How to Prevent Overwhelm & Burnout in Your Biz
Since you've been drawn here I'm going to go ahead and guess that some of your core desired feelings are joy & ease.
I tend to attract a lot of people who have a history over burnout, and overwhelm, and if you're someone who is committed to thriving through 2020 without burnout or staying stuck in overwhelm, keep reading.
Below are 3 unnecessary causes of business burnout and how to prevent them…
The unspoken pressure to keep growing, scaling and making more dollar bills is real when running your own business. But, I don’t need to tell you that, you’ve touched the edges of overwhelm and burnout before.
The mission now? To keep growing your beautiful business, to continue serving more people and creating even more cash flow (so you can keep serving while nourishing yourself and your community fully) without burning out and with more ease than ever before.
You’re not alone. Business owners from around the world, even self proclaimed hustlers, are aware of the importance of staying more in flow (and therefore ease) and out of the burnout. We are becoming more aware of the value of our precious time and energy and we now know that it takes a lot longer to recover from burnout than that extra push is worth.
I mean if you’re going to take a month off work it better be because you’re eating your way around the world, not because you’re trapped in bed exhausted having anxiety attacks. Am I right?!
The great news is there are a few main causes that are totally preventable.
Here’s what they are as well as some prompts to support you in preventing them.
1) Taking on unnecessary responsibility.
There are a lot of important responsibilities involved with being a leader and running your own business. Serving your clients and community, being financially smart, sharing the values that are important to you, even taking care of your team (not to mention the rest of your life).
But there are some responsibilities you’ve placed on your own shoulders that do not need to be there. These are the ones that likely weigh the heaviest on you, draining your energy faster than sitting next to the biggest negative Nancy on a plane for 8 hours.
Examples:
Taking responsibility for the feelings or results of your clients.
Worrying if potential clients can afford what you really want to offer
Not giving full ownership of a task to your team, and instead micromanaging and still having the weight of the task on you
What to do about it:
Explore your relationship with responsibility in general - did you learn early on that you had to be responsible for everyone else?
Where are you taking on other people's responsibilities as your own? Clients, past clients, team members, your community at large… Why?
Where are you letting go of your power and giving responsibility for your experience to someone else? Why? *Yes, giving your power away and being a victim sucks your energy too.
Based on your why - what do you feel is required in order to release those patterns and responsibilities?
2) Discomfort with space.
This is a surprisingly common experience, especially for entrepreneurs. Even when you have an awesome assistant or team taking care of things for you, you still find ways to busy yourself with other little tasks instead of utilizing that space to tap into flow. Those designated spaces you want to write, or learn something new, or spend time with loved ones ends up being spent with more work preventing you from really being able to fill up your energy tank and get more resourced/nourished.
What to do about it:
First give yourself permission to acknowledge when and where you are busying yourself instead of letting yourself sit (or move) in silence. Seeing it is the first step to changing it.
What does your ego say about that time, or those tasks? Is it about always needing to do more? Is it about your value being tied up in doing? Is it about it being dangerous or uncomfortable to sit in your feelings?
Create an affirmation that feels supportive to what you want to be true:
Taking space is productive.
It’s safe for me to feel.
I am enough. What I am doing is enough.
Start small and do-able. Depending on how uncomfortable or unnatural it feels for you to take space for yourself, set a time that feels consistently do-able vs. a longer time that won’t be manageable long term. My personal fave? 10 minute lay flat sessions once a day. Setting a timer for 10 minutes and laying flat for that time. I let my mind quiet down but let it wander and ideate still. You can also put on music or a meditation audio if being in total silence is too uncomfortable.
State your affirmation as you take this time for yourself, remembering that it’s valuable, important and productive. This time for yourself will allow you to create more productively and prevent having to take extra time off due to burning out.
3) Over-giving or over-promising.
This typically comes down to undervaluing yourself and your energy - feeling insecure about what will happen if you don’t give to a fault.
There’s a difference between giving from a place of abundance in true service of another *with clear boundaries*, vs. giving to make yourself feel more valuable and out of a place of lack without clear boundaries.
The boundaries are important because you can start giving from a place of abundance and feeling good but if there aren’t healthy boundaries in place that can quickly shift into it not feeling good and feeling stuck in an uncomfortable situation that no longer feels right.
What to do:
Where are you giving in ways or to people that do not feel balanced?
Where do you feel pressure to give more and why?
What have you promised that feels heavy or pressure-filled to deliver?
Is it time to give yourself a raise? Or to remove/change aspects of an offering?
Do you need to adjust who you are serving to feel more nourished by your work?
While these aren’t the only ways you can be leaking energy, they are some of the key ones to start paying attention to right away.
If you’d like support with Working Less & Making More (while stepping into your highest potency with energetic mastery), explore working together here.
