Transforming burnout into efficiency with a practical roadmap
Entrepreneurial Leaders often fall into this illusion:
Nonstop hard work is the key to success. You see…they love the THING they’re doing so much that they tell themselves (and me) “ I don’t mind. It’s not about the money. I just love what I do.”
Go, go, go is the recipe for burnout, not brilliance. The truth is, hard work is important and time out isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential.
When entrepreneurial leaders balance that drive with creativity and rest, something extraordinary happens.
The impact doesn’t just increase. It soars. Your real strength lies not in the hustle: the “bang, bang, bang, got to do it, got to be more productive, got to fit it all in.” That’s the way for a headache. What you really want is something some people call balance. I call it the way I want to live my life. My life as an entrepreneurial leader is all one. I don’t have life over here and work over here. It’s all intertwined, all the time.
So, let’s dive into eight stages to help you navigate this journey. Please find yourself in one or more of the stages.
Stage One: Deeply Consider Yourself. Recognize that you might be or have been in burnout. You keep tapping out. Feeling drained, but not constantly? Maybe you don’t have much energy but you keep going, as you have no choice? It’s a nasty trick as burnout does not mean you are in a depressive state….you just literally never get a break for more than a day.
Stage Two: Rest. You don’t have time, I know. Do it anyhow.
Stage Three: Rest deeply. If you “go, go, go” all the time, and you have been doing this all your life, keep resting. Make it a non-negotiable priority.
Stage Four: Create open space for yourself—physically, mentally, emotionally. Lay on the grass and stare up. Watch water drip from icicles. Watch the tide. Listen to the breeze. Be “present.” Stop thinking so much; just feel the air.
Stage Five: Allow newfound creativity. Rest creates creativity, which is essential.
Stage Six: Flow. It’s where the magic happens, just like a river. As the River Goddess, I am in full support of FLOWING! Where are you in flow? Where are you out of Flow? When we’re rested, we have some open space, and we have that creativity and that flow, now we can do our great work in the world.
Stage Seven: It’s time now for Time management. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do this earlier, in times of stress and strife. Embrace your rest and allow your creativity. Then time management is easy!
Stage Eight: Efficiency. Now and only now can we be efficient. We can’t be efficient when we’re exhausted…. we can barely keep our eyes open. We THINK we have to, yet, it’s just the world telling us that that’s how we have to be. Allow this step to come as it makes sense.
Stage Nine: Embrace. Embrace your result, your balance, your wholeness.
People don’t hire me because I can help them be more efficient. Although that may be what they think. People hire me because I help them become whole.
One of my most favorite clients Husain, said was about as organized as a cotton ball on fire before we began working together.. And sure, I helped him get organized. This is true. But what I really helped him do was to feel whole.
Through our work together, he got out of self-hatred and into self-love, through giving himself some space, deep rest, and the productivity success cake process. He even created a whole song series around the cake. You need a way to tap into yourself.
These eight steps- going from burnout to rest, to deep rest, to open space, to newfound creativity, to flow, to time management, to efficiency, and then finally to who you really are, which is sometimes called balance, is a complete game changer.
Husain drew me as the beacon of light. At the top of the drawing he wrote: see my joy, feel my love. It’s the essence of what I do for people. One of my most favorite things these days is to draw out your powerful story. When we draw out your powerful story, you begin to love yourself and appreciate yourself for who you are and what you are.
Reach out to me. I’m here for you. I don’t want you to be burned out. I know you don’t want you to be burned out. I know you want to be your creative, most amazing, powerful self. You think you want to be more productive, and you will be more productive. The first step is to recognize where you are, to give yourself that rest, to give yourself that creativity time. While it sounds easy, there’s a lot of places where we can get pulled back. So that’s where I come in. I help you stay on course, I help you bring it out. It would be my honor to have a conversation with you to find out what would really work for you. I look forward to meeting you, seeing you blessing you, hearing your story, walking your journey with you.