Exercising your way out of burn out.

Many are often taken aback by those people that seem to be able to do everything and do it well. We all know the type; he or she has a great career, is in great shape, has a great personal life and somehow has time to post amazing vacation shots. How do they do it all?

In my quest to find out what makes them tick, and maybe pick up a trick or two, I came back to someone I’ve written about in the past, Heidi Burkhart.

Heidi is a 35-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist originally from Ohio, who founded a very successful affordable housing brokerage in New York City before the age of 30. She is one of those people that seems to have it all together, but this wasn’t always the case. She admits that when she started in affordable housing, her learning curve was steep. Despite finding early success in business, she found herself struggling under the weight of doing too much. Unable to find a balance between work and life, Heidi found herself facing burnout early on in her career.

Having always been an athlete, Heidi turned back to what was familiar to her. She brought her focus back to fitness. When she was feeling overwhelmed at work, she made sure to exercise, no matter what. In making a commitment to working out, Heidi found her focus again – not only in business, but in life too. It was at this point that she committed to exercising every day, even when traveling. Making time to work out has provided a foundation for her professional success and personal happiness and has also added necessary structure to her routine.

It makes sense. Plenty of research exists that demonstrates the benefits of exercise. Not only is fitness good for you physically, it is good for you mentally. It improves your concentration and stress levels, helps your mental state and boosts your energy, etc. Further, Heidi credits her workouts with helping ideas flow and giving her day a sense of beginning and end.

Heidi is a living example that exercise is a great way to create balance in your life and fight burnout. She even takes mostly exercise focused or adventure vacations. Never one to sit still, Heidi has gone shark diving, sky diving and trekking through jungles across the world on her vacations. When she wants to take a break she turns to yoga for a reboot. Her dedication to health and fitness is definitely an inspiration to me. Heidi is living proof that making a concerted effort to keeping your mind and body in top form is key to keeping yourself on track and will get you the results you want — in work and in life!

In addition to Lifestyle411, Bevs Lim also contributes to Thrive Global and Huffington Post.