What IS burnout?
Sometimes despite our best efforts we end up in burnout. And I see a lot of content directed at preventing burnout and those are extremely helpful and necessary but today I want to address how to get yourself out of burnout once you find yourself here.
First we have to understand burnout and how we got here to begin with. I was watching this youtube video the other night after having had quite the mental breakdown – well several over the last few weeks…and honestly, I checked all of the boxes of what she was saying…my work and everything i’d been doing – for my family, for my friends, for my clients, every single living person – felt like it was pointless. Nothing I was doing felt like it was impactful and I could see very little progress being made.
Symptoms of burnout mentioned in the video
- Deep emotional exhaustion
- Depersonalization – cynicism
- Personal ineffectiveness
How I got here
I really began to realize that all the growth I was trying to achieve would be pointless because I didn’t have the systems in place to sustain it even if I wanted to. There was no way I could maintain or grow a bookkeeping business during tax time and actually wrap up all of my existing clients, get my soap business into boutiques and maintain stock, launch body care products, AND pivot to an agency model for VA and OBM work and somehow grow a digital product business also.
Just writing all of that out – I’m like oh my god what was I thinking…no wonder i’m here!
Wanna hear more? Check out this youtube video
The plan
So I’ve developed a plan and I’m taking steps to get back into alignment within myself and hopefully out of burnout.
- I’m scaling back.
- I’m no longer trying to get into boutiques or even wholesale – unless someone approaches me to do that. I want to focus on retail and getting some stock built up then I’ll worry about more, maybe..
- I’m going to focus on wrapping up 2023 books for my clients.
- I’m getting myself on a schedule
- I’m returning to my to-do list days which I have not had in months – and the lack of progress shows.
- I’m focusing less on social media (have removed fb from my phone and will be removing it from my tablet) and not having the window even open on my computer until a certain time of day.
- I’m getting up earlier. This one is simply because I was doing that before I got covid and I really enjoyed the few minutes of quiet and calm before the day began and just slowly getting into it. Though with that said, it can also be used for something productive if I feel like I just need to get something done. I was writing this blog in my head and I decided this morning to just sit down and let things flow out of me while it was there in my head. I got half of this blog written in about 10 min.
- I’m working a little each day on certain things so that it feels as though I’m moving forward in the different areas I want to progress with.
- I’m building and evaluating all the systems in my different businesses to ensure that I can manage all the things I need to manage.
- I’m scheduling in me time and quiet time because otherwise I will simply go until I fall down or have a mental breakdown like I had been.
So now it’s your turn. Are you experiencing burnout? If so what are you doing to get yourself out of it? Leave a comment below to let me know your best tips!
Want to go deeper into what systems I’m using and will be implementing in my business? I’m going to get super personal on my email list and tell you what’s working and what isn’t. You can sign up for that here.
