CHRIS DUCKER: Bouncing Back from Burnout

The Double Win

Michael Hyatt

Productivity, Teamleadership, Mental Health, Business, Leadership, Selfleadership, Personaldevelopment, Intentionality, Influence, Achievement, Selfdevelopment, Self-improvement, Management, Health & Fitness, Education

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After experiencing burnout and adrenal fatigue, author and entrepreneur Chris Ducker realized hustling harder wasn’t the answer. He gets candid about burnout, recovery, and why joy-filled practices are essential for leaders who want to last. Two of his favorites: bonsai gardening and birdwatching. He also makes a compelling case for getting outside. It’s a refreshing invitation back to an embodied, sustainable way of life.

Memorable Quotes

“I hadn't necessarily been burning the candle on both ends. But what I had been doing was a little too much of pretty much everything.”
“You don't need to break in order to take a break.”
“Self-care actually is a strategy, and it's a strategy that you can use to your advantage, particularly from a business owner standpoint.”
“Ultimately you're the engine, you're the spark, you're the difference maker. But even engines need a little maintenance.”
“Hobbies, particularly creative hobbies, if you spend a minimum of two hours a week on your hobby, you will be as much as 30% more productive in your work.”
“Any kind of success that costs you your health or your family or your joy isn't really actually success.”
“We want that big win, that big roar. And you only get that by being really consistent and the real game here is patience. It's consistency, it's showing up when it's not sexy, when it's not flashy, it's doing the unsexy work.”

Key Takeaways

Burnout Isn’t Just Overwork. Stress from life, context, and even unsustainable pace can take you down. Your body always keeps the score.
Self-Care Is Strategy. Leaders last when they guard their health and energy—because even engines need maintenance.
Hobbies Heal. Joyful pastimes don’t just prevent burnout; they restore creativity and can boost productivity by up to 30%.
Step Outside. Just 15 minutes in nature can reset your mind and body. Make it nonnegotiable.
Small Shifts, Big Change. Consistent micro moves compound into lasting transformation.

Resources

The Long Haul Leader by Chris Ducker
Youpreneur community

Watch on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/GOLw7Vz4kRA

This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Number one, you don't need to break in order to take a break.
0:05.1	It's okay to do that anyway, just because it's good for you.
0:08.8	And number two, self-care is not selfish.
0:14.9	Hi, I'm Michael Hyatt.
0:16.1	And I'm Megan Hyatt Miller.
0:17.4	And you're listening to The Double Wind Show.
0:19.4	And we're back.
0:20.3	We're back, fresh back from our hiatus and our summer vacation, or as they say in Europe,
0:26.4	our holiday.
0:27.0	Our holiday.
0:27.7	What did you do, Megan?
0:28.7	I actually, one of my takeaways is I probably did too many things over the summer,
0:32.3	but it was all kid stuff.
0:34.5	So my son, Moses, is trying to get recruited for college football. So we were on
0:40.0	the prospect camp circuit, which basically meant that we went to all these different schools where
0:46.2	he had to do sort of like a tryout in a way with a whole bunch of other kids. And we were just
0:51.0	driving all over the southeast. You know, I really put some miles on my car.
1:08.9	There were some great memories, though. It was cool to get to spend time together. At this point, he's a rising junior. So, you know, you just realized, like, it's going fast. Well, and then he got hurt. And then he just got hurt. Yeah, like second scrimmage of the season. So we're not even in the real season.
1:10.0	He got hurt.
1:13.7	But fortunately, he kind of dislocated his elbow and pulled a bunch of stuff.
1:31.3	But it's only going be out about three weeks. So, whew, that was a close call. We thought it might require surgery. And speaking of surgery. Yeah, if you're watching this by video, you'll see that I'm in a cast, and that's because I had surgery last Friday for a distal bicep tendon tear.
1:32.3	That's a real mouthful.
	...

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