Hey there, my fabulous friend!
How are you today? I've been wanting to have a chat with you about burnout, and more broadly, fatigue in general.
Overcoming Burnout: Strategies for Busy Business Owners
I speak to so many business owners who are experiencing feelings of fatigue and burnout. Whether it's the pressures of social media, the relentless cycle of ADHD-driven hyper-creativity, juggling motherhood with running a business, maintaining health, keeping the house tidy, and trying to have a social life—it can all be incredibly overwhelming.
And then there are those of us (including myself) who are navigating business with chronic illnesses like CFS or fibromyalgia, along with other autoimmune conditions.
The Struggle is Real:
Some of the significant issues that arise here include things like:
Imposter syndrome and self-doubt,
Constantly creating new things (AKA the creatrix Vortex) but never truly giving them a chance because they believe it's not good enough or they haven't done enough.
Finding the time to rest and reset seems impossible, even though they know it's desperately needed.
My Top Tips for Beating Burnout:
1. Remove Time and Energy Vampires:
Remove certain apps from your phone that are time and energy vampires (for me that's Facebook). If you find that you're going to your phone to check every 3 seconds and feel anxious, overwhelmed, like a bag of spanners, then remove these from your clicky fingers. You'll likely find you get more done, feel a sense of achievement, move the needle in your business - make money/connections, and feel a whole lot calmer and less overwhelmed.
2. Pace Yourself:
Pace yourself! This is essential if you want to prevent crashes and prolonged periods of brain fog. Take your time, as frustrating as that may feel at first, especially as we are bred into a fast-paced online world. But your later self will thank you for it.
3. Prioritise Tasks:
Prioritise tasks. Seriously get trimming on this. What's essential and what's not? What can you have someone else do? Make sure what you are doing is a ‘need to do’ not a ‘nice to do’, that can come later.
4. Have Community and Support:
Have community and support. This doesn't mean going into loads of groups and being friends with everyone. This means knowing your tribe, so you have safe connections and people to turn to when you want and can. Be selective with groups that you are part of and only be involved in the spaces that lift you up, support you and know those who you can turn to on a bad day.
5. Rest Like a Badass:
Rest like a badass - Get committed to taking rest; this is not a luxury or a nice thing to do. It's essential for your sustainable success. Taking regular deep rest can be your best friend. This can help to prolong the periods of time between relapses and aid the healing and returning to self much quicker. Also supports your nervous system so you feel less anxious, more connected, less overwhelmed and more in control, less in fear and more in confidence. And what happens then…like attracts like, you know the drill.
Doing these 5 things has dramatically changed how my business runs and without them, I honestly don't think I would be writing this today. I would still be a mess, overwhelmed with a foggy brain, living in fear and self-doubt.
I genuinely cannot stress these enough.
So, here's to navigating the wilds and growing together.
Much love,
Awena
P.S.: Don't forget to connect on Instagram, that's where I hang out these days