Ep 17 - Beyond Burnout: Kicking Achievement and Exercise Addiction with Lotty Roberts

Lotty is a forward thinker in Emotional Culture, Change and Resilience, with over 20 years of experience leading and coaching people through large-scale change and transformation programmes. 

During her journey as a senior leader, competitive runner and mum of 3 boys, Lotty discovered the power of Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence to help her with various challenges, including an auto-immune condition, chronic pain, double hip replacement and corporate burnout. Through her experience, learning and research into the wisdom of emotions and mindfulness-based practices to attend to the ongoing challenges and constant change of working life, Lotty instantly saw an opportunity to integrate these teachings into approaching leadership, culture, resilience, burnout and change.

Lotty founded MiND.U, where she is devoted to helping workplaces, leaders, and individuals build the capability, resilience, and ‘know-how’ to mindfully lead and navigate today’s ever-changing and dynamic environment.

Lotty works with clients across New Zealand and internationally. She also runs retreats and public workshops and regularly speaks about Emotional Culture, Personal Resilience, and Mindful Change.

She lives in Wellington with her husband and three sons.

Lotty's story is one of transformation through self-awareness and intentional change. She advocates for therapy, emotional intelligence and mindfulness as essential tools for personal growth.

In this episode:

Lotty shares her journey through work, exercise, and addiction.

• Her reflections on self-doubt and imposter syndrome in helping others while facing personal struggles.
• Spending over 20 years in the corporate world, being a competitive runner, a mother, and briefly a fitness model.
• Driven by a need for achievement and external validation.

Childhood & Early Influences

• Growing up in a volatile home with addiction, relationship conflicts, and illness.
• Learning from a young age to seek validation through achievement.
• Using exercise to control her appearance and emotions, leading to competitive running.

Work & Achievement Addiction

• Excelling in corporate roles and rising through the ranks.
• How managing multiple roles: employee, athlete, mother—came at a high personal cost.
• Burnout (twice!) exacerbated by postpartum depression after her second child.

Marriages & Personal Struggles

• Experiencing another marriage breakdown due to personal and professional pressures.
• Meeting her third husband, whom she considers her soulmate.

Health Crisis & Turning Point

• Developing chronic pain and being diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis.
• Requiring a double hip replacement at 42—forced to slow down—and was a pivotal moment that allowed her to reflect and reassess her life choices.

The Role of Mindfulness & Therapy

• Discovering mindfulness as a tool for managing both physical and emotional pain.
• Recognizing her addiction to busyness to numb emotions.
• Prioritising self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and values alignment.

Leaving the Corporate World

• Realizing the corporate lifestyle was unsustainable for her health and well-being.
• Now integrates mindfulness and emotional awareness into her work.

Addiction & Societal Conditioning

• Initially, she did not see her behaviours as addiction but saw the patterns later.
• Work, exercise, and people-pleasing are socially accepted but can be addictive.
• Society often rewards burnout culture, making it difficult to recognise the problem.

Postscript:

Kristin Neff and Chris Germer co-created the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program. They also co-founded the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.

Michele McDonald, a Vipassana teacher, originally developed the RAIN model—Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Non-Identification. Tara Brach later popularised this model and adapted it by changing the final step from Non-Identification to Nurture, emphasising self-compassion.

Connect with Lotty

Website MiND.U

Instagram

LinkedIn

Connect with Kerene

Website – Mindful at Work

LinkedIn - Kerene Strochnetter

Instagram – Kerene_strochnetter

Facebook – Mindful at Work