Burnout Part 1

Burnout is a real issue that can affect not only our careers but also our personal lives. The speaker shares a personal experience of feeling burnt out and the importance of recognizing the signs of burnout. She discusses how our society values being busy and how we often neglect the benefits of boredom. She shares her own experience of feeling overwhelmed with her busy schedule and realizing that she was experiencing burnout. She talks about the signs of burnout and emphasizes the importance of identifying them early on to strategize and overcome it. oh y'all burnout is real burnout is a real thing and today's episode we're going to dive deep into burnout and i want to help you to understand some of the signs of burnout that you may not even realize are signs of burnout i uh really felt compelled to do this episode today because it's kind of personal for me if i'm being honest i found myself in a situation this week that i wasn't very proud of and so i needed to do some research and i really felt compelled to talk about the subject of burnout so today we are going to dive in to recognizing the signs of burnout and then we're going to talk through how to implement effective strategies to help you overcome it so i hope you enjoy today's episode hey there you professional ambitious working mama welcome to the christian career coach podcast do you want to achieve remarkable success and experience unwavering faith in your professional journey do you find yourself up late at night searching for answers on how to make more money maintain a positive work-life balance and achieve exponential career growth do you wake up with big ambitious goals only to feel overwhelmed and uncertain when faced with setbacks frustrations and unexpected challenges well you're in the right place i'm susan edwards and on this podcast we tackle those exact concerns head-on we dive deep into strategies to propel your income accelerate your career growth and help you align your work with your faith so if you're tired of feeling stuck and you're ready to embrace extraordinary success unwavering faith and a purposeful life then join me on the christian career coach podcast together we'll navigate the obstacles find clarity amidst chaos and unlock your true potential get ready for inspiration actionable advice and powerful insights that will empower you to conquer your fears and create the fulfilling career you've always dreamed of let's walk this transformative journey together welcome to the christian career coach podcast where ambition meets faith and your dreams find their wings so hello hello friends welcome to the christian career coach i'm susan your host and i am not overly excited to talk about this topic but i do recognize the importance of burnout and i know that we can all suffer from this from time to time so i really wanted to highlight this because it is so important and you don't just experience burnout from your career but you can literally experience burnout from life i mean you could get just overly exhausted from things and really just burn yourself out doing too much or being what do they say busy right oh i'm so busy so busy here's a little story for you that i'll share i was at a conference one time and i remember there was a speaker and i can't remember if it was the keynote speaker or just just a speaker but everybody was in the same room and so it wasn't like a breakout session or anything so there were i don't know probably 300 400 people in the room and the speaker was talking doing doing a speech and it was all about being so busy and the way that americans pride themselves on being so busy and and you're proud you have that feeling of being proud when your calendar is so full that you have to tell people that you're just so busy you're just so so busy it's almost comedic is that the right word comedy it's almost funny that we have pushed ourselves as a society to thinking that we have to fill in every minute every hour of our calendar because we need to be busy i of course have small children and now i read a lot of stuff about raising kids and and the difference in schooling now versus schooling 20 30 years ago and how much time kids spend inside versus outside and of course the statistics on kids using electronics nowadays and and you know even babies it's no longer the joke is no longer like a two-year-old can use an iphone babies can now use iphone so i can attest to this not that i gave my kids they they didn't get their ipads until they were probably four four and five and they really only use them when we go on road trips however that's not the point that i'm trying to make the point that i'm trying to make is that we as a society are so busy keeping ourselves busy just being busy for the sake of being busy what happened to the days of allowing ourselves to be bored and so much good can come from being bored that we tend to forget i was actually listening to another podcast i of course i'm an avid podcast listener and this episode was all about homeschooling kids and keeping them outside for a certain amount of hours each day and the mom had said when she first started doing it she was like oh my gosh how could i ever keep them outside because it was like four or five hours i can't remember the number she was like how could i ever keep them outside for four hours and yada yada and she was with another mom they went on a play date and needless to say they were there their kids were playing together these were two nursing moms who were just out at like a field not even like a park with a playground or anything they were just at a field that they took like a picnic and just let the kids go out there were stumps and you know mud holes and things for them to to jump in and play in and and things like that but they literally had the opportunity to be creative and those are the types of things that kids need to do in order to build up those skills that we need as adults such as creative thinking strategic thinking communication all of those various life skills that most kids just aren't seeing anymore and that is of course because of the amount of time that they are spending on electronics and they're not allowed to be bored anymore so it was just a really interesting take on we really are just so busy busy busy busy bees right and so i found myself in a situation this past week where i wasn't yelling at my kids but i knew that i was losing my patience with them and it was shortly after i picked them both up at the end of the day pick them up from the daycare center i haven't even been around them that long and i find myself being short with them with my answers and being really bossy and do this now and pick this up now and change your clothes we're going to the ball field and you know you need to have this on not that no you need to tie your shoe this way and then as i was driving i also felt that sense of road rage that i don't normally feel and i immediately stopped and said god i am giving this to you because i know that this is not me this is not who i am i have so much peace i don't typically lose my patience with my kids but something's got to give and i recognized in that moment that we are in a season right now that we are literally so busy i say that not to brag but i am literally taking my kids to the dentist weekly because we took them to the dentist a few weeks ago for the first time in a couple of years and of course they both have multiple cavities have to get fillings and crowns so this is like a weekly procedure because in kids they won't do it all at once they do like a piece of your mouth at a time so basically they break your mouth into like four quadrants lower left upper left lower right upper right and so i'm taking each of them back to back days monday and tuesday to the dentist then i'm dropping them off at either day care or in school and then i'm rushing to get to work and then i am busy at work all day long this is a really busy season for us right now just in the whole world of recruiting j1 visa students this is just that time of year that it gets really really busy because a lot of employers are hiring their seasonal summer help and so that's one of the visas that we do is the summer work and travel visa so i don't really have time for breaks don't really eat lunch i tend to eat at my desk so i'm not getting a break for lunch and then i have to leave work a little bit early every day because i have to go up to pick up my kids i have to drive pick up my kids and then drive to whatever after school activity it is so we're in baseball season right now and both of my kids are playing this year my daughter started t-ball and my son is in the eight and under league which is basically coach pitch so he's had games on mondays and wednesdays practice on tuesdays and then my daughter has gymnastics on thursdays and so friday is the only day of the week that we don't have anything happening after school and the last two weekends we were traveling one weekend and then we had something else going on the weekend before that where there was just a period of time leading up to this past week when i found myself at this moment of almost like internal crisis of burnout realizing that we're super busy and it's not going to end for another few weeks so i'm going to have to deal with this i've got to figure out what's going to work so that's really my reason for wanting to do today's episode about burnout and it's important first and foremost that we understand different signs that can help us know that we are experiencing burnout and it's not really something that happens overnight i mean me sharing this story just tells you that it's been weeks leading up to this point and i kept thinking to myself oh yeah that's fine we can do this we can do this we can do this you know thinking that it was going to be okay but it came to a head this week when i was driving and i found myself at that burnout point so if you have these same feelings it's okay to recognize that it is burnout it could be a sign of burnout it really is gradual you know it's a gradual process that leads up to that moment where it happens it can sneak up on anyone so if you can recognize the signs early on it's crucial for you to be able to figure out how to strategize how to get over it so i have a few just a list of four common symptoms that i want to tell you about today and and maybe this will help you maybe you're in a similar situation and you're feeling the same way and you're like maybe you know i don't know maybe this will give you something to think about and then i want to bring it back of course to our faith and and think what does the bible say about this and so i have a bible verse of course from matthew later on that i'm going to share but let's jump into the symptoms first so the first symptom on the list is chronic exhaustion and what this looks like is it's really feeling physically and emotionally drained even though you're getting adequate rest at night so even though you might be getting eight or nine hours of sleep you feel physically and emotionally drained another symptom that is really common is cynicism and detachment so if you're developing a negative or a cynical attitude towards work towards your colleagues towards your kids towards your family or just life in general that can definitely be a sign of burnout the third sign on my list is a decreased sense of accomplishment so if you're feeling like your efforts are going unnoticed or that you're not making a meaningful impact that can also be a sign of burnout and then finally there's some physical symptoms that you could experience and that's things like headaches digestive issues or even other you know physical ailments that are due to prolonged stress of course these signs can manifest differently in each of us individually but they all indicate a state of burnout that requires attention so what does the bible say about this so let's jump into matthew chapter 11 verse 28 and this is from the niv version it says come to me all you who are weary and burdened and i will give you rest so just as this verse offers solace to those burdened by life's challenges recognizing the signs of burnout it allows us to acknowledge our struggles and to seek restorative measures hearing the stories from back in the days of jesus i can relate to this just so much today and i love hearing those stories and different bible verses that stand out to me and and hearing the stories of how god helped those that needed rest when they needed it and if you remember to just let go and let god he will handle this for you if you unburden yourself with the stresses of being so busy this will help ultimately in releasing all of these feelings and emotions and this level of stress and let it go to god let him handle things for us and i'm happy that i was able to recognize it in the moment when it was happening because i was able to stop it and realized that i needed to speak in a more loving tone to my children and look at them in the eyes and let them know that i love them and i was supportive of them and i was just helping them it was really helpful and i didn't have to walk away from that situation i didn't have to lay down at the end of the day with a weary head i was able to clear my head of it when it was happening and just remembering to stop and pray and give it to god and i hope that you're able to do the same thing if if you're experiencing something similar i really hope that you're able to just stop pray let go and give it to god so i know this was kind of a personal episode today but i wanted to let you know that i do have a few follow-up episodes to this i've actually got three more episodes that i really want to dive into burnout about the topics are going to be just exploring the root causes you know what are some factors that contribute what what are those root causes and how can we explore those a little bit more deeper that's going to be the next episode and then the the final two episodes will be about how to implement those effective coping mechanisms and the final one is going to be creating that sustainable work-life balance or maybe it's family life balance maybe it's just the life balance that you need but there will be some follow-up episodes since these are just short episodes that i think will be really helpful for all of us to listen to and come back to it whenever we need to and recognize and and learn some ways that we can fix these situations in the moment when they happen so i hope you enjoyed today's episode and i am looking forward to chatting with you in the next one hey there ambitious mama i hope you enjoyed today's episode of the christian career coach podcast if it resonated with you and provided valuable insights i'd love for you to take just 30 seconds and share this episode with a fellow christian professional who may benefit from the career advice and inspiration together we can uplift and empower more women on their professional journeys and don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode oh and one more thing that would mean the world to me could you leave a review your feedback and support light me up and let me know that this podcast is making a positive impact in your life as we continue this journey together remember that you're not alone i understand the joys and challenges of being an ambitious mama and i'm here to cheer you on every step of the way so march your calendar because i'll meet you back here next tuesday for another episode filled with valuable insights and practical tips until then keep chasing your dreams balancing your roles with grace and shining brightly in your career and family life