Today is Day 2099 of my daily barefoot-style running streak. I did not want to run. I am writing this as a man with a head cold, a mild hangover and a calendar full of commitments. Life feels like a grind right now, and I want to be honest about what I do when it does.

Here is how the last week looked. I came back from a family skiing trip. The trip was good for us. Skiing at altitude all day also takes a toll, so I returned tired. Then I caught a head cold I have not been able to shift. At work I made some big decisions, started some large projects and began managing my team's expectations around a change of direction. None of this is unusual for a business owner. All of it adds weight.

Then came the weekend. I collected my parents from the airport on the way home from work. I went out with friends who had kindly arranged a night for my birthday and a few others born around the same time. I had a few drinks. I was up early to watch my son's football match at 9am, and his team won 6-1. I went to a second match with a 12:30 kick-off, and they won 2-1. Both results were great. Then I was dropped off to run, with a cold, a hangover and an afternoon of work ahead, followed by an evening with my wife's family. Tomorrow I turn 44. The week ahead is busy again, and I will be away.

I want to be clear about one thing. I am grateful. People have been kind, the family time has been good and the football was a joy. Gratitude does not change how my body feels, though. I am run down, overwhelmed and tired, and I am burning out. Both statements are true at once, and I think pretending otherwise helps nobody.

Stress is relative

When I go through a week like this, I remember something I have heard many times. Everyone carries stress, and stress is always relative to your own circumstances. We look at people who seem to have everything worked out and assume their lives are easy. They have pressures too. Those pressures suit their situation, as mine suit mine.

My own definition of success is happiness. Money and status do not come into it. Judged by that measure, I think the most successful people are those who cope best with stress. Their stresses are not smaller. They have coping mechanisms in place, which reduce the severity and impact of each pressure before it builds.

Stress arrives in many areas of life: social, financial, vocational, spiritual, mental and physical. The useful question is whether you have a way to deal with each one.

My coping mechanism

My daily run and vlog are mine. I have talked about this many times because it matters so much to how I manage my life. There are three parts:

- I am outdoors. I never run indoors, and being in nature calms me whatever the day has held. - I am exercising. The movement lifts my mood quickly, even on a day like today. - I talk to the camera. Speaking my feelings aloud works like therapy. I unload what I am carrying, and I feel lighter afterwards.

Today I dreaded this run. I did it anyway, and within a few minutes I felt more settled. The stress had not gone. My mind had simply stopped carrying all of it by itself.

This is the point of a streak. A streak removes the daily negotiation. On Day 2099 I do not ask whether I feel like running. The run is part of how I stay well enough to do everything else.

What I would ask you to look at

If life feels like a daily grind, look at how you deal with stress. Some people bottle it up, and I believe that leads to an explosion later. Some hide from it. Neither works for long.

If you have no designated coping mechanism, choose one. Make it something you will use daily. Twice a week is the minimum I would suggest. A walk, a conversation, a journal or a workout all count. What matters is the habit and its regularity.

I will not claim this solves the problem. Some stresses are severe, and a walk does not remove them. A coping mechanism makes each one a little more manageable. Feeling a little better each day compounds over months and years, and the gap becomes large. Consistency matters more than intensity here.

The mission behind the miles

This daily practice sits inside a larger purpose. I am running a lap of the world, 40,075km, barefoot style, vlogging every day. As of Day 2099 I have covered 16,160.41km, which leaves 23,914.59km to go. The aim is to raise £1M for children's causes, including Great Ormond Street and BBC Children in Need.

The more people watch, the more people hear about the fundraiser, and the more we raise. Showing up on a hard day, hungover and ill, is part of that commitment. A run I only completed when I felt good would not take me round the world.

If this episode resonates, watch Episode 2099 of Diary of a Runpreneur, follow along and tell me how you cope with stress. I read every comment. Tomorrow is Day 2100, and I will be out there again.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/4-CB5We2tKo