If You’re Burnt Out, More Rest Isn’t the Answer
“I’m dreading going back to work.”
“I couldn’t think of anything worse than working right now.”
“I’m so bored I just can’t be bothered anymore.”
These are all comments I’ve heard from clients who are on the cusp of burnout. You might assume they’re working 90+ hours a week, but every single one of these comments came from someone working a reasonable 40-hour week. We hear time and time again that long hours are what cause burnout. That’s not true.
We’re taught that the solution is self-care, holidays, and rest, and while those things can help, they’re often band-aid solutions. In the end, you still have to return to the job that created the burnout in the first place.
“If you burn out, you’re generally stressed. You’re low on energy, you make questionable decisions, and you don’t enjoy anything you’re doing”
Burnout isn’t about how much you work.
It’s about how trapped you feel while working.
Burnout shows up when you feel controlled, when you lack freedom or agency, and when you can’t see a way out or a way forward. What’s worse is that once burnout starts, it snowballs. You begin making fear-based decisions, driven by panic in response to how you’re feeling.
“It comes from not an abundance mindset. When I first started, it was ‘we need more money, work harder, longer days’… Before you know it, you’re crushed.”
The best way to avoid burnout, or find your way out of it, is to find abundance in the work that you do.
Abundance, in a business context, is the realisation of the quality of your experiences and the opportunities available to you. I’ve seen people work normal hours but feel dissatisfied, controlled, and caged. They can’t see growth, opportunity, or freedom. That dissatisfaction leads to lower productivity, and if it continues long enough, burnout follows, because there’s no perceived way to escape the situation.
Fear-driven decision-making is often the first step toward burnout. When someone feels caged and starts making decisions from that place, it creates stress, exhaustion, and isolation. They lose access to the support they need most. Panic is an uncontrolled reaction to an event. Pressure can exist and still be managed reasonably, but financial panic is dysregulated and it’s incredibly damaging.
There is always opportunity. There are always resources. There is always money.
We hear it time and time again from people at the top of the world, no matter how much money they have, they still don’t feel satisfied. What people need to do is define what work, success, and ambition mean to them, not what they mean to someone else.
If you aren’t experiencing fulfilment in these areas, then you need to be creative and bring about change. Fix the problems for yourself.
We’ve been taught that work, success, and ambition look a certain way.
Work is 9–5 in an office.
Success is fame and notoriety.
Ambition is hustle culture.
Some people enjoy parts (or all) of that. But none of it has to be true if it doesn’t work for you. If it doesn’t, you’re responsible for changing it and deciding what you’re going to do about it.
If you find yourself at the mercy of invoice due dates, employees with endless requests, a to-do list a mile long, and loans to cover, it’s hard to see a way out. You feel controlled and boxed in. I can almost hear you saying, “It’s just not that easy.” I understand, I’ve seen this over and over again.
You might feel like there’s no out, no opportunity to change, because you have to make ends meet. Taking risks feels like putting your business, and your family, on the line, and that’s not something you’re willing to do. Okay. But if you don’t change, then what?
You experience the full force of burnout: relationship breakdowns, exhaustion, health problems, and in the worst-case scenarios, closing your business. I don’t want that for you. Hang with me here, because the changes I’m suggesting don’t require you to put your business on the line.
Take responsibility for your position. Don’t lie in it and give up.
I’m urging you to think outside the box, take considered risks, and keep showing up so you can make your position better. From someone who has had a complete mindset shift around opportunity, I can say with confidence that it’s 100% better on this side of the fence.
It took a lot of work to unlearn what we’re programmed to want - corporate ladders, money, fame. Today, what I want is freedom, access to resources, and the ability to help people. It took a long time to even see that as a possibility, but it’s for me. Not for someone else.
That brings me fulfilment. I genuinely look forward to my work, even after an amazing holiday. I recently went to Canada and came home excited to get back to work because I was bursting with ideas.
You’ve inherited definitions of what success looks like. Now it’s time to define what you think success is, not what your partner, family, or colleagues think it should be.
What does success look like to you?
Hustle, status, and ladders don’t suit everyone. You may have put pressure on yourself simply because everyone around you is chasing them. If that’s not for you, let it go. Focus on what actually makes you feel fulfilled.
If that’s working 40 hours a week and enjoying time with your family… GREAT.
If it’s working 80 hours a week for six months and taking the next six months off, also great.
I can’t define that for you. Only you can.
Once you’ve taken the time to do that, you can start making clearer decisions. You can cut things out of your week and your to-do list that aren’t worth your time. If they don’t fulfil you, what’s the point?
Aligned work feels better. It’s easier. It’s more exciting, because you know you’re chasing the things you want to chase.
Start small. Burnout is heavy, and if you’re in the middle of it right now, you might not want to change anything at all. So if I can challenge you: start small. Cut the “stuff”.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
What am I tolerating that I don’t need to?
What would responsibility look like for me?
What’s one belief I could question?
Do yourself a favour. Make your next week easier, and start creating days you’re actually excited about.
If you’d like more information on burnout, listen to Episode #3 of the Business Abundance Podcast on Apple Music, Shopify or wherever you get your podcasts.
