By Robert Rudelic BS, NMT, MES

When life gets going too fast, many of us like to put it on pause hoping it will miraculously get better on its own.

I’m a class 5 white water boater and on the river, as in life the river never stops. When you pull into an eddy to get a breather, you still have to work to stay there. In life, when we hit pause, life does not stop moving — it keeps going, and when you’re working hard to keep it on pause, something unexpected happens and you find yourself out of control anyway.

Hitting pause in life is a placebo; a way to put off making a choice, a decision, and then taking action. No matter what you do or how long you tread water, in the end you must move or be moved. On the river I’ve learned an eddy is a god send when you’re running a long stretch of class 5 rapids. I can slow everything down long enough to survey what my options are, make a decision and go!!! I’ve also learned, waiting too long results in poor decisions that result in meager execution and poor results. Just like in life — and here’s why:

When I’m looking over a series of class 5 rapids and evaluating which route is most feasible and has the least risk, the longer I look at the rapids the more indecisive I get. I also get more concerned about each detail even while knowing it never goes as planned, and running a class 5 rapid is all about how you react and execute plan B and C. The faster you make a decision and put your plan into motion, the stronger you are, and faster your reflexes are, because you’re not stuck in the grips of fear. Once fear gets ahold of you, your strength, focus and reflexes are diminished — along with the mental grit needed to succeed.

This goes for life. The longer you stay in a bad situation the worse off it seems to you. You wait too long and you get mentally constipated — that’s an emotional loop filled with gloom and doom where all you see is what you can’t have. Imagination, enthusiasm, creativity, problem solving and strategizing are shut out, Your brain shuts down and can’t process information from right hemisphere to the left; otherwise known as homolateral thinking.

Your brain and your emotions are on a counterbalance scale. When your emotions are too high, your brain shuts down. One of the best responses to this is saying to yourself “oh screw it” and Go For It. Without action, opportunities will never appear to you. It’s only when you’re in action that your landscape changes and you can do something to change your direction in life. Just like the river; once you leave the eddy all hell breaks loose, but you are in control of the chaos, because you have a direction and can fight the whims of the waves, self-correct as you go and reach where you want to go in the end.

So, no matter what — don’t stay too long in your eddy, it’s a false place of safety and will eventually push you into action. It’s your choice, whether you’re in control of which direction you’re going in or the river’s choice. I’ll always take my chances on my own decision making process, that way I’m taking the fight to the river and not a victim of its whims.

I’ve been boating for almost 30 years and I’m still here — and still loving it. That’s the same for my life as well. As long as I can pick my route and take action, I’ll never give up until I get to where I want to go.

For more information, visit our PowerTapping page.

Robert Rudelic, B.S., N.M.T., M.E.S.
San Francisco, CA 94107
Contact Us: www.RobertRudelic.com/contact
E-Mail: support@RobertRudelic.com

Schedule a coaching session

How to Prevent Debilitating Overwhelm and Burnout


By Robert Rudelic BS, NMT, MES

Studies show that more than 50% of healthcare professionals are in poor mental health, borderlining on burnout which makes them more likely to make medical errors on patients. This research supports the findings of other recent studies, which have identified fatigue, overwhelm, and poor work-life balance as being major issues among health professionals. Burnout is defined as physical, mental and emotional exhaustion and can lead to dulled emotions and detachment. It weakens motivation, leaving a sense of despondency. For those experiencing burnout, the desire to engage in activities that used to be fun and exciting is lacking – the enthusiasm for life has vanished.

Burnout not only affects caregivers, but also cascades onto the patients they care for. Studies show there’s a link between healthcare professionals suffering from burnout and how it affects those receiving care.

As a caregiver, nobody has to tell you what it feels like to be overwhelmed. When your life encompasses caring for others, being responsible for potential life or death situations, assisting grieving family members, working long shifts, tending to the electronic medical records, feeling unappreciated and dealing with the lack of support by management, it’s not surprising that so many in the health care profession suffer from overwhelm – which then can lead to full-on burnout. Often caregivers working in nursing homes or assisted living facilities are exposed to violent behavior by the residents in the facility. The issues listed here are just a few of the things nurses and caregivers experience – they just happen to be the ones most talked about.

Life becomes so hectic that you don’t have time or the mental bandwidth to take care of menial tasks like walking the dog or washing your car, much less doing something fun like meeting up with friends or attending an art show or any event that may interest you. This phenomenon of burnout in the healthcare community has reached rampant levels among healthcare professionals.

It’s a mistake to assume that burnout is merely an emotional response to the challenges healthcare professionals face. There’s mounting scientific evidence showing that burnout takes a profound physical toll that cascades well beyond your professional life. Burnout is not just a state of mind, but a condition that leaves its mark on the brain as well as the body and is associated with cognitive inefficiency. Simply put, you’re not thinking straight.

Becoming a healthcare professional and caring for others can be very rewarding and fulfilling, yet caring for those in need can also lead to a state of severe overwhelm and burnout. Some refer this phenomenon as “compassion fatigue” and is a unique form of burnout that affects people in caregiving professions. This will gradually wear you down to the point where you feel depressed, anxious, you’re gaining weight, problems sleeping, moodiness, anger issues, inability to focus, trouble remembering, physical aches and pains, drinking too much, etc. These problems can become so severe that some actually leave the profession.

Ways to address these issues are being seriously looked at and discussed among facility management organizations but the problem of overwhelm and burnout is happening faster than the processes in place can address them. In fact, just recently in the San Francisco area nurses hit the picket lines to bring attention to high turnover rates in the nursing staff at Bay Area hospitals and how it’s affecting the care they give to patients. This understaffing leads to an increase in time spent at work by the nurses which in turn leads to higher rates of overwhelm and burnout.


Because of my work with healthcare professionals, from doctors, nurses, paramedics and caregivers in all areas, and the impact my work has had helping them deal with what they face in so many scenarios – not just what they personally go through but how to handle situations with their patients, I was asked by Kaiser Permanente to teach a class for their medical staff.

Along with focusing on how to deal with patients that are angry, manipulative, demanding, or in some cases just plain nasty, we also focused on prevention. To prevent debilitating burnout I taught them the art of mental resilience by using my revolutionary PowerTapping technique and how to –

The techniques I teach to conquer overwhelm, feel empowered and stay in control can apply to any issue or situation. An example of that is this amazing personal story I will share with you from one of the nurses that was in the training:


“When I had finished a class one of the nurses that had attended the training came up to thank me for what she’d learned and to tell me how grateful she was for now having the confidence and courage to stand up to her abusive ex-husband and put what she’d learned into action.

She told me that she and her ex were co-parenting their two children and he was always finding ways to control her and make her life miserable…… and she was afraid that if she stood up to him she’d run the risk of upsetting her kids.

She was so excited to tell me that she had practiced and rehearsed what she wanted to say until she felt empowered and ready to confront him…. and….she did!

She arranged to meet him and had that difficult conversation she was so afraid to have, and with a big smile on her face she told me – “he just sat there almost in awe listening to me talk, and to my surprise he didn’t fight back! In fact his demeanor seemed to soften.”

She continued to tell me that since that meeting he’s backed off and stopped his bullying and intimidation. And best of all the opposite of what she had feared happened with the kids. They noticed the change not only in her but in their father’s behavior as well and began to treat her with more respect.

She was overjoyed with the results and the immediate life-changing impact it had in her life.”

As the creator of Invincible Mindset Training and a Peak Performance Life Coach, I have a broad range of clients and work with people from all walks of life to help them be successful and perform at their best.


“I consider Robert my life coach and a miracle worker. He has helped me through some very tough times dealing with my mental and emotional pain when I felt I was at the end of my rope. Since learning Robert’s work I can now handle the everyday obstacles that come my way. I’m forever appreciative for learning what he has taught me and I use his techniques every day.”

-Sandy Fischer, SL Surgery Center

If You Want to Learn How to –

Go to https://www.robertrudelic.com/schedule-a-phone-session/


For more information, visit our PowerTapping page.

Robert Rudelic, B.S., N.M.T., M.E.S.
San Francisco, CA 94107
Contact Us: www.RobertRudelic.com/contact
E-Mail: support@RobertRudelic.com

Schedule a coaching session