Flip Fatigue and Reignite Motivation | Halfway Check-In! No. 6

Hey hey

Wow, I have never had so many massages and suggestions about how to tackle the fatigue which is seemingly creeping up on us as the final few weeks of 2025 draw in.

Thank you to everyone who got in touch this week! I enjoyed the challenge of collating something which I hope will help you to get out of the go-slow and into the flow again. (Sorry - that rhyme sounded cooler in my head).

Let’s talk tiredness

Not the I-didn’t-sleep-enough kind (though yes, that matters too), but the deeper kind. The kind that drains your spark and makes even the simplest to-dos feel heavy.

Tiredness or fatigue?

Tiredness is a temporary state. Something a good night’s sleep or a quiet evening can usually resolve. It’s like your body or mind saying, “I’ve done enough for today.”

Fatigue, on the other hand, is deeper and more persistent. It builds over time and often doesn’t go away with rest alone.

Fatigue can be mental, emotional, or physical, (or a combo of 2 or 3…) and it tends to linger when we ignore our needs, override our boundaries, or stay in cycles that slowly wear us down.

Tiredness asks for a break, fatigue asks for a reset.

It’s the difference between needing a nap and needing a new way of living.

Learning to recognise the difference is key, because the remedy for each is not the same.

We say we’re “exhausted” and collapse onto the sofa, remote in hand. But often, we’re not giving ourselves rest, we’re giving ourselves numbness. And what we’re really craving is something else entirely.

We often think of rest as the opposite of productivity.

Rest is a pause button we reluctantly press when we’ve “earned” it.

But true rest isn’t indulgence, it’s recovery. Without it, we’re not just tired; we’re running on fumes, reacting rather than responding.

Mental fatigue impacts our ability to think clearly, make decisions, and even connect with others. Just like our bodies need physical recovery after exertion, our minds need spaciousness too.

And here’s the thing: stress might feel like a mental load, but it also lives in the body: raising cortisol, tightening muscles, disturbing sleep. Vedging out in front of Netflix might take the edge off temporarily, but it won’t nourish what’s truly depleted. Sustainable energy, motivation and clarity come from meaningful rest, the kind that speaks directly to the type of tired you’re feeling.

Key learning

We need to identify the kind of tired we are experiencing.
And not all rest is created equal.

Read on to find out the 3 types of tired and how to tackle them.