HAB 28 October 2026 - Edited
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Coach GC: [00:00:00] What's going on everybody? It's Coach GC, and I am joined with my awesome co-host.
Marie Donnelly: Oh, that's my turn to go? Marie Donnelly. I'm Coach Marie. He left me hanging there. I thought he was gonna introduce me, guys.
Coach GC: I thought I did the hand gesture, but I realized you can't see my hands.
Marie Donnelly: This is gonna be a long show.
Coach GC: As you all know, this is episode two. We're still very much a work in progress, but- What's going on? 'Cause I never know what to call you, because on your own, in your own practice, you don't, you don't go by Coach Marie, do you?
Marie Donnelly: I don't. I don't. but I do like the sound of Coach Marie. I might keep it. I might keep it. I think- It's not really a title- I think
Coach GC: We're gonna have to talk to my attorneys.
Marie Donnelly: They might get me a better sentence, will they?
Coach GC: I am excited to talk. So you say they don't really use, the title coach in Ireland?
Marie Donnelly: [00:01:00] Not that I'm aware of. there's probably coaches out there that use coach, but even in a fashion on the athletes that I speak to, I don't hear many of the coaches being spoken to and referred to as coach, so it's funny that.
Coach GC: Yes. I wonder if that, if that, if that's a branding opportunity for you, Coach Marie. Uh, I don't know. I don't, I never been to Ireland- It has a ring to it ... but that does sound nice. Never... It does, a little bit. Little bit. Little razzle dazzle. All right, Coach Marie, what are, what are we talking about today?
What's the, let's tell our audience what they can look forward to today.
I think we're looking at, we had talked about when working harder is no longer serving us, when working harder stops working for us, and what that looks like. And not only are we gonna throw in our wisdom on that, Coach GC, [00:02:00] there will no doubt be a bit of humor along the way also, knowing how we get on. So looking forward to it.
Into the topic. So this is another variation of being on the plateau, and we talked about that because a lot of times people feel like they could just muscle through the plateau. That's certainly what a lot of my coach lawyers feel Like, "Hey, if I could just, uh, lock in, if I could just, focus and get through and break through."
But at some point, your capabilities are your capabilities, and the only thing that can help you be more effective in your craft is a new system.
It, it just is what it is. At some point, the leverage point that you're working from will just not produce any more power. You have to get a new leverage point, or you have to get a new tool, or you have to get a new system.
You have to do something different in order to effectuate the different change that you want. Now, I imagine this is [00:03:00] something you see with your athletes all the time. Is that accurate?
Marie Donnelly: Absolutely, but not just even with my athletes. I also see it with leaders in business in terms of complacency.
I see where people feel that they have reached the ceiling. So rather than reach the ceiling and stay static, let's talk about, like, how it looks like to break through that ceiling when the floor starts raising you. because I think when complacency sets in, for me personally, Coach GC, that's time to look elsewhere and go somewhere else.
and there's so many people that I speak to on a daily basis that have plateaued in terms of feeling that- Work doesn't excite them anymore.
And it almost, when I hear their stories, [00:04:00] they all sound very similar, that the, it's like groundhog day. They're on this constant hamster wheel. So maybe that's what we need to look at, about stepping off that hamster wheel or slowing it down, and how does that look?
'Cause I know from us that we approach that in different ways. I'm the internal coach, and you're the external coach. So it's about looking at the different practices really, isn't it? And what that looks like in reality for the people that we work with, who are so hard and dedicated workers. But sometimes that has an impact on how they are, and- They forget or they don't know how to be still
Coach GC: I feel like you're talking about me at this point.
Marie Donnelly: Did this not get us into trouble last time?
Coach GC: I feel like you're ta- I feel like you're I feel like you're taking shots at me. What do you mean be still? I want, I [00:05:00] want you to walk our audience through that because that's- I was- ... that's, I feel like for everyone that might, that might mean something different.
Personally, I don't know how to be still. I have to be nonstop. If I'm not nonstop, then I just don't feel like I am adequately using my talents to the best of their abilities. And even when I am nonstop, I still feel like I'm not using my talents to the best of their abilities. So what does it mean to be still for someone like me?
W- how would you coach me through that?
Marie Donnelly: I think even in terms of-
Coach GC: This is free coaching, y'all.
Marie Donnelly: Liberese. Liberese. Uh, and for that it may- you're right, it means so many different things to so many different people. And stillness isn't a word that we usually use in leadership because so many of us are busy, busy.
Our heads are busy, our minds are busy, our bodies are busy, and we almost feel guilty [00:06:00] when that s- stops. But the reason a lot of people that I see keeps themselves busy, because if they're quiet in the external world, their internal world becomes noisier. And what I mean by that is the voices in the- their head that keeps them stuck are the negative connotations that is, that we listen to in terms of that internal voice.
So stillness can mean so much to s- s- so many different people. But the reason why I feel and believe that it's so important, if you even look at athletes or if you look at, I know you've s- recently started the gym, Coach GC, and stuff, but it's important also to have rest days or, and rest your body.
And when we look at the physical aspect of that... Go on.
Coach GC: Rest d- rest days, I'm not familiar with that concept. I don't- I don't, I don't accept that. [00:07:00]
Marie Donnelly: No.
Coach GC: Seven days, seven days a week.
Marie Donnelly: Is that-
Coach GC: F- N- FD, baby. That's how I roll- ... till my body collapses. But I perhaps am not the, the paradigm. I still gotta get my water intake up.
Okay. But tell me, sorry. Let's, let's get back on track. Tell me, what does rest-
Marie Donnelly: You are the paradigm, though, because so many people like you- ... actually are exactly the same. If it ends in day, it's a work day.
Coach GC: Yeah.
Marie Donnelly: And then- Any
Coach GC: day that ends with Y.
Marie Donnelly: Well, then that's a good question. Why would you do that to yourself?
You need rest. Your mind needs rest. Your body needs rest. Your brain needs rest. When you rest, you become more creative. You have... It's almost alien when you start doing it, when you try to find this peace or restfulness. When it's a [00:08:00] practice that you do for so long, you realize actually that on reflection it's a lot better to have some rest time.
It's even like, so for example, my daughter is doing her GCSE exams, which over there is what? I don't know. She's 15, 16. What do yous do at that age? Big exams.
Coach GC: Is this like e- exams to go to college? Like-
Marie Donnelly: Is that, what about yous jeez go to college?
Coach GC: I'm trying to figure out what you're saying, 'cause like we go to college at 18, so-
Marie Donnelly: Yeah
Coach GC: around 16, 17 you can start taking the SATs or the ACTs, which are the standardized testing to show where you rank intellectually amongst all the people who are trying to get into college.
Marie Donnelly: And then so how many years of- Okay, it's just- ... SATs or do yous have to do?
Coach GC: just one. Uh, if you nail it the first time, you never have to take it again.
Marie Donnelly: What? You do one year of exams and then you'd get into college? [00:09:00]
Coach GC: I mean, you do four years of high school, as well as three years of middle school, four year, five years of elementary school. so 18 years of schooling basically, or 13. 13 years of schooling, and then you take the SAT, and that helps you get into whatever school is your preference.
Marie Donnelly: So you've no other exam in between that?
Coach GC: I took a bunch of exams. There's all kinds of random statewide exams, but-
Marie Donnelly: That's so interesting ...
Coach GC: hard to know exactly what you're, what you're pinning down, so- I don't know if she's taking, what's equivalent to a statewide exam or if it's a national exam We have to look into this. I don't know, though. I feel like the education system varies vastly, from America to everyone else. It's-
Marie Donnelly: From America to
Coach GC: and- I'm old now. I'm, I'm very much removed from standardized exams. I cannot think of the last time I've taken a standardized exam. The, in fact, I actually do know. It was [00:10:00] February 2012, and may I never have to take another one.
Marie Donnelly: Oh. Can we, can we do, a, a game? is it, is that what you would call it? C- can we do a challenge, at some stage where our listeners send you in exam questions?
Coach GC: This is what I would call unmitigated torture. Um, we, let's, we can make some kind of bet, and if I lose that bet, then we can do that. I will take a standardized exam. Which I will crush, by the way.
Marie Donnelly: See, you never know. You get nervous when you come on to the podcast with me 'cause you just don't know what's coming out of my mouth.
Coach GC: Oh, yeah, I don't know what I'm getting committed to. Um, but to be clear, for all the audience members listening, I never get nervous. I never get nervous. [00:11:00] Let's, let's, let's not let that rumor get started.
I never get nervous. But let's talk a little bit more about rest.
Marie Donnelly: So- Let's talk about rest ... well, yes, what I was saying, so my eldest daughter, and she's sitting her exams, and psychology would prove also that she is better to do, 30 minutes of intensive studying and have her five minutes rest and continue on, because that is more productive.
half an hour of actually where you're focused is more productive than an unproductive hour. So it's exactly the same for us. When we rest, we produce better, we produce better results, we are better in work, we are better with our family, we are better with ourselves, and it's just starting to understand that, because it's not something that is, well, I know certainly here, it's not something that has ever been taught to us, that rest is a- is as important.
And, so a- I think it is something that [00:12:00] probably will be alien to a lot of people listening to us today. So it's how do you start that, and what way would that look? And it's almost... Go on ahead, sorry.
Coach GC: No, I was gonna say, I think the way to start it is to figure out when you're at a point of your muscling through or your strength no longer producing the results that you want.
And I think that might be the first step, and maybe that's how we, how we approach this topic. Maybe this is what we teach them is, how do you know when the things you're doing are no longer producing results anymore? So like what that looks like from my end for coach lawyers is, you're working more hours than you're actually billing, which is not terribly uncommon.
But you start to realize when, put 12 hour work [00:13:00] for what only counts as 6 hours or what only counts as 7 hours, and you can define for yourself what that used to look like. 'Cause for a lot of people, hey, you might put in 10 hours of work and ultimately bill out at 8 hours. I realize this might be like a foreign concept.
Um, so in the, in the lawyering world, depending on your practice area, most of the time you are billing your clients by hour. There are other ways to bill. I actually got a good friend and she's come up with a completely unique way for people to bill. I gotta get her, we gotta get her on a show.
That might be my one person to put on the show one day. but most people bill by the hour, right? Because, the way we measure our value is by time, which is, interesting. But most of us measure our value by time, so we bill by the hour, but we can't bill for every single second.
Because the truth is we're not constantly working every single second. [00:14:00] So most, most lawyers will reduce the amount of their bills, or better said, most clients will complain about the bill and you'll end up reducing it. 'Cause the client's gonna say, "Why is it taking you 10 hours to research this?
This should have only taken you 6 hours. This should have only taken you 7 hours," whatever. And then most people, in order to assuage those concerns, just bring down the number. "Okay, I'll bring it down from 10 to 8." Same fundamental concept is in the business, right? You're working on projects.
Normally this thing would've taken you know, let's say it's replying to emails. Normally this reply would've only taken you an hour.
But you get to a point, where now it's taking you two hours or now it's taking you longer. You have to start identifying those trends because those are the red flags that are screaming to you need rest.
What are some other ways people can identify when they are starting to need rest? What have you seen?[00:15:00]
Marie Donnelly: I think for me it's exactly what you're saying, but it's where the point of people start to become burnt out, become exhausted. And what I see is that it starts to leak into other areas of their life. So it starts to leak into their personal life, where at home they may be more snappy or they just don't know how to be calm, or they're walking h- they're walking in through the door and their partner doesn't know which person they're getting home that night, or whatever time they're getting them home.
And I also see people that are working long hours trying to overcompensate with drinking or drug taking, and [00:16:00] this then has an impact on, again, their marriage. And it almost feels like a river starts to become between man and wife or man and child or woman and child. so it actually has a lot of knock-on consequences when we don't l- when we don't learn how to be still.
'Cause we don't see it, 'cause we're in it, and it's the constant go, go. But how much... In reality though, Coach GC, how much fun is that for everybody around us? Do you know what? We all come in the same way, we're all going the same way. So it's about learning to be present with the ones that you're, you're with.
It really is. And, I'd be talking to people, and money is no object. It's absolutely no object, and it goes past the point [00:17:00] of actually meaning anything to them but the longer hours is what they say as in they could be either run away from things at home, they could be trying to keep their head above water in work, or simply it could be they enjoy it.
Now, I know myself, I have to put boundaries in 'cause it's not all doom and gloom 'cause I love what I do. I could be literally sitting at 8:00 at night and maybe going on a call 'cause it's a global call because I enjoy it. So I even need to know how to put boundaries and rein myself in.
Coach GC: You're a mad woman.
That is, that is what I am hearing. I'm glad. This is actually, this is actually just not really an episode, it's an intervention. We want you to put some rest in your day.
Marie Donnelly: See, I'm a bit like you.
Coach GC: What time is it right now while we're recording?
Marie Donnelly: It's, 14:32.
Coach GC: Okay. [00:18:00] not terrible. It's, it's, middle of the workday. It's a little after 10:32 for me.
Marie Donnelly: Oh, it's still the middle of the workday. It's not too bad. I, but I start my day early, and then I would go to bed early, so I do get rest. And, 'cause rest is so good for the brain as well. We need that rest to hit our REMs at nighttime as well. So we need to be able...
And what I mean by that is rapid eye movement, get into the really deep state of sleep, and that's when we start to get rid of like toxins through the brain and stuff by having and hitting the proper sleep.
so no, I do, I do have to confess I love my sleep. I do. But I do get up early. Every morning, my alarm goes at 5:10 AM, so I usually be in the gym for 6:00 AM.
And these dark nights, so I do be in bed early. So anybody trying to contact me later on, it ain't happening.
Coach GC: 5:10 [00:19:00] AM. Oh my goodness. You're, you're... That's impressive. I am not doing that.
Marie Donnelly: I'm a machine.
Coach GC: I'm staying up later. I see that. It... I am staying up later, but I am not, I'm not waking up earlier, not unless I have to.
Marie Donnelly: Well, I love the early mornings. Okay, well let's- I love the peacefulness. I love quietness around our house. I lo- and I love being in the gym at that time in the morning, but it does be packed. It's actually really annoying at times. And there's... Oh, can I tell you a story? There is a little bit of a gym war going on, with one of the members of staff in the gym that I go to.
He just keeps trying to make me wear this big blue band. I'm not taking the blue band. Just the wee paper straps. Why won't you wear- 'Cause I just- Why won't you wear the blue band? It's now became a principle, and it's almost now became a mental war between us. But I think I'm winning at the moment.
It's, I don't know why. Okay. I think it's, it's, it's, it's [00:20:00] being blown out of proportion now, where I think it was his mannerism originally was going, telling me I had to do it. So when he was telling me I had to do it, I was like, "You're not gonna be telling me that I have to do that." It was how he handled the situation originally.
So I am now at loggerhead with him, and the two of them are just the two of us. But now he's just he's just not even, he just says, "Good morning," and doesn't even hand me the blue band. But other people are making me wear it. I know Okay,
Coach GC: our next episode is gonna be about resistance for resistance sake. why we start wars with other people for no reason- ... who are simply trying to do their jobs. We're gonna- ... we're gonna dive into that topic next episode.
Marie Donnelly: But no, really, I'm really nice person.
Coach GC: For anyone who's on our Patreon, we will dive into that.
For anyone who's on... You know what? It's 'cause she's not getting enough rest. That is why, 'cause-
Marie Donnelly: Can I tell you another story?
Coach GC: Talk to me. [00:21:00]
Marie Donnelly: So obviously I'd be in the gym, right, for 6:00. Sometimes when I get up, especially now this time of year, it's dark. So a couple of weeks ago, and sometimes I genuinely wonder how did I get so far in life, but this shows the human side of me, too.
So I went to the gym, and I didn't wanna wake anybody. My daughter had come in, about she was six year old, had come into the bed at that time, and I thought, "I'll just leave her lying with my husband." And I got ready, grabbed my shoes, away I on to the gym, working out, doing a really good workout, was loving life, like literally loving life.
And I was probably about 25 minutes into my workout when I went to go into the weights, in the weight, weights area, and I was doing, one of the weights where you have the weights at your feet and you're lifting them up. I can't remember what you call it. And I looked down, Coach GC, I was wearing two wrong trainers.
Coach GC: And [00:22:00] how off were they? Like- how bad are we talking?
Marie Donnelly: There was literally pictures on my LinkedIn 'cause I thought, "Do you know what? I'm actually gonna show the human side of me, that I can be silly at times as well." So if you look, one is like a cream Nike, I can't remember what the name of it is, and the other one was like a really light pale blue Hoka.
Do you guys have Hoka?
Coach GC: We have that, yeah.
Marie Donnelly: Yous might call them, that's Hoka H-O-K-A.
Coach GC: Yeah, H-O-K-A. now that I think about it, I've seen them when I was in Asia. I don't know if they're in the US.
Marie Donnelly: Oh, they're good, th- they're good. And we call them gutties. Sorry, I was just about to say trainers, yeah. But, when I think about it, they felt really different. So s- then there was somebody in the gym that I knew, who then happened to meet up with one of my childhood friends, and he says, "I happened to look over at Marie, and there she was at Stitches Ener-Shop. She was laughing, and the shoulders and everything was going.
And I looked at what she was laughing at, and she was wearing two, odd trainers." [00:23:00] So I literally left, I literally left the gym after that. I couldn't cope. I couldn't cope. But yes, again, that's back not having enough rest and just grabbing things and not being organized or prepared. So that is my story, stories.
Coach GC: All right. We, we gotta get you a system. See, that's where the external coaching comes from. Because what I would train you to do is "Hey, where do you normally go to pick up your stuff?" All right. So even when it's dark. And I get it, you don't wanna disturb the household.
That's a very admirable trait. So where do you go? Where's the easiest place to pick up your stuff? And then I would just, I would just coach you to every night put exactly what you want in that exact spot- Yeah ... so that you can wear the correct shoes.
Marie Donnelly: It's not rocket science, is it?
Coach GC: It's a novel concept.
Marie Donnelly: It's not rocket science.
Coach GC: Were they, were they, were they right foot [00:24:00] and left foot, or were they the same side?
Marie Donnelly: I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad.
Coach GC: I wasn't sure. I had to ask.
Marie Donnelly: I think I would know if that turned up missing.
Coach GC: It wasn't me. The viewers, the viewers- ... the viewers wanted to know.
Marie Donnelly: Asking for a friend.
Coach GC: Yeah. All right.
Marie Donnelly: No, I definitely-
Coach GC: Let's jump back, though.
Marie Donnelly: Go on.
Coach GC: Let's jump back into the rest part, 'cause you're making a very compelling point. Because, obviously in your stories it's showing up in a humorous way. It's showing up in the good ways, the funny ways that we can look back at.
But you made, what I'd consider a very, astonishing point when you talked about the experience of others and how other people are going through your moments when you don't have rest.
And I actually saw something recently where it was like, telling someone to imagine [00:25:00] driving, and then to imagine driving the fastest that they've ever driven.
And, admittedly, I've driven pretty fast, at, at some points in time. And then it says to imagine when you were in the passenger side and you felt like someone was going fast, and then you looked at the speedometer, or what we call the speedometer. I don't know what y'all call it over there.
Marie Donnelly: Speedometer.
Coach GC: And you realize they're not going... The same thing, okay. All right. I figured there was some similarities.
Marie Donnelly: Tomato, Tomato. I just had to figure it out. Tomato, tomato. This is the love of the two shores meeting, isn't it? Getting the lingo right.
Coach GC: And so when you look over to the speedometer, you realize they're not going that fast at all.
Yeah. But you perceive it as, wow, this person is speeding. we are going too fast. This feels unsafe. And then you look and it's oh, this is a speed that I go all the time, and I never feel like this speed is fast. And ultimately what the point is when you're in the driver's seat, [00:26:00] your experience and your perception is completely different than those of your passengers.
Because you know what's ahead. You are in control. You know what you are doing, at least you feel like you know what you are doing. But no one else in the car does, and they are just subject to the whims of the driver, and that is an impossibly difficult place to be at for a long time when you're not sure if that person still has control.
And so when it comes to rest, and when it comes to, that breaking off of the plateau from the internal side, it sounds like that's an important factor to consider. So if you are in a space where your mood from work is now affecting your mood at home, you need, you need rest. If you're in a space where when your alarm goes off and you've had your proper REM sleep, [00:27:00] you're already upset because you hate what your day is going to be- before your day's even started- you need rest.
Marie Donnelly: It's not even that you just need rest, Coach GC. I think you need to take the helicopter view, what I call the helicopter view on your life. You need to take- A step back and instead of being in the driver's seat, sit in the backseat for a bit just to see what happens.
Because normally what happens is when you find that work's getting on top of you, that you're not sleeping, that you're getting anxious, you're getting worried, there's things that you can't talk about at home, and you also can't talk about it at work because you feel that there is ... Not that there's nobody about, because sometimes there could be [00:28:00] a room full of people, you just feel so isolated 'cause you've climbed so high.
It's about who do you trust? But what's actually happening is your body's staying in fight or flight. Your central nervous system is going mad, and it's about trying to calm yourself from the inside out for you to start making changes in your life that are gonna be more beneficial. And yes, they may feel alien initially, but when you learn how to rest and when you learn how to be still, you start to learn who you are again.
You start to learn what lights you up. And not only do you start to learn about yourself again, the people that love you and that you love, they start to learn who you are again. They start to fall in love with you again
Coach GC: Geez, Coach Marie, I don't know where to go [00:29:00] from there. That's such a beautiful sentiment. and it- that takes us to the end of our episode. I- that's just such a beautiful way to wrap it up. You are so right. There's so many benefits of rest, and certainly I hope if you're listening today, to us, to The Hot Air Balloon, that you are figuring out exactly where you are.
Right ... whether you are at the apex of your success or what you feel like is close to the apex of your success, or you are just starting that ascent up. Either way, plateaus exist and rest exists. Be mindful of both of those concepts 'cause both of them require maintenance Some kind of change in order to effectively move forward.
All right, coach, I'll, I'll, I'll leave it with you. This is your episode, so I'll leave it with you with one [00:30:00] last, one last final thought for us before we, head on out.
Marie Donnelly: I think one final thought is understand what rest means to you. But equally, also understand the importance of rest. Not even on the external side, but internally.
'Cause when we don't have rest, that can lead to chronic illness, it can lead to chronic stress. So I can't emphasize enough how to rest, and it's all right laughing and joking about it, but being busy, busy isn't always good. But it's just what you've learnt along the way. But at some stage, there would have been a time where life was a little bit quieter.
So somewhere along the line you've picked up these habits of everything externally or internally being loud. [00:31:00] Just take a step back, take a moment, breathe. Not many of us know how to do that properly. Take a breath before you open your emails. Just- And function on how your day is. Start your day with gratitude.
Start your day with three things. Write three things of gratitude on your, on top of your, wherever your notes, you keep your notes or whatever, where, if you've a notebook on your desk, whatever it may look like. 'Cause sometimes even that is something that helps us get through. Sometimes even just getting out of bed is hard enough for some of us.
Just go easy on yourselves because it's okay to do that also. So that was my final thought for today's podcast, Coach GC.
Coach GC: And I agree with you, and here's what I promise to the viewers. Here's what we promise. If you stick with us, we're gonna have, I think, eight episodes this season. [00:32:00] If you stick with us, we will give you solutions like the one that Coach Marie just gave, that focus on both the internal mechanisms as well as the external mechanisms.
And here's, here's the prime example. So Coach Marie just told you about starting your day writing out three things so you can start out with gratitude. The three things that you appreciate, three things that you're happy about. So she is focusing on the intrinsic nature of your mindset. And so what I'm going to offer to you is a way to focus on your routine.
I want you to build in the habit of writing down those three things, and collectively if you do them both, you now have the best ways to, kind of predict going to go, but also predict how you're gonna feel about your day.
And that's when you're at the height of the Hot Air Balloon. We appreciate you all joining us.
Marie Donnelly: Just on the, on that [00:33:00] last note... Coach GC, one last thing. Always be prepared for your next day. Don't go to the gym with wrong trainers.
We're gonna, we're gonna see if we can source some imagery for y'all. We're gonna, we're gonna do a deep dive in her LinkedIn, see- ... if we can find these, find this picture. That might be the thumbnail. Anyway, again, it has been a great episode talking about the need for rest as a way to kind of get off of plateau, and just as a way to recover and get back to oneself.
You can stay in the fight, but you can't be in the fight if you're, if you're tired. So this has been Coach GC as well as my awesome co-host Coach Marie, and this has been the episode of The Hot Air Balloon. See you all soon.
Bye.
