I learnt a new word the other day:

Exhausterwhelmulation

It means the feeling of being exhausted, overwhelmed and overstimulated all at once.

And it’s certainly a word to keep up your sleeve when the Scrabble board comes out at Christmas.

Back when I was a Director in the Securitisation Team at Lloyds Bank structuring deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds,  I remember a specific “exhausterwhelmulating” day in particular.

I was catching an early train from London to sunny Andover.  Which meant I was up about 5.30am for my morning ablutions before jumping on a bus, then a tube, then a train at Waterloo.

I don’t know if 5.30am sounds early to you or not.

But I hadn’t got to sleep until after midnight and I’d been tossing & turning all night, dreaming (having nightmares?) about the presentation I’d be giving to a bunch of big cheeses the next day. 

A presentation I’d spent a good 10 hours prepping over the course of a few late nights.

So I was running on fumes.

As I arrived and moseyed into the meeting room, I could feel the nerves jangling in my chest.

And as I took my pew and put my blackberry (remember those kids?) on the table in front of me, I could see the little red dot flashing merrily away signifying that I had a load of unread emails.

At the time I was in the thick of structuring & negotiating a complex deal.  I knew those red dots meant the work was piling up and waiting for me when I got back to the office later.  And there was nothing I could do about it.

I found the combination of lack of sleep, unread emails and pressure of giving the presentation suffocating.

Yes, even exhausterwhelmulating.

I stumbled through the presentation that morning and the world kept spinning.

It’s just work after all.

But it didn’t feel like “just work”.  The whole morning felt gloomy.  And I remember thinking “does my job need to be as demoralising as this?”

Over the last couple of years I’ve come to see the answer to this question is no.  

It really doesn’t.

And I wonder if I was to re-live that day with the benefit of everything I’ve learnt since, would it be any different?

No way to tell of course.

But I’ll have a go.

I’m certainly sleeping a lot better than I ever have.  And even if I didn’t get my holy 8 hours the night before that presentation, it wouldn’t have mattered so much.  It wouldn’t irk me like it used to.

I also wouldn't have spent as much time preparing for the presentation. 

Back then, I thought having all the answers was crucial.  That’s why I prepped so hard.  But if I was giving that presentation tomorrow and a big cheese asked me a question, I’d have no issue saying “I don’t know, but I can find out” (might sound like a trivial point, but the headspace this shift has opened up for me has been huge).

And I think all the emails on my blackberry would’ve just made me smile.  They wouldn’t have looked like a big deal.

So I’m not saying I would’ve waltzed into that Andover meeting room like a champion ice-skater, confident smile on my face while I gracefully and gleefully pirouetted into my chair.

But my experience of that meeting would’ve been a whole lot more relaxed.  And the presentation would’ve gone a lot better too.

Anyway, here’s why I’m telling you all this:

For the next few days, the doors are open for my new group coaching programme Thrive at Work.

During the programme I’ll take you by the hand and show you exactly how to turn a stressful, tiring day at work into a source of ease, flow and productivity.

A particularly useful endeavour right now as the demands on our time continue to rise.

I don't think there's been a moment in human history where we’re all as “switched on” by people jockeying for our attention via emails, phone calls, social media, IMs, apps, notifications and so on.

Technology is accelerating exponentially and our minds are struggling to keep up.

Which means we live in a day & age where it’s never been more important to know how to access to mental clarity and turn exhausterwhelmulation into enercalminess.

(not quite as catchy, is it?)

Thrive at Work will show you how to do this in the office.

And I daresay a lot of the lessons could filter through into the outside world too.

If you’re interested, all the details are here

But don’t hang about.

The doors slam shut in a few short days. 

 - Tom