A STORY ABOUT BURNOUT

Early last week I was all low energy and, well, completely unmotivated to do anything. There had been a lot of behind the scenes changes and up-leveling (for lack of a better word). It was all go go go. So no wonder I hit a dip.

Last Monday and Tuesday, I did the bare minimum. Caught up on emails. Worked on a few quick client needs. Then sat and stared blankly at my computer screen.

There was a long and overwhelming list of things I’ve been wanting to do, and yet, I could not take one small step forward to do any of them. That feeling of exhaustive frustration fell over me, and the guilt started creeping in.

In the attempt to not completely beat myself up about it, I walked out of my office and took a long and much needed walk. Telling myself I would get back to “this” and “that” later that evening.

Welp, the evening strolled around and I found myself sitting on the couch browsing Roku. My laptop was nearby and ready to go. There are some days I get a ton of creative work done while binging an easy to watch show. Not tonight. That same slog feeling of “nope I can’t even bother to open my laptop” was very much still in the air.

So I didn’t. And I worked on releasing the guilt of not doing enough, which for me is really tough.

A few things I told myself…

This is what I need right now.

This feeling is not forever.

Flash forward to Thursday morning and I woke up feeling reinvigorated. I was honestly surprised by the amount of inspiration and energy I had. There was so much I wanted to share, do, create.

One of my biggest realizations came to me right after my morning meditation. Note on this: I’m also pretty spotty with meditating, but I’ve been getting back into it through 21 days of abundance with Deepak Chopra.

Ok. Ok. The download I had was this…

So why am I sharing this? Well, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who suffers from needing to be productive all the time. Especially as business owners! Don’t get me wrong, deadlines are a real thing that we all deal with—but do we need to push out that Reel when we’re 100% not feeling it?

American society has told us over and over that work is good and rest is lazy. This impression is hard to shake, and I struggle with it each time I need rest. I have a feeling you may too?

If so, I wanted to share this reframe, and the next time you’re stuck in a slog, you can remember that rest is not a waste, it’s space to gather inspiration and motivation. 

Give yourself that rest if you can, and you’ll come back stronger, filled with inspiration.