OnTheBeach: Don’t Wait For Burnout To Hit

Last week I talked about taking recovery time when you needed it which seemed to hit a chord with many of you, this week I want to take the subject even further and talk about avoiding BURNOUT! You see, despite having 2 days off last week, I still ended the week feeling exhausted, and by Sunday, I was so shattered that I ended up going to bed at 8pm (I NEVER go to bed that early!) and sleeping for 17 hours…and when I woke up, I was still tired.

Seriously?! I was still tired after 17 HOURS?! I thought at the time maybe I was coming down with something, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking ‘oh dear, has burnout finally caught up with me?’ You see, I have kind of been expecting it for a month or so – the stress of the Great Computer Crash of 2013, added to the ongoing stress of 9 and a half years of working for myself.

Yeah, working for yourself rocks in so many ways, but it’s also full on ALL THE TIME, and you are responsible for EVERYTHING – and everything isn’t always roses and lie-ins and shopping in the week. (Sorry if that burst a bubble for you!) Burnout happens to Self-Employed folk a lot. Usually accompanied by a lot of weeping, sleeping and saying ‘I’m going to get a job’ (non self-employed people, they usually don’t mean it, it’s like you saying you’re going to tell your boss to stick his job up his arse – they’re just venting).

Not that getting a job would prevent burnout, because it also happens to employed folk a lot too. And this week, I’ve had 5 conversations with people about feeling close to burnout – it appears I’m not alone! And I realised we were all waiting for burnout to arrive. Now, this is nuts. That’s like standing under a sword, waiting for it to fall. Get out of the way of the damn sword!

Don’t wait for burnout to hit, change the way you’re living so you don’t burnout!

Burnout’s not so much fun that I want to experience it if I don’t have to! I’d rather avoid it entirely, frankly. And the awesome news is that you CAN avoid it entirely, if you pay attention to the feelings that tell you you’re getting close to burnout, and use that as a kick in the arse to change things.

Those feelings might include:

– a tightness in your jaw or shoulders that never seems to go away

– being unusually irritable (and not just PMS irritable, all the time irritable)

– being constantly tired

– being unusually weepy

– feeling stressed about having too much to do all the time

– feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list

You may also find you strongly identify with the idea of feeling close to burnout! Trust yourself, even if you don’t feel ANY of the above, but you do feel like burnout is hanging over your head, act now…don’t wait for that sword to fall.

Here’s what I’m doing: FEEL GOOD FIRST!

Feeling good needs to be first on your to-do list, not last, if you have the time, if you get the chance, if the other 3000 things on your to-do list allow you to get to it (they won’t). Feeling good comes first. I’m joining in this month with a 21 day mantra meditation challenge. Mantra meditation helps me feel good. As does yoga, dancing, tidying up, getting enough sleep, EFT’ing and getting outside. If I do those things (even a couple of them every day), I feel better. I feel less burnt out, less overwhelmed, less stressed, less likely to burn out.

I know you don’t have time, because you’re very busy and important…but you don’t need to take 10 hours out a day to take care of you (until you burnout, then you will!) The meditation this morning took 15 minutes. A dance break takes 3-4 minutes. You can do one yoga posture in 1-2 minutes. The 10-minute tidy is one of my favourite things. Going outside for 5 minutes can be enough. And taking that time – whether it’s 1 minute at a time or 15 minutes at a time will SAVE you time, because burn out takes way more than 15 minutes of your day! If you need more convincing that you CAN take the time to take care of you – check out this article “Self Care is Non Negotiable“.

So, what are YOU going to do this week to FEEL GOOD FIRST? Leave me a comment below and let me know! I’d love to hear what’s keeping you from burnout.

Love

Donna.x
PS Did you see the FREE teleclass I’m having next week on the Top 10 Tips for Making Your Dream a Reality? Come and join me and feed your Big Dream a little Magic Dust!