Burnout happens to the best of us. It can happen unintentionally or intentionally. Burnout is that feeling past exhaustion. It’s being on the hamster wheel of life and feeling like you need to get off but keep pushing yourself. Let’s talk about ways to cut back, refuel, and recommit to rest.
Burnout and Purpose
There is that space when you are in the beginning of building somethings that you have to push forward. Starting a new business? Time will be spent gathering resources, getting things off the ground. There will be many hats worn from business owner, marketing, financial advisor and more. In the midst of this you have to add some down time and space. In addition as you grow you might not run as much because there are aspects of running a business where aspects of it will run better. As a teenager to young adulthood I bought into the notion that doing more is the way you prove your passions. So I made sure that every idle moment I had I was doing something. The art of resting and learning how to attempt to add balance didn’t exist.
I was already conditioning the mindset that I had to work my fingers to the bone for my job, home life, and more. Many of us learn this behavior. Unfortunately it takes something drastic to change your perspective.
No Days Off
I talk to my Content Creator friends all of the time. Running from event to event is great until it’s not. It takes time, money, and resources. The amount of time that we give towards things and people that don’t fill you will leave you depleted. You need days off. It is important for a healthy lifestyle. So if you have time at this point in 2023 and you didn’t take off and it doesn’t roll over, schedule time off. Don’t say oh well that you will do better next year. The honestly is that you will continue to do it again next year. Do you need to be on a vacation or staycation? Maybe but with rest, you can simply enjoy time at home and get back to the basics.
So my suggestion to the Content Creators is to add many days of downtime. This means there will some events that you will miss. Your content should not be dependent on outside events. So find ways to increase self care in the form of honoring your time. Your time is precious. After all the events cease what will you do?
Replacing Burnout with Balanced Moves
There isn’t a full balance. With balance it often times tipping the scale away from that which makes you sick, causes you stress, or doesn’t add value. You get to determine what fits in these categories. Ask yourself will you feel good about your decisions in the long run. Here are some suggestions to add balance into your world:
- Schedule time off and if that isn’t feasible add in nights in with home self care
- Make sure that before you say yes to something ask what does doing for someone else take away from your bottom line
- Work smarter not harder. Often times the way we do things is the issue. We don’t have efficient systems in place
- Sleep is an issue for many of us. We have limited night routine and we spend our idle times on our phones. Switch it up. Add early night days where you turn off electronics and watch less television. Set a regular bedtime schedule time.
- Do nothing but things like watching television and vegging out. Yes I mentioned television and said turn it off. Sometimes we need to turn it off and then other times turn it on and enjoy a laugh-balance!
There’s a lot more you can do like meal prep to add more time to relax at night. You can also try a personal date once a month. Set times to take care of you and the things that you love.
Recommitment to You
Either way, burnout is something you can work hard to eliminate. Remind yourself you are worthy of rest. It seems such a basic thing to do but it’s not. You are important. Overworked and stress happens to all of us. So practice being kind to you and those around you. If you ever notice that we start off by making good choices at points but then we realize that we lose the momentum? Recommit your goals daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. If something isn’t working you’re not a failure because you revamped a plan. Just be sure that the revamp is getting you towards your goal before you keep adding onto your plate. Too many of us are trying to do it all well. We aren’t made to move like robots filled with things to do but lack empathy for ourselves.
