She was a Taekwondo world champion, then a circus artist who performed with Cirque du Soleil, but it wasn’t a 30-foot fall that changed Montrealer Sofranie Trencia’s path, it was burnout.
“This year of burnout, it made me think about who I really was. Because I was always focusing on being better, because it was never enough. I was never good enough. I was never performant enough. And even if I would win, I didn’t see the win, I just was seeing the lack in me,” Trencia explained.
“And when I was in bed for a year, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t walk. I was so weak, I had the worst level of burnout possible. And I had just my thought for myself. And I remember, I had a mixed feeling of panic and another feeling of relief. Because I felt like it was the first time of my life I could rest, that I didn’t have to prove my worth, I didn’t have to pretend to be something that I was not, I could just be me.”
Trencia shares what she thinks is the best way to heal from a burnout.
“That’s the hardest thing to do, especially for high achiever, is to stop,” she explained. “You have to take a rest, even if it’s an hour, even if it’s a half a day, and even better, if you can take a week on vacation. You have to stop.
“Because if you don’t stop, you cannot think. And you have to think. Like is it really what I want? Who am I? Like do I live the life that I’m supposed to be living? Is it really me? Do I walk in the shoes of my father, of others’ expectation? Like who do I want to be?”
Trencia will be competing at the 10th annual SpeakerSlam in Toronto on November 21.
“SpeakerSlam was the best experience that I could ever imagine,” said Trencia. “It was what I call a game changer. Rina and Dan, they are absolutely wonderful people, amazing people. And working with them, it’s what I call a game changer, really. For any speaker who wants to become a professional speaker, prepare for the SpeakerSlam. I absolutely love this competition because you have five minutes to speak. It’s so specific and it’s so short for someone who loves to speak on stage. It seems like impossible. So it really forces you to write your text and to be so precise, like a surgeon.”
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