If you’re experiencing burnout, the idea of adding even another thing to do can feel overwhelming. You may be experiencing both the demands of home life and a high-stress, results oriented career and you can barely keep it together.
Hi, I’m Holly Grupé, owner and a therapist at Balanced Growth Therapy.
And in this video I’m going to share 3 ways high-performing women can manage burnout.
1. The first way to manage burnout is intentional rest
You know what to do when the gas light in your car comes on or when the battery on your phone turns red. You’re going to have to do something if you want to keep using them.
Humans are no different. If you want to keep performing, you have to rest. Resting is not the same as zoning out or doing nothing.
Zoning out is like putting your phone on airplane mode to try and get more time before it shuts off. It provides a little boost, but it isn’t really getting recharged.
Rest needs to be intentional and fueling. This could be watching a movie or taking a nap. It could also be having dinner with your spouse or reading a book.
Your rest doesn’t have to be the same as anyone else’s, but I can almost guarantee it’s not going to come from mindlessly scrolling.
2. The second way to manage burnout is to make small sustainable changes
If you’re feeling burnt out, you’re not where you want to be, so something needs to change. The key is to make changes that are small enough to obtain.
A good tool to measure the obtainability of a goal is to ask if there’s an 80% likelihood that you can achieve it in the desired time frame.
If it’s less than that, you’re setting yourself up to feel like you’ve failed and become more burnt out. Start small and build slowly.
Feeling unmotivated?
Whatever the change or goal you’d like to reach needs to be broken down into small doable steps. This mainly works if the change/goal is a habit. Once you have your small steps to focus on. Do the first two minutes of whatever the habit is you’re trying to form.
For example, maybe you’d like to read in the morning while you drink your coffee as a form of “me” time. Instead of trying to wake up 30 minutes earlier to read a chapter, start by waking up around the same time you normally would and just read one page of a book, and stop there.
Do this consistently for at least 1-2 weeks, then once it is easier you can start building on the new habit. You start small because the initial goal becomes much easier to maintain. Then once you have a string of success you’ll be more motivated and committed to gradually building the habit.
Be cautious in your goal setting. If your goal is too big when you’re in a burnout state, you won’t be able to see a clear way to accomplish it and this will feed the flame of your burnout.
3. The third way to manage burnout is meaning making
When you’re in a burnout state, the whys can get hard to answer. Why are you doing this job? Why are you in this relationship? What’s the point?
Meaning making looks different for everyone, getting connected to whys is a great way to start to move out of burn out. Start with small whys. Why am I making this meal? Why did I choose this song or radio station? Why did I text this friend?
Maybe right now you don’t know why, but start to ask yourself and get to know the answers. Then start to make meals for a reason: to nourish your body, to satisfy your cravings, to fuel your activities.
Or start to listen to music because it feeds your inner teenager or soothes your wounded heart. Or text your friends because you’re curious about them, because you want to share something with them.
When you start to name the reasons, your actions become more intentional and allows you to have more clarity as you transition out of a burnout state of being.
If you found this information helpful and feel you are ready to accept some help and stop feeling so burned out. Click the button below to SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT, and start confidently living a life you enjoy!
