The Secret To Managing Burnout
There is one thing that is essential to maintaining your energy, focus and resilience to ensure you don’t burnout.
And that is knowing when to take a break.
I’ve just returned from a 7 day break.
No work
No marketing
No stress
Recognising when to switch off from work and life is imperative to your mental health and wellbeing.
We believe that in order to be successful we have to be ‘always on’ and ‘keep going’.
If you work for a company, you feel you have to be always contactable to show commitment, be needed and front of mind for promotion.
If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you feel you have to be visible daily and available to clients, or can’t miss a day of engaging with posts or seeing what your competitors are doing.
It’s exhausting. And more importantly, detrimental to your success and health in the long run.
Life doesn’t stop - family, relationships, commitments, responsibilities - but work has to.
In fact, taking regular breaks from work brings you MORE SUCCESS and MORE PRODUCTIVITY.
Here’s why...
When you’ve been in ‘always on’ mode for too long, you lose clarity and perspective. You unconsciously create habits from being in survival mode. The biggest habit that affects your ability to switch off is working in a reactive mode rather than being proactive, which causes you more work and the feeling that you can’t stop.
By taking a break - and by that I mean completely switching off and not thinking about work - it allows you to interrupt the pattern of your behaviours and thinking.
You then make room in your brain/mind/thoughts for clarity and perspective. You automatically have ‘balcony view’ thinking and make rational decisions and plan better. Life becomes easier!
Are you struggling to make the healthy decision to give yourself a break?
This could be for many reasons - the most common are lack of self worth and a people-pleasing behaviour. This isn't a quick fix but starting to look at your actions and behaviours is a good place to start.
A quick tip for helping you decide if taking time off is right for you is to ask yourself this - in 1 year's time will that weekend you spent working or week away spent answering emails have made a difference to your life? Will it really matter?
Sometimes the answer might be ‘yes’, but if it's ‘no’ then why risk your personal life and health being affected?
By thinking about the consequences of your actions at a future date, you will gain some instant clarity.
Much love,
Louise
P.S. I know that allowing yourself time off is not easy - especially when this would require you to change your habits and others perception of you. But IT IS POSSIBLE once you find the right way. Email me if you have any questions about this. I'm here to help you!
louise@louisedockery.com