Just the other day, a friend of mine texted me “Is it bad that I want to bring the New Year in by myself?”
What pulled my heart string is the fact that I could feel her exhaustion, her physical depletion, and her desperation through this text. As a working mother, I have witnessed her sacrifice so much of herself to meet the needs of her children, her significant other, her mother, her sisters, and whomever else needs her at the drop of a dime. And she does it all with a cheerful face . . . all while battling her own incurable physical illness.
Being the good friend that I am, I told her that YES! It’s perfectly OK and necessary for you to take a break, to take time off and away from the demands and pressures of life to reconnect to your soul.
I’ve had to take my own advice a couple of months ago. I realized back in August of this year that my tank was running extremely low. I was so busy moving, building, serving, and giving that I had completely depleted my energy and actually lost sight of what was most important to me.
So for the last few months, I’ve minimized my social media activity. I began to reconnect to activities that I once loved to do. I began to dress up more and put on red lipstick. I scaled back my business to a bare minimum. And I took the time to just think and rediscover what I really desire for my life.
Burnout happens to the best of us, especially women. And if we don’t learn to step away, scale back, and re-center ourselves, we will end up completely running ourselves into the ground – Then we won’t be able to do anything for anyone.
Preventing burnout is better than recovering from burnout. Here are 7 things you can do on a consistent basis to prevent burnout.
- Start each day thinking about what’s most important to you, what sets your soul on fire, and what you’re passionate about. Then ask yourself what is one thing I can do today to do that thing. You have to make time for your soul’s desire before that passion burns out of you.
- Take frequent breaks throughout the day. Set your alarm if you have to. Research shows that a 5-15 minute break every 2-3 hours helps clear your mind and refocus. Figure out a frequency that works best for you. A 15 minute break once every 2 hours works best for me.
- Schedule one day, if you can, or a ½ day at the least for just ME TIME once a week. You can use this time to rest, plan, go shopping, or do whatever floats your boat.
- Plan ahead. Create habit of planning your week ahead of time, identifying the activities that are nonnegotiable so that when someone comes up with a last minute request, you can confidently say “No, not this time. Maybe some other time.”
- Make time for your hobbies – be it dancing, watching a TV series, reading, or hiking. One of the secrets to my happiness is always having something to look forward to. 2-3 times a month, I schedule something that is fun, careful, and completely for me.
- Plan a vacation. No matter if it is a stay-cation, or a 2 week excursion to Italy, plan to take some serious time off. For me, I plan my vacations 9-12 months ahead of time so that I can plan my schedule and finances accordingly. Also, I no longer try to plan a trip that includes more than 2-3 people. Often times, I travel by myself so that I may meet new people and be more open to move at my own pace than with the pace of a group.
- Be kind to yourself. Allow yourself the grace to make mistakes, to not be available all the time, to be tired, and just be human. Sometimes, we put unnecessary stress and pressure on ourselves to get it all right the first time, to be perfect, and to be the answer to everybody’s needs. So cut yourself so slack. Just be you. Love yourself. Be nice to yourself. And let everything else work itself out.
Only you can prevent burnout if you are proactive about it. If you are in the midst of burnout, just take a step back and start incorporating these 7 tips on a weekly basis to restore your energy and your focus.
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–Sherica
