The End of Burnout – Turning Work On & Off

Are you working overtime in your business because if you are not working, you feel certain you are being lazy or not doing something right?

Do you put undue pressure on yourself to work hard, so that you are “reassured” that you are doing the right thing?

Are you having income but not happy? Does it bother you at the end of your month, that you have nothing meaningful to show in your life despite your business having stable income?

Are you feeling isolated and perhaps a bit sad that you are working too much?  Do you feel disenchanted or sad when you are working inside your office and outside there is beautiful sunshine and possibilities for fun?

The sources of this misery:

1. An Inappropriate Relationship with Guilt

We learn from our parents and from society that we need to work hard to be successful and earn enough. It is hard to betray your parents especially about this need to work hard.  So this practice of overwork is resultant from guilt: the feeling that we are doing something wrong and nothing we do (as much as we try) including working hard, will atone for our sins. 

What makes it an inappropriate relationship is that the guilt is never assuaged – i.e. no matter how much you work, it seems like it is never enough – even if you are burnt out and exhausted.

2. An Inappropriate Relationship with Fear

We fear the repercussions (imagined or real) that will stem from not working hard enough (whatever enough means.) 

What makes this an inappropriate relationship with fear, is that our responses to the fear is to do things that cause more burnout or impact our health, wealth generation, stress, relationships etc. negatively.

3. An Inappropriate Relationship with Frustration

When we get frustrated because we don’t get enough results (usually from overwork and burn out and not working effectively or efficiently), then we strive to work even harder as an oversimplified solution to this frustration. 

What makes this inappropriate is the cyclical nature of cause and effect – the more you work hard, the more frustrated you become and the more frustrated you become, the harder you work.  This is worse than insanity and needs to stop. 

4. An Inappropriate Relationship with Resignation

Resignation is the hopelessness we express and experience.  “It is hopeless. What is the point?”

What makes it inappropriate is that we give in too soon – prematurely without reevaluating what we need and designing our work to fit our life i.e. designing what we do to fit what we want rather than having no design at all due to giving up hope.

Reassurance:

There are two reassurances I make to you:

1. All of this is normal and you are not alone. In the course of working with entrepreneurs since 1991, these are common issues that I have seen in most clients. 
2. There are solutions to transform these sources of misery into long term joy and success. 

Solutions:

1. Getting Your Joyful Calendar – starting with your calendar to make it a symbol of joy rather than a symbol of overwhelm and more suffering. This will involve taking out items on your calendar that clog and waste your time, energy, money and brain bandwidth and incorporating a few new habits to ensure that you have a nice “clean”, easy and non-overwhelming schedule. 

2. Getting Your Joyful Workflows – your workflows are how you take things that initiate work for you (e.g. a request via email) and process it and then detect when you are complete or done with that process. The trouble with most entrepreneurs is that they cannot define or detect clearly when a process is complete or done – so they continue working, which leads to burnout.  Redesigning workflows and including healthy, joyful stuff into your workflows (e.g. time with your friends and loved ones) will eliminate wasted time and start making your time meaningful and impactful. 

3. Having Your Life Enrichment Plan in place – most people have insufficient energy and structures dedicated to their long term joy (e.g. retirement, meaningful travel, months off in a year, etc.)  This leads to a reduction in excitement about life from year to year, as you keep doing the same thing over and over again with no long term build for more important things.

4. Having an Empowering and Meaningful Accountability System: one that leaves you exactly that – empowered and having “good” meaning.  Most accountabilities exist inside of guilt, fear, frustration or resignation. This leads to an inflexible and rigid OR chaotic method of accountability rather than an empowering and meaningful, but flexible system that leaves you with more range of possibilities, less stress and more positive impact. 

Actions to make this real – Becoming Extraordinary

Your future success is a function of how willing you are to have what you want in your life. This willingness is directly measured by your willingness to take action and follow through. There is nothing wrong with not taking action and following through – it just results in you having what you already have in terms of stress and lack of satisfaction (i.e. business as usual.)

If you want extraordinary results, you will have to take on being extraordinary – i.e. taking the actions and following through. 

What can you do to learn my Joyful Calendar process:

1. THE “EASY, JUST WANT TO GET ON THE MAT” OPTION: If you want to start easy: download my free report – www.JoyfulCalendar.com 

2. THE “WANTING TO MOVE FORWARD FAST” OPTION: If you want to start easy and you are committed to move forward with speed, then learn more and register here for a free discovery session. https://calendly.com/sunilbhaskaran/the-joyful-calendar-discovery-session 

See you soon,

Sunil Bhaskaran