125. How do you avoid burnout?
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Feeling exhausted beyond measure? 🥱 If the answer is yes, then this quick Brand Therapy is what the doctor ordered. Inspired by a recent conversation from their group coaching program, hosts Phil and Lauren discuss the all-too-common feeling of burnout among entrepreneurs. From identifying indicators of upcoming burnout to indulging in the seven (yes, seven!) types of rest, this episode gives you a toolkit to recharge and tackle whatever’s ahead.
Episode transcription
Phil
Hello, hello, hello, listener. Welcome to Brand Therapy. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
Phil
And this is the podcast where we help you position, build and promote your brand. We're happy you're here. It's just the two of us today, talking about something that is not directly related to personal branding, online marketing, but something that I think everyone encounters at some point. And it's something that we've made a priority in 2021. We were just talking about it in Advance for our client group coaching program. And wow, this was something that everyone chimed in on and we thought this would make a great podcast episode because we have some insights to share with you. So welcome to this episode. What is that bubbly concoction you're drinking over there, Lauren Moore?
Lauren
Oh, well, I got a Soda Stream. No one has told me how great soda streams are. Phil, this is a point of contention.
Phil
Give me strength. I am a Soda Stream enthusiast.
Lauren
You've been a Soda Stream fan for I feel like five years, right?
Phil
Yes. It's been a significant amount of time.
Lauren
Yeah. And I was a Lacroix. Not Lacroix. Because in Canada, that's how we pronounce it. I've been a Lacroix pamplemousse for quite some time. That's what they call it. That's what it's called.
Phil
Pamplemousse is how you say grapefruit in French. The funniest thing in the world is when you start speaking a second language. Lauren doesn't have a lot of weaknesses. Okay, but second and third languages. That's definitely probably it.
Lauren
We're not even at third, where we can barely get through English. Let's be real.
So we barely get through pamplemousse. No painful moose. Yeah. How do you say it? pomplamoose?
Phil
Yes.
Lauren
Well, I call it pamlemoose. Because that's how it's spelled. Anyway, you've been an advocate of Soda Stream for quite some time. I finally got one. And I understand the hype. So that's what's in case you hear anything that sounds like pop rocks. That's probably me taking a sip out of my fresh Soda Stream concoction, anyway, burnout, shall we get to it?
Phil
Let's get to it. We're feeling we're not burned out right now. But we're feeling tired this week. We have talked about it on the podcast before. But I think this idea of burnout is interesting. And the steps that you and I have taken and implemented within our business, which is also our life, I think are interesting in conversation.
Lauren
Yes. So I'll give a little backstory about the advanced discussion that we actually had this morning. One of our members was saying during the moment where she could speak about her greatest challenge, she's at her greatest challenge right now is that she just doesn't really care. She's not motivated, she's really, really tired going through some personal stuff. And just honestly doesn't care about instagrammer, or her calendar, any of that right now. Immediately spawned an incredible discussion among the members of our group. And I think sort of to kick things off, that I've personally noticed this year, since I've started paying attention to my actual energy levels, instead of focusing on the day to day, I think it's been a little easier for me to actually get ahead of potential burnout. Because there are some tell tale signs that I experienced when I realized that maybe I'm taking things a little too far. So I'll list a few out and maybe Phil you could list some of yours out.
When I find if I'm sitting down at my computer and trying to do a bunch of stuff and realizing at the end of the day that I've really gotten nothing done even though I've sat in front of my computer all day. And I'm just kind of jumping from one thing to the next. That's generally a sign that I don't have the energy to focus. I find for me sleep is like the number one thing. So if I'm finding that I'm starting to stay up really, really late or working really early, and not really sleeping as well, that's a sign that maybe something's about to come up or I might be burnt out. And then just emotionally I kind of have a shorter fuse. Generally, if I'm starting to get closer to burnout, and I have as little I've less patience than usual.
Phil
I think those are all accurate. I'd say mine are several. I think most people would identify the same. I'm not sure what burnout actually is. Is it a specific moment you arrive at when you lose your mind? Or when you're like, is it like a breakdown or is it just an awareness that maybe you need a break significantly? I'm actually not even sure what that is.
Lauren
So burnout. I'll look up the definition. It's a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to meet constant demands. Burnout is really when you're too tired to do anything, I think. And that's mentally tired, it doesn't necessarily need to be physically tired.
Phil
Well, our job requires, I mean, typically, people take a weekend off. That's why the weekend exists to reset before we go into another week, but our life is a little bit different. We do have projects that require us to work on the weekend. In fact, some, even if they don't require it, sometimes we get our best work done on the weekend, because we don't have to be accountable to client requests and deadlines. Weekend time is kind of like focused time, in a lot of ways. But then I think sometimes we pay the price for that, midweek. As I look at the calendar. Like today, it feels like we've arrived at the end of the week sooner than we really have. But that's probably because we were working Saturday and Sunday. So I think when I say all of this, to say that within our business, I think we need to be aware of when our energy needs to be aware of when we're working, not just by hours, but also just like the mental capacity required to do certain things. And I think we need to have a little bit of grace with that.
Lauren
Yes. So I think maybe I'll actually go through something that I find really fascinating, which is the different kinds of rest that someone can do. I felt like I heard this from a client, actually our client Kendra, who was a guest on our podcast, and Kendra, that helped me understand that resting actually isn't just sleeping, or lying on your couch, there are actually different kinds of rests. And ideally, you should be doing all seven fairly equally, which was very illuminating to me. I had no idea that there are multiple different kinds.
Phil
I love that.
Lauren
I know isn’t that so interesting?
Phil
Yeah, she's so smart.
Lauren
I know, she is. And I find it particularly fascinating, because I think, you know, we might work all day and start working early. And we think okay, well, as long as we get eight hours of sleep, then it's totally fine. And this is sustainable, but it's actually not.
Phil
So let's go through the different types.
Lauren
Let's go through. So the first type of rest is physical. So that's, that's sleeping, right? Sleeping, but also just anything that's related to giving your body a break. So eating well, and not running a marathon every day, actual rest days. So that's the physical category, which I think most people are familiar with.
Now mental is all about giving your brain time off from processing information. This one's actually very, very challenging for me. Because actually, when, when you're not doing email, and when you're not on calls, you're probably thinking, okay, well, I'll read a book or or watch a TV show, and that's my time off, but your brain is still processing information. It's just a different category of information. But what you really need to be doing is participating in a hobby that allows your brain to tune out, such as, you know, listening to music or something like that.
The next one is sensory.
Phil
So what are your hobbies for tuning out?
Lauren
I guess maybe listening to music? I don't know. Mental is really a bad one for me.
Phil
Reading? Or I guess reading doesn't count.
Lauren
That's not really tuning out. I know. But it brings me a lot of peace. Personally, I don't know.
What about you?
Phil
One of my new ones this year is playing the switch. I love to play the switch. And it almost feels rebellious when I do it, because when I'm doing it unless it's Friday or Saturday night, which to be honest, is usually when I'm playing it, especially when we've been at home for so long. But that to me feels rebellious and exciting because I'm challenging my mind in some ways, but in a way that's not related to business. And it feels so good.
Lauren
Yeah, except if you're playing Zelda Breath of the Wild because that is mentally excruciating for someone like me. A lot of problem solving.
Phil
It is fun though.
Lauren
Yeah. Donkey Kong, Tropical Freeze on that one works.
Okay, next up is sensory. So, an easy way to combat sensories, is anything over stimulating is by turning off all notifications, any type of external stimulation, turning your phone on Do Not Disturb all that good stuff, which I don't know about you, but I feel a difference when I've got a lot of notifications versus when I'm not seeing anything. I find it very tiring to be constantly notified of stuff.
Phil
Yes, it's physical. It weighs on you. I mean, you literally feel it, which is so stupid because it's artificial. You know, it's designed to make us crazy. I mean, there are documentaries about this. But once you turn them off, you realize that you really don't need them. You really don't need them. And that's amazing. The most important one for me is Slack, which is where we have all of our business conversations. When I turn the little badge notifications off on my phone, oh my god, it's like, I'll still open it. I opened it many times a day. But I open it when I want to open it mentally when I'm ready to check in on what's happening, rather than the app telling me that it needs my attention. Because like you said earlier, by the end of the day, if you don't have much to show for your day, there's a good chance it's because you've been tugged in 100 different directions without actually finishing any of those tasks or initiatives. So I'm a big believer in that. Mute notifications.
Lauren
Totally. The next one's fun, creative rest. So, Kendra, summarizes this is anything that you can't fail at. So walking, meditating, a side project, perhaps playing an instrument, anything that's creative and allows you to express yourself without the criteria of failing or succeeding.
Phil
Great, hmmm, I'm trying to think of examples of this.
Lauren
It's hard. It is, this is why I think the seven areas of rest are so fascinating, because, I mean, truly, I would just think, okay, I just need to sleep more, and then I'll feel rested. But that's not actually always that's not the case at all.
Okay, emotional rest. This one's challenging for me. It's like therapy, journaling, sitting with yourself. So while you might think emotional rest is actually taking a rest from feeling emotion,it’s actually quite the opposite. It's allowing yourself to sit with them, which I think you and I, perhaps some have some work to do on that front. Maybe.
Phil
Yeah, I think we're a little more focused on our to do list of the day then sit quotes sitting with, you know, our emotions.
Lauren
Not that it's a waste of time, but sometimes in my brain, I think, why would I waste energy? Feeling sad about things when I could just get shit done? That one's tough for me.
Phil
Yes, and me.
Lauren
Okay, the sixth area of rest is social. So when you're on for other people that can be really draining, I feel like zoom fatigue, would definitely fall into this type of category. And so it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to recharge by being alone. But it means that you need to have social rest by being with people where you can be 100% yourself and not have to put on a show.
Phil
Okay, well, we have an example of this recently. In fact, I posted about this on Instagram, the other day as we blocked off an entire week, from calls to get what we thought was caught up on website projects, but realized in hindsight that we actually just needed a silent week. We just needed a week from socializing or being on quote, because I actually still didn't get all my websites done. But I needed a rest, we needed a rest and I came back to our next call day, fully refreshed.
Lauren
Yeah, it was great.
Phil
And it's something we're repeating once every eight weeks, which thrills me.
Lauren
Forever. Like when I was putting the calendar event together with the repeating event, there was a field where you could choose the end date, and I didn't fill it in. Never ending.
Phil
Never ending, I think it's great.
Lauren
Okay, the final one is spiritual rest. This, I'll be honest, is really, really tough for me with those big questions. But this is when you think about the bigger picture of your existence and your overall connection to the world. And the theory is that when you have that bigger purpose that's guiding you, and driving everything that you do, it gives you energy, hard for me.
Phil
I could see that.
Lauren
I can totally see it too. Just those are some hard, hard questions to ask yourself that I don't think I'm ready for.
Phil
Well, it's hard to prioritize that as well, but the seven forms exist. They're not supposed to be easy. They're supposed to be gentle reminders of the way that you should be resting, not just resting. So I think it's kind of interesting to hear about that. Now spiritual you and I've gotten a lot more into astrology here. That's like my version of spirituality. I'm not spiritual, but I'm very interested in the stars. I'm very interested in how things can be predicted based on energy based on all of that.
Lauren
That's true. I do find it very comforting to almost feel like, okay, actually, maybe I don't have to be responsible for that. Maybe it's just gonna be happening whether or not I'm in charge. And so I might as well just take my hands off of the steering wheel.
Phil
Exactly. Yeah, I think that's why we both like it. That's just like, okay, one thing that we can do is like, just tell us Yeah, don't make me do anything or be responsible is tell us what's going to happen, and we can anticipate, yeah, even if you don't know specifics, just give us some.
Lauren
If a week goes to shit, it's, it's nice to know, you can blame Mercury Retrograde and be like, oh, well, you know.
Phil
Which we do.
Lauren
Yeah, which we do.
Phil
We blame that happily. Yeah, I think this is illuminating. We should give Kendra a shout out for allowing us to share these principles.
Lauren
Totally fascinating. And I do think one thing I'll just add, personally, is while obviously, I'm not good at I'd say even half of these, I kind of need to figure out what they are, for me personally, to be able to rest in those different ways. But I will say that I've started to try doing more than just physical rest for the past few months. And I feel great. I feel awesome. I feel like I've got energy to actually take on the day and be excited about what I'm doing instead of dreading what's in my inbox at the start of the day.
So I really encourage people to try these seven different forms of rest. Let us know how it goes.
Phil
Absolutely, absolutely a different kind of episode from us and you might normally get but hopefully it's one that resonates with you. We'd love to hear from you. Let's continue the conversation. I’m @philpallen
Lauren
I'm @thelaurenmoore
Phil
#brandtherapy will help us find you, feel free to tag us. A few of you have dm’d me and said and they tagged us they tag you to Lauren, well, we listened to the last episode and loved it. And that was so cool. We love hearing from you. When you take the time to share your time with us. We love to hear from you, if you think of it and if you feel like it because I'm telling you to, go to the iTunes Store and leave a review five star five star that helps other people discover this podcast that we work very hard to create. Thank you so much for your valuable time, get some rest, avoid burnout, and we'll see you back for our next episode of Brand Therapy.
Lauren
Bye bye.