One More Mile? Burnout, Peptides and Longevity With Ray Schloss

Ray Schloss on corporate burnout, getting your energy back, peptides explained and knowing when to stop

About Ray: Ray Schloss is the founder of Thriving 247, where he coaches people on longevity, wellness and relationships. He retired in 2024 after 17 years at Microsoft, and he's a certified hypnotherapist and meditation music producer whose work is used by the Monroe Institute and BrainTap. Find him at Thriving 247 and on LinkedIn.

TL;DR

• The drive that gets you through a marathon can also keep you in the wrong job or relationship far longer than you should stay. Being able to push through is a strength, until it isn't.
• Peptides are not a shortcut. Ray's view is that sleep, food, movement and resistance training come first, and that anyone using peptides or GLP-1s should do it under a doctor's care.
• Joy, purpose and connection are part of longevity, not extras.
• You don't have to switch your thoughts off to meditate. Start with a few moments of stillness and build from there.

Introduction

Ray Schloss has spent most of his life pushing.

He's been working since 1988, including years as a single father. He was an endurance athlete for 35 years, running marathons, racing triathlons and, by his own admission, playing racquetball "at an unhealthy level" five days a week. In 2007 he joined Microsoft, where he went on to support a global community of around 1,200 technical sales consultants and managers, flying something like 125,000 miles a year.

He also told me that the reason he left Microsoft in 2024 was simple: "I was fried."

Then, after long COVID and mould exposure, Ray went from a nine out of ten on his own energy scale to around a three, and stayed there for more than three years. Rebuilding from that point is what led him to found Thriving 247, where he now coaches people on longevity and wellness. He's also a certified hypnotherapist who produces meditation music for the Monroe Institute and BrainTap.

In this episode, we get into burnout, getting your energy back, peptides and GLP-1s explained simply, taking action on opportunities, and a question Ray turned back on me that I still can't fully answer: is the ability to go one more mile always a good thing?

One note before we start: Ray shares his own experience in this episode. It isn't medical advice. Some of the peptides he talks about are not approved for human use, so please speak to a qualified healthcare professional before starting any peptide, hormone or GLP-1 therapy.

Lesson 1: Your lowest point can be a doorway

Insight: Before Microsoft, Ray left a really good job to join a startup with a former executive. "Let's just say it didn't work out too great for me," he said. "And I lost two houses over that."

He describes the months after that as some of the most depressing and hardest of his life. But it was during that time that a former colleague, then a vice president of sales at Microsoft, reached out and brought him across. He remembers his first week on the job "like it was yesterday", and he thinks the relief of coming out of such a painful period burned it into his memory.

What I took from his story is that a setback doesn't always mean you're on the wrong path. Sometimes it means you're about to change direction.

Action: Think back to one of the hardest periods of your life. Write down one thing that only happened because of it: a person you met, a skill you built or a door that opened.

Outcome: You start to see setbacks as part of the story, rather than the end of it.

Lesson 2: Joy is part of your health

Insight: Ray spent 25 years in part-time ministry alongside his career. He's grateful for parts of that time, but he says he "didn't have much fun in life". What changed it was a work trip to Milan.

His Italian colleagues told him to dress nicely because they were going to show him how they live. It was dinner at a club with a live band, around nine or ten people at the table and nine bottles of wine. Then the music changed and everyone stood up to dance, right there between the tables.

That night "reawakened joy that had been missing in my life for a very long time," he said. "Between the Aussies and the Italians, I learned how to enjoy life again."

As a trainer, I spend a lot of time on the physical side of health. Ray's story is a reminder that a life built only on discipline and work isn't a healthy one, however fit you are.

Action: This week, plan one thing that's purely for joy. It might be dinner with friends, live music, a dance class or a long lunch. No productivity, no tracking.

Outcome: You give yourself the chance to remember what it feels like to enjoy your life, not just get through it.

Lesson 3: Burnout doesn't only happen when you hate your work

Insight: I asked Ray whether he'd avoided burnout, because from the outside he seemed to have kept his music, his spirituality and his connection to people right through his career. His answer surprised me. He was burnt out.

He had some managers he's "eternally grateful" for and others he described as horrendous. He also says he "greatly paid the price for standing up for what was right" for the community he represented. "I could lay my head down at night and go, I did the right thing," he said, "but boy, did it cost me."

That's a different kind of burnout from the one I usually see, where someone is forcing themselves through work they can't stand. Ray stayed true to himself, but doing that took so much energy that it wore him down. After he retired, it took him a long time just to enjoy sleeping in and to let his nervous system settle after decades of early calls.

His way forward was to go back to the most authentic parts of himself: music, spirituality, caring about people, yoga and qigong. That's what led to his meditation music work.

Action: Ask yourself honestly: is the thing draining you the work itself, or the effort of holding your ground inside it? Write down one boundary that would protect your energy without compromising your values.

Outcome: You get clearer on what's actually costing you energy, which is the first step to changing it.

Lesson 4: Peptides aren't a shortcut, and the basics still come first

Insight: When Ray hit rock bottom with his energy, he had a trip to hike the Inca Trail in Peru coming up. He was genuinely worried he wouldn't make it. After trying cleanses and detoxes that didn't help, he started experimenting with peptides, beginning with one recommended in a biohacking chat group. He says that within days he felt energy come back into his body for the first time in almost four years, and he made the trek.

It's a powerful story, but it's his story. Many of the peptides he mentions in the episode are sold as "research use only" and are not approved for human use. He's also clear that working out your own dosing from a vial of powder is a gamble most people shouldn't take. These days he points people towards a doctor-reviewed telehealth route rather than doing it alone.

When I asked him to explain peptides simply, here's what he said:

• A peptide is a chain of amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and your body uses them to build everything from organ tissue to fascia, collagen and hormones.
• Food comes first. Your body can make non-essential amino acids from a reasonable amount of protein. Essential amino acids have to come from food. Ray's favourite source is whole eggs.
• GLP-1s copy something your body already makes. Medications like semaglutide curb appetite and slow how quickly your stomach empties, so you eat less.
• Muscle loss is the part nobody talks about. "Research is showing now one third of all weight loss for the average person on a GLP-1 is muscle mass," Ray said. That's why he's so firm on strength work: "If you want to have a good, healthy life, do resistance training."

His biggest warning is for anyone treating a GLP-1 as a quick fix. Without enough protein, sensible eating and training, people can end up "in a worse state than they started" when they come off it. This is exactly what I tell my clients: there's no such thing as a quick fix.

Action: Before you look at any supplement, peptide or medication, check your foundations. This week, aim for protein at every meal and at least two resistance training sessions. If you're considering peptides, hormones or a GLP-1, book an appointment with a qualified doctor rather than buying online.

Outcome: You protect your muscle, your metabolism and your long-term health, whatever else you decide to add.

Lesson 5: Look for open doors, and be willing to fail

Insight: Ray's meditation music career started almost by accident. At one of Dave Asprey's biohacking conferences, a friend mentioned she'd talked to Dr Porter from BrainTap about recording tracks. Ray had been making affirmation tracks for friends and family using free software. He went straight up and asked whether he could do the same. They had something signed within two weeks, and he now has around 30 tracks on BrainTap, plus work with the Monroe Institute.

I asked him whether acting on moments like that is something he was born with or something he's trained. His answer came back to one thing: "complete willingness to fail".

"If I see anything that looks like an open door, well, try to go through it, because there could be something really great on the other side," he said. Sometimes that door gets slammed in your face. Sometimes it changes your life.

He also borrowed a line from Ted Lasso: be a goldfish. Notice that something has failed, accept it and move on without letting it dictate what happens next.

Action: Name one open door in front of you right now that you've been hesitating on. Take one small step through it this week: send the message, ask the question or make the call.

Outcome: You practise taking action before you feel completely ready, which is the only way most opportunities ever happen.

Lesson 6: One more mile isn't always a good thing

Insight: Partway through our conversation, Ray turned the tables and asked me a question: "Do you think that the ability to go one more mile is always a good thing or not?"

I didn't have a good answer. I'm always the "one more rep, one more corner" person, and I've noticed it spill into my work and my relationships, and not always in a good way.

Ray's answer was clear: no. It's a great skill when you're in a survival situation or have something you genuinely need to deliver. "But it also will keep you in a relationship much longer than you should be," he said. It can also keep you in the wrong job.

He told a story about a counsellor who asked him where in his body he felt his feelings. He had no idea. When he said that endurance athletes are the most in touch with their bodies, she told him the opposite: "If anybody's not in touch with their bodies, it's endurance athletes." That's because when most people are in misery, they stop. Endurance athletes say "one more mile". It wasn't until a breakthrough in a hot yoga class that Ray says he could really feel things again.

His lesson, in his own words, is "learning to know when to say enough is enough".

Action: Pick one area of your life where you're pushing through right now, like a project, a habit or a relationship. Ask yourself: am I enduring this because it matters, or because stopping feels like failing?

Outcome: You keep your ability to endure for the things that deserve it, rather than wasting it on things you've outgrown.

Lesson 7: Meditation starts with stillness, not silence

Insight: Ray hears "I can't meditate" all the time. Most people think meditation means switching off their thoughts, and then they get frustrated when the to-do list keeps popping up. "We've been having internal dialogues since our earliest memories," he said. "The thought that we're going to just shut that internal dialogue off quickly is an unrealistic expectation."

He shared two simple ways to start:

• The box. This technique is used by the Monroe Institute. As you begin, imagine putting your to-do list in a box and gently closing the lid. You're not ignoring those tasks. You're telling your mind they'll still be there later. Writing the list on paper works too.
• Just be still. Find the calmest, quietest and darkest space you can, using cheap earplugs or an eye mask if you need to. Don't worry about breathing techniques yet. Just sit calmly and see how long you can stay there: 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes.

He's also realistic. Like going to the gym, meditation is a practice. "You'll never be good at anything you don't have discipline for," he said. "But don't be discouraged in starting a meditation practice, because just being calm and still is a great way to start."

Action: Tonight, before bed, write tomorrow's to-do list, put it aside and sit in stillness for one minute. Add 30 seconds each night this week.

Outcome: You build a habit that helps you notice when you're pushing too hard, before your body has to tell you.

Quick wins

• Book one evening this week that's purely for fun.
• Have protein at every meal and get two strength sessions in.
• Before you buy a supplement or peptide, talk to a qualified health professional.
• Write your to-do list down before you try to switch off.
• Sit in stillness for one minute tonight.

Closing insight

What stayed with me most from this conversation is that Ray's greatest strength was also what wore him down. The drive that got him through marathons, a 17-year career and years of low energy is the same drive that kept him going long after he should have stopped.

I relate to that more than I'd like to admit. Most of us have been taught that pushing through is always the answer. Ray's story is a reminder that longevity isn't only about adding years. It's about joy, purpose, connection, a body that's looked after, and the wisdom to know when enough is enough.

So I'll leave you with the question he asked me: is the ability to go one more mile always a good thing?

Listen to the full episode

If this got you thinking, you'll get a lot out of the full conversation. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

To learn more about Ray's coaching, visit Thriving 247 or connect with him on LinkedIn. You can find his Monroe Institute album at Your Grand Journey.

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