilize and to be able to maximize.

Josh Schneider [00:04:44]:
The game is going to be changing for how we work in the next 10 years. I think it's those who are able to slow down enough to be able to see the opportunity. Because if you go along with the flow, hey, you'll be average and standard, but I don't none of us wake up and wanna be average standard. We want to thrive. We didn't have kids to just usher them through to the next stage of life, but that's the challenge is we've got work and it's competing. And, heck, even if you're a stay at home mom, that is not a simple role.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:11]:
It's not.

Josh Schneider [00:05:12]:
Work is simple because there are boundaries and there are some rules at home with 2, 3 kids. There are no rules. I mean, there are rules, but the kids are they're trying to do whatever it is that they can do to live and express and feel and learn. It's so counterintuitive, but we have to find a way to almost do this reset and finding this quiet time. It's not magical, but like you said, these things start to come to the surface, and it could be as big as, like you said, an idea of purpose or what I should do. But, you know, when we are on the treadmill, it is at 10 all the time. How do we find ways to just get off of it for a moment so we can see, catch our breath and even feel what it is that we should be feeling?

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:57]:
So I've run-in your blogs too that you said people are different, and we know that the 5 minutes is a good general rule. But you say introverts and extroverts, for example, have a different way that they release their creativity and whatnot. So would that also affect the way they might recharge or spend their downtime?

Josh Schneider [00:06:17]:
And that right there is the truest tenant of introvert versus extrovert. So many people are like, they love talking in front of groups of people because they're extroverted. Well, actually, I've been introverted for a lot of years, but getting up in front of a group of a 1000 people is the most amazing experience I could think of in life. But what it truly means, the truest definition introvert is somebody who when they need to recharge and get energy back, they need to kind of go be by themself, or they need to have a deep, meaningful connection, a close friend that they could just spend in a couple hours with. They're gonna recharge versus an extrovert finishes a a day of work that's just so slam busy. And they're like, who can I call to go eat for dinner and drinks? Because they wanna get or a long week, and they're like, where are we going? It's Friday night. That's how they recharge. That's the true introvert and extrovert, our roles and and how we choose to live life.

Josh Schneider [00:07:09]:
When I hear someone say an introvert doesn't like people. No. They just don't like talking about sports and the weather. They love people. Yeah. And so how do we find these ways that recharge us? And here's the other thing. I love me some shows who doesn't.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:26]:
Well, binge watching.

Josh Schneider [00:07:27]:
Exactly. We can sometimes watch 4 or 5 hours of TV and think we're relaxing, but we're not recharging. And there's a difference between relaxing and recharging. And I'm a big believer of like 6 days or 5 days on, and you gotta have that day of rest. You've got to have time. So you take, like, the weekend and stereotypically, somebody says, well, I've got a list of these things I need to do. And some of those will give energy and some of those will take energy. There's a true story to this, but it's called the tingly feeling.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:56]:
I like the tingly feeling. Okay. Because it's

Josh Schneider [00:07:58]:
not what you think. So No

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:59]:
coffee is involved

Lanée Blaise [00:08:01]:
or other things. No.

Josh Schneider [00:08:04]:
So when I was at the CPA firm, my coworker, Jen, she looks up at me. It's just her and I out late one one night at a client. She looks up at me and she goes, Josh, I've got a tingly feeling. And I was like, what? And what she goes on to say was I have a tingly feeling because the numbers match. Now let me paraphrase for you. She said Microsoft Excel just gave me a tingly feeling. In that moment

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:27]:
Usually makes me curse.

Josh Schneider [00:08:29]:
Exactly. Right? And I got mad because she was saying, when I do all of this work, a week's worth of work and the numbers match, I am ecstatic. And for me, I thought when I do all of this work and the numbers match, I'm thinking nothing changed, meaning I just wasted my time. Now what we've seen is that this tingly feeling, this moment actually is Jen was not lying. There was this part of her work that when she had this moment of satisfaction, it was dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin that was released into her system, released into her body. And so she was telling me the total truth. Like, I actually feel really good. And when something feels good, we want to do it again.

Josh Schneider [00:09:11]:
And what we know is that when something feels good and we want to do it again, it's because it's giving us we need to get a return. When we look at our money and ROI, we're saying, what's my return on my investment?

Lanée Blaise [00:09:21]:
Yes.

Josh Schneider [00:09:22]:
And when we look at our energy and what we're committing ourselves to and what we say yes and no to, we need to be thinking, what's going to be my return on this time? Sometimes that means you have to be a little ruthless to what you say yes or no to. But in reality, in our work, if we can find out what that time is for us, and we've seen that, unfortunately, that tingly feeling moment for everybody that we interview and we talk to is roughly about 4 to 5% of our working week. Meaning that 90 plus percent of our time is challenging, pulls at us. It takes our focus. It takes our energy. So we have to identify what part of our work is that 4%. Here's the hard thing too is once we convert into the weekend or once we convert into the evening, we have to find out what those deep moments of connection are with our kids, our spouse, our closest friends.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:10]:
So important.

Josh Schneider [00:10:11]:
I was given this blessing of being 14 when my sister was born. And what that did for me, I can now think back to her as a baby in my arms, and it seems as though no time has passed. And so from a young age, if you will, I've been able to realize that time is so beautiful. It's so precious. And we need to find those tingly feeling moments, those moments of deep connection. Because when we think back to the greatest memories with either a parent or a close friend, it's not about the 47 hours we spent together. It's a few key moments, a few key experiences when somebody opened up and shared with you how they felt about something and you felt so connected to that person. And there's no one silver bullet on how we beat burnout, on how we stay focused on on how it is we overcome all of the challenges and obstacles.

Josh Schneider [00:11:00]:
But there are beautiful people in our lives that we've chosen to let in, and we need to find those moments with them. And the same thing is true with our job. And I think especially at work, we go from one thing to the next. I mean, how many times does one of your kids do something and you're just like, oh, that's so precious or it warms your heart in in such a way. And then 9 seconds later, we're like, why did you do that? Yeah. It's just real and it's not about right or wrong, but listen in no way are we saying give up on 95% of your life by no means that we're saying that, but it's, I think there was a song that said the grass is greener where you water it.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:38]:
Yeah.

Josh Schneider [00:11:40]:
Nothing will ever be a 100% enjoyable, 100% blissful. If you start your own company doing the one thing that you absolutely love, which would be like the dream of so many people, guess what? There are 90 plus percent of the time that challenges are coming at you, and that is okay. And that's how we learn to ebb and flow and live with life. But if we are constantly looking to stretch that and I need more joy, I need more in some ways, it's the when I then I'll. When I get this new house, then I'll be happy. When I get the promotion, then I'll stay the extra 5 hours. And if we're living from this position of the when I'll then I'll, we are constantly thinking that the next thing is the next thing. And what that also opens the door up to is that in the event of there being a major problem, we will find something else of lesser problematic value to replace that, and we will hold the space for a big problem in our life.

Josh Schneider [00:12:37]:
Doesn't mean we don't deal with these challenges, but if we get into that mindset and over the years I've had to, and this will sound crazy, but I have started to operate and live life, my wife, Jen and I, from the position of it is already completed what we desire. Now we are just working backwards from it.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:57]:
Interesting. Is a beautiful way to do things because the other way seems like you're setting yourself up for dissatisfaction on a regular basis, but I don't understand how to incorporate your way. I want to do it your way.

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:11]:
Yeah. And even when you were talking about the when I'll, then I'll, I was thinking because Lanae and I have talked about that before, like, I'll be happy when this happens, but not until then. It's a mentality a lot of us have. So how about the acronym instead of Wi Fi, we call it Wi Fi, and then we can remind ourselves that it's not all about Wi Fi.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:35]:
Exactly. And like you said, how to work ourselves backwards.

Josh Schneider [00:13:39]:
Well, I mean, if we go back to when you and I met

Lanée Blaise [00:13:42]:
Years ago.

Josh Schneider [00:13:43]:
Years ago.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:44]:
Yes.

Josh Schneider [00:13:45]:
We met when you came into a restaurant to have dinner with your husband.

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:51]:
It was our anniversary.

Josh Schneider [00:13:52]:
It was your anniversary.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:53]:
Yes.

Josh Schneider [00:13:55]:
And I was your server.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:57]:
Yes. And

Josh Schneider [00:13:59]:
I'm putting you on the spot, but what was it about me that resonated with you?

Lanée Blaise [00:14:03]:
I can tell you that very easily. You gave us the impression at least that we were special, that you were qualified, that you were enjoying the whole experience as much as we were. And like I said, because it was our anniversary, those things are important. That's when we realized we want to come back to this establishment. We want to interact with this person again. And then years later, when we saw that you were becoming an entrepreneur, a speaker, an author, all of these other things, we wanted to get behind you because that first impression of being interested in us as individual people and, again, your competence at whatever it is that you happen to be doing and your enjoyment of it, that paved the way. And of course, that's why when we introduced you and I said you're an extraordinary motivator, that's why we wanted to have you on the show because our whole concept is imagining ourselves in these better positions. And that's what you inspired, and that's what you've done.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:20]:
Kaboom. Alright.

Josh Schneider [00:15:22]:
Wow. Hopefully, we captured that on recording. I'm gonna have that be my introduction from now on, but that's it. I'd written my first book at that time. I was already trying to do the thing that I'm now doing for a living. I showed up to that restaurant every day saying, I'm here. This is my job before my job. Like you said, you felt my passion.

Josh Schneider [00:15:43]:
You felt that I was competent. I could have easily looked at that and said, this is awful. This is my current circumstance. Listen. Whether somebody wants to be an entrepreneur or have more stability at home or move forward in their corporate role because they believe they deserve the next promotion, if we can develop this job before the job mentality. When I approached a table of 2 of you or 8 business people, I knew I wanted to be a speaker and share information. This was my opportunity right in front of me. I have human beings who are giving me their attention.

Josh Schneider [00:16:16]:
Can I deliver information in a way that makes them say, wow, I get it? Can I give them an experience that is different? Because I knew, great. I've got 2 people here in front of me who are here for a reason. When I'm at a conference speaking to a 1000 people, I've got a 1000 people who are here for a reason, and I put myself in that moment right there at the table even though there was 2 of you. I found ways to open the bottle of wine differently so that way I created a different experience. I mean, I know one time, Caroline was like, I love that tomahawk, but I really wish that you had lobster on the menu. We didn't carry in house, so I stopped by on my way into work and picked up a lobster tail. And it's like that goes back to the what is it? White tie?

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:01]:
Yeah. Yeah. White tie. When I then I I.

Josh Schneider [00:17:03]:
Yeah. When you feel like you are gonna step into the fold version of who you wanna become, you imagine you will do these things at a level of excellence. If you can't convince yourself to do things with a level of excellence and create experiences for people, wherever you are, whatever role, whatever position you're in, you can't just turn it on at the next level.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:23]:
Wow. Man.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:24]:
Because so many people phone it in at that level.

Josh Schneider [00:17:27]:
Like It's easy.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:29]:
They're like, this is a below me. Nothing is below anyone, of course, but it's easy to feel that way sometimes.

Josh Schneider [00:17:35]:
It gives you staying power when you are convinced that you're going somewhere, but you are being that person now. You've said, forget when I then I'll it's then I will right now. You become that per we're so focused on what everything is doing. It's easy for us to push aside who we're actually becoming. And when we can focus on who we are becoming, it gives us staying power to push through any obstacle because we are focused on, listen, if I can become that person and I believe in myself, then I'm gonna get the breakthrough that I desire. Might not be next year, might not be next month, but if I'm going somewhere, I might as well become that person. There's no barrier to becoming the person you ultimately wanted. No money, no circumstances can impact or change who you are becoming.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:22]:
That is a powerful word right there that I think we underestimate. But just from what you said, becoming, it absolutely wipes out the when I then I'll. You're already in that process. Get rid of white tie and replace it with becoming. Wherever you are right now, whatever you're doing right now, do it at your best level, your best capacity, and rise up from that spot as opposed to waiting till you get to such and such spot to be excellent.

Sandy Kovach  [00:18:58]:
And the habits that you develop and in your case, Lanee, the relationship with Josh. Yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:03]:
That's why I'm trying to pin this down to how many years ago it was because it has been sustainable because of who you are, who you were, because of who you were becoming that whole time. And the same with me also, I was not doing podcasts back then, but I was on my way to my purpose as well.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:24]:
Well, this is amazing. I think we have learned a lot here and I will say that Josh has a wealth of information. I think you focus mainly on work, but clearly these things can work for you. If you're in business, you're an entrepreneur, whether you're a stay at home mom, whether you're retired, it's just good balance. And what is it again? No, why tie becoming just it's a way to live your life.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:48]:
Yeah. It's got all the it's not even a trifecta. It's got like a whole tenfold thing. It's got productivity going on here as far as making sure that you're productive at whatever state and level you are, balanced at whatever level, time management, like we said too, boundary management, and the tingly feeling. That was just a new one that is worthwhile also.

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:12]:
So where can we find all of your fabulous stuff, Josh?

Josh Schneider [00:20:16]:
So website is joshschneider.com. Also, LinkedIn, I love to, you know, as long as you don't try and sell me something, the moment we connect on LinkedIn, I will connect with anybody because I believe that we all have beautiful perspective. The world needs all of us to show up and be the best. And the best doesn't mean in connection to somebody else. It just means our best work, our best effort. And so I love to see what different people are sharing, what different people are interested in. So love to connect, LinkedIn every 2 weeks, put out some research or latest article. We've got some fun stuff coming up as well.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:52]:
Along with your books, along with the fact that many people listening might need a keynote speaker because we do understand that your specialty tends to be more on careers and employee engagement and helping organizations to function more effectively. But we really kind of pulled it around to make it so that today we kind of had it where we are focusing on how to make individuals more efficient and effective and productive. And we appreciate that you shared that with us because, like Sandy said, many of our listeners come from all different walks and spectrums. And you can use those same techniques to hone in on everything for getting to the next level. That's your book, Generation Next Level.

Josh Schneider [00:21:38]:
Which which aren't companies filled with individuals and human beings?

Lanée Blaise [00:21:41]:
Exactly. Yes. Exactly. We're all

Josh Schneider [00:21:43]:
we're all human.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:44]:
Not robots. Exactly.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:45]:
Not yet anyway. That's another issue.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:47]:
Yeah. That's another topic.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:50]:
It's crazy.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:50]:
But Josh gave us hope on that too because it is very easy to look at the news and look at the way that research is explaining that our connections with other people is starting to break down. But you've given us a lot of hope that there's some cool aspects and some good aspects that are yet to come as well. And As

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:12]:
long as we handle it correctly. Right?

Lanée Blaise [00:22:13]:
As long as we handle it correct and as long as we take those little five, bang on minutes Mhmm. To just sit and be and listen because people of faith would say that God might have something to speak into their hearts right at that moment or that you just need that time. Even everybody knows that you must every once in a while turn your phone off, let it power off completely, and then turn it back on so that it can, like we talked about earlier, recharge, regenerate, but we just forget some of these principles. That's why we have this podcast to remind you all to do these things.

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:51]:
So is it time for takeaway or before we turn to Josh, sometimes I call Linnea Doctor. Linnea only because she has so many wise things to say.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:01]:
And because I've stayed in Holiday Inn Express.

Sandy Kovach  [00:23:03]:
That's right. But so Lanee is gonna do a takeaway. But before we hand it to her, do you have, like, a wrap up takeaway for us?

Josh Schneider [00:23:12]:
The thing that burdens me the absolute most is the thought that somebody hates their job because that means that they're raising a family under the premise of that work needs to suck. Wow. And, you know, when we look at the next generation and we look at the future, I want this current workforce to be raising families with listen. We see it. It's 5%. 5% of our work is what's telling our body and our mind and our heart, yes, this is worth it. I didn't get into it today, but there's a question we all ask ourself that and maybe this sums it up. But there's a question that we all ask ourself.

Josh Schneider [00:23:47]:
We have never consciously asked this question, but the question is, is my future brighter than my past? And every part of us are hard in every key relationship and how you walk in. If you walked into work in in your cubicle or your office was packed up in a box, you're immediately thinking my future is not brighter. You walk in and all of a sudden your cubicle or your office has been upgraded. You're immediately thinking my future is brighter. Every key relationship we are scanning the environment, looking for evidence. Is my future brighter than my past? And so sometimes we get so focused on the percentage of balance. Am I home? Am I gone? Listen, everybody finds that right answer for them. But if we can just support ourselves and truly believe that we provide incredible value to our relationships, incredible value at work, and we find out what that is, it changes how we feel.

Josh Schneider [00:24:42]:
And if we can change how we feel, we're changing the language of our body. If we can change the language of our body, we can change the language of our mind and our thoughts. And if we begin to do that, if we could just do one thing and start looking for evidence that our future truly is brighter, and sometimes it's hard, but if we can find that, all of these pieces start to come into play and they start to fall in line. And I know it sounds maybe crazy and you're thinking 5 minutes isn't gonna do not get quiet for 5 minutes, 7 days in a row. Your mind is gonna scream at you telling you there's a 100 things you need to do, and you gotta write down these 17 things or else you're gonna forget and your life will never be the same. It's gonna happen. But if you can fight against that, it opens up on the other side to start to provide evidence that your future truly can be brighter.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:29]:
Well, then I've gotta follow behind that with the takeaway, so I'm going to use the great Dolly Parton.

Sandy Kovach  [00:25:36]:
Oh, well

Lanée Blaise [00:25:37]:
Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. And that seems to pair right with what Josh is telling us about making sure that we are balancing all of these things, that we are taking time to really listen, that we are becoming that whole process and not just rushing through it or looking to the other side where it's supposedly so much greener, but we haven't watered it. With that said, imagine yourself making time for the important things in life, using all of your potential in the most balanced, productive ways possible, and live a life worth living.

Sandy Kovach  [00:26:23]:
So glad you could spend a few minutes with us at Imagine Yourself podcast. Sincerely hoping that this episode was helpful to you. Love for you to contact us, give us a rating or review. Imagine yourself podcast.com is our website. We'll put that in our social media links as well as Josh's information in the show notes. And until next time, when we have something new to imagine, here is to your balanced life.