From Burnout To Breakthrough: Rest, Resilience, And Getting Back Up Stronger

Welcome to The Amberly Lago Show, where grit, grace, and joy connect you to unstoppable success. Thank you for tuning in to The Amberly Lago Show. Wow, it's good to be back, y'all. It is good to be back. This is the first pause that I had ever taken from the show. And I have to admit, it was weird. It was weird. And I not only took a pause from the show, but I actually canceled 31 interviews that I was scheduled to do on other podcasts and other media outlets. And that was really hard for me. But I have to say, it— I mean, it took courage. I don't like to disappoint people, and I don't like to say or commit to do something and then not be able to do it. But I have to say, I think every single person except for maybe one person reached back out to me when I said that I'm going to have to postpone our interview and said, good for you. It's great that you're taking care of your health. And I even had people say, thank you for this. I've been feeling the need to slow down and to stop hustle and to take care of myself more. And this has basically given me the permission to do so. So I am telling you right now, if you are feeling a need that you're on the brink of burnout, please take care of your health. Please take care of you. Rest Resting doesn't mean quitting. Resting means that you're getting intentional about how to move forward in the best way. Your health and well-being mentally and physically is the most important thing. And I will say during this break, there have been some high highs and some low lows. Life has been lifey. Just a few weeks ago, I lost my little brother. So we had his funeral. But it at the same time allowed me to be more present with my family. And connect on a deeper level. During this break, I had a spinal cord stimulator implanted for complex regional pain syndrome. It wasn't the first time I'd done it. I was giving it a second try. It's been years and they convinced me that, oh, technology's changed. It went horribly wrong. I felt like I was being electrocuted from the inside out. Now, that's just my experience. If you have a stimulator and it's working great for you, I'm so happy for you. If you're thinking about it, do your research. And you can also reach out to me. I'm happy to talk to you. about my experience with it. So I had that taken out. It was a major setback. I had people saying, well, you have a retreat in 2 weeks, you're never going to make it. Well, guess what? I might fall, I might fail, I might mess up, I might fall flat on my face, which I actually did after I had the implant removed. Broke my glasses, skinned my knee and my shoulder, and my hand is still kind of jacked up. But I got back up and you can always get back up. In today's episode, I want to share with you— I'll keep it short and sweet, but I'm going to share with you how I've been able to get back up, to rise with resilience, to become unstoppable. And unstoppable doesn't mean that you don't pause, you don't take times to rest. It just means that you continue to keep moving forward, that you can get unstuck. So I'm going to be sharing with you everything that I have done, especially over these last few months, that have allowed me to get back up. And guess what? I did make it to Kauai, the retreat. Was amazing. But shortly after, I had another health setback. I had a kidney stone that caused a kidney infection, and I was back in the hospital. I got out and got back up, got stronger again. And I wouldn't be able to do this without community, without connection, without people like you reaching out and your encouragement. So thank you. And I wouldn't be able to do it without some of the things that I've put into place that have been life-changers for me. that I'm going to share with you. And so, look, I know that things don't always go as planned. And I know if you are an entrepreneur or if you're a mom and you're chasing kids around the house or you're just going through struggles, I know it's not always easy, but there are absolutely ways that you can thrive. And it starts with you getting super, super intentional. So this break allowed me to get intentional about the show and what I want to provide for you. And I'm excited to share some amazing guests like just Dustin Prince and Andrea Rogers. Oh my gosh, Devin Sizemore. And we are going to be talking about everything from success, health, sobriety, connection, branding. So you're going to want to tune in and take notes and gather all this information to level up your life, your business, your health. But with that being said, I want to tell you the difference that I have really seen with me doing coaching in the fitness industry for 20 26 years and then being in the self-development and entrepreneurial arena and doing coaching, especially the coaching for my mastermind members in the Unstoppable Life Mastermind and the people that I meet at conferences when I'm speaking all over the world. There's— here's the difference. Knowledge and information is everywhere. I mean, especially with AI, you can have knowledge and information at the snap of your fingers. You can read all the books. You can bend all the podcasts, you can screenshot quotes, you can go to all the conferences and you can gather all that information. But it's useless if you don't take action. Here's the difference. Knowledge is everywhere. Information is everywhere. But wisdom is rare. Wisdom comes from when you take action, when you take messy action. You don't have to have it all figured out. I certainly don't have it all figured out, but I'm just going to take action and I'm going to figure it out along the way. And I'm going to learn some lessons, especially some important lessons from all the failures that I've had. I look at failures as fuel for me. It allows me to keep going, to learn from those lessons and also teach others what not to do. So promise yourself that, yes, you're going to listen to the show. I promise I'm going to give you some good nuggets of gold, but promise yourself that you will take action. You're not just going to gather information anymore, but you are going to take action. One of the things you can do to help starting right now today, and by the way, this year is going to be up before we know it. It is going— 2025 has just flown by. So start your day with getting intentional and write down 3 things that are going to move the needle either in your health, your business, your life, your relationship, things that matter to you. Know your values, write these things down, and don't go to bed tonight until those things are done. Now, I love lists. I have to have a list because I have the attention span of a squirrel, maybe. I don't know. I get easily distracted. So I have a list every day. I've put a list— I mean, well, I've got 2 today. I make a list and I follow this list and I mark down what is a priority. What are the things that I must get done? And I do these things when I first wake up, when I'm— the distractions are rare. I don't look at my phone. And in fact, I just had a conversation with a mastermind member yesterday and she's doing— these ladies in the mastermind, y'all, they are doing big things. 2 of them just published bestselling books. I've got 2 more that have a book out this month and a book out next month. I've got a couple that are about to do their first TED Talk. And you know what? It's scary when you're doing big things and it can be overwhelming as well. And they said, Amberly, how do you do it all? How do you do, you know, your balance, your family life and the podcast and coaching and speaking at all these events and all the things that you do? And first of all, I heard Ed Mylett say something the other day and I thought it was brilliant. He said, balance is boring. And if you think about it, if something is completely balanced, it's pretty mundane. I don't really believe that things can ever be balanced. I think that there are seasons. And you might be in a season of You're doing big things. You're about to do a talk. You are launching a course. You're launching your coaching business, or you're about to speak on stage, or you're about— you're doing your own podcast. There are seasons when, yeah, you might have to work a little bit harder. You might not get your 8 hours of sleep, but just know it's a season. And when you know your priorities and you take intentional action steps, and they don't have to be these huge steps. It just takes one small step every day that's going to move you closer to your goal. So don't think about doing this huge big thing. Pull that big dream right in front of you, eliminate all the distractions, and do one thing today that's going to move you closer to that goal. And I had written out a newsletter. And by the way, I read every single one of your emails when you write back to me from a newsletter. I love when you respond. So I had somebody write in and said, oh, that's really you. I'm like, oh yeah, it's, it's really me. It's really me reading all your reviews. It's really me. Which, thank you, by the way. It's also really me doing all my social media and reading your comments. I appreciate that so much. And I had somebody write in and they're like, well, you know, we get— there are— it is great to have a to-do list. And he wrote down about a study. Let me see. I wrote it down. A study by Arthur Brooks from Harvard. He's a Harvard professor. And he said, what about flipping the script with a to-don't list? Which I think is brilliant because sometimes if you don't know how to move forward, you do know what you should do. or not do that's going to stop you, that it's not going to be moving you closer towards your goal. It's not going to be moving the needle on your business. So when you make a to-don't list, you can cross those things off your list. Like, what is really important? And I will tell you something. I know that when I start organizing my closet or organizing the books on my shelves and putting them in— yeah, this is a little wacky, but putting them in color code, like all the yellow books together, all the white books together, all the black books together, like color coding my book. I'm like, okay, what am I really avoiding? So ask yourself, what's the thing you're avoiding, avoiding when you start scrolling through social media, when you start shopping on Amazon? So make a to-don't list. And I mean, you know what? This could be a list that we like regularly do out of habit or obligation or maybe even guilt. And it's things that it might drain your energy instead of fueling it. And this could be anything from, you know, going— feeling like you have to go to happy hour with your coworkers when you really don't want to spend more time with them. You want to go to the gym or you want to go home and just get some rest, or you want to go and write or read or do what you want to do. Put it on your to-don't list. You know, it could also be things like things you don't even think about, like scrolling through social media. So that's one of the things that I wrote into the mastermind group is when they were feeling overwhelmed with social media and all that. I said, stop consuming, stop scrolling, and start creating. I don't ever post anything or create anything for Instagram until I have gathered my thoughts and created something first. So eliminate these distractions and do a— just, you know, keep doing your, you know, don't I'm not saying this right. Don't just open Instagram just to check it, like have an intention behind it. And you know what? If you're feeling like, oh, I don't do that, try deleting the app for a few days and just see if maybe you're a little addicted to Instagram. Look, I got no shame in my game. I know I'm a little addicted. I check Instagram daily, several times daily. I'm human. But I have— there have been moments when I've taken a break from it. So, you know, to get more energy, to get more clarity and purpose in your life, cut out the activities and the obligations and the habits that rob you of the things that you're truly meant to do, the things that are your gifts, your purpose. Celebrate your creativity. And you will finally, once you make that to-don't list, you're finally going to have time To do the things that, you know, you're going to have more space to do it and finally have time and focus and be able to commit to things that truly matter. And so I encourage you to take action by getting intentional. Move your body. If you feel like, well, I don't know, go outside, go for a walk. I will tell you, I just got this walking pad. So I've wanted a walking pad for underneath my desk for a long time. And my husband's always been like, you're going to fall off that. You can't do it. That's not going to be good. And you know what? I don't know about you, but there are days when I have meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting, which I'm grateful I have meetings, but I sometimes feel like I'm being held captive on Zoom and sitting at my desk. And I remember telling my mom one time, Mom, can you believe that I am in an office sitting at a desk all day? And she goes, no. That's— you've never sat in your life. And so I was like, she's right. I want to move. And so I got this walking pad. It came yesterday and my husband saw the big box. And by the way, it was only $100. I wanted to try it out and I knew there was a return policy. But my husband sees this big box. He goes, what did you order now? I'm like, oh, you're not going to like it, but it's a walking pad. You know what? So far I love it. I'm even going to train Nugget to walk on it. But I want to be able to walk when I'm listening. Listening in, especially to one of my recovery meetings, I'm going to be walking. Maybe sometimes on my mastermind meetups I might be walking. Not walking now because you can kind of hear it in the background. But do what you have to do to keep moving forward with your to-do list and with your to-don't list. Now, I have people ask me all the time. Actually, it was just recently as well when I I was speaking at an event here in Dallas. It was for the Texas Financial Women of Texas, an event for women. And I shared from stage for the first time about how just the previous week I had lost my brother and we had his funeral. And I had a lady come up to me and she was in tears and she said, I lost my brother 2 years ago. I don't see, I don't understand how you're okay to talk about this and you're okay. And she was crying and my heart went out to her. And so I got a little teary-eyed and I said, well, you know, everything that I shared with you on stage are things that I actually do to be resilient and to spark joy. And so, you know, yes, we can go through hard times and things can be very challenging, but we can absolutely, you know, spark that joy that already lives inside you. It's already there. We just have to do things to— spark it up. And so I want to share something that I've recently been sharing, and it's how to spark joy. And I will put a link in the show notes so you can get this playbook because I actually wrote it out in a playbook for you. So I'll put that in the show notes for you if you want this downloadable playbook so you can actually implement this into your life. But spark, the first part of spark is shift your perspective. Now, I talk about this a lot, and the quickest and easiest way to do this is with gratitude. There's not a day that goes by that even if I'm having the hardest day, that I don't shift my perspective with gratitude. It's what I do. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I have an app I use called My Spiritual Toolkit. I'm not affiliated with this app. It just makes it easy to keep a journal of what I'm grateful for. Now, I also write in a journal. Actually, I have my journal right here. It's called Living in the Now. And I love reading back through my journal and seeing, you know, sometimes challenges and what I've overcome and things that I'm excited about, but also writing, actually handwriting what I'm grateful for. And I share this with a group of ladies. And it's that connection. It's hearing what they're grateful for. It's expressing what you're grateful for. And it's gratitude in action. I encourage you to reach out to somebody today And just tell them why you're grateful for them. Tell them you're thinking about them, why it is that you're grateful for them. It could change their whole day. One thing for sure, it will change your mindset and the way you look at things. It changes what you can't do into what you can do and what you don't have into what you do have. And I've said this a lot, but it is alchemy. So shift your perspective. And I'll give you another example of this. Sometimes I think it helps when people help us kind of shift our perspective because, look, I know it's hard sometimes and I will catch myself or my husband will catch me saying something. And my daughter loves to run. My youngest daughter Ruby loves to run. And she was like, Mom, go for a run for me, with me. And I looked at my husband and I said, oh, isn't it? It's just such a shame that I can't run the way that I used to because it would have been so amazing to be able to run with Ruby. Ruby. And he said, get on your bike and go ride while beside her while she runs. And I was like, oh, immediately that shifted my perspective. It got me focused on what I could do. And so there's always a way to feel better about your situation or your circumstances. And it starts with gratitude. The P in perspective is prioritize soul care. Yes, we hear a lot about self-care, but I'm talking about real soul care. I was really caused and also, not going to lie, persuaded by my team to take a little pause from the podcast so I could really do some soul care and some self-care and some healthcare. But soul care, I really believe, is creating a life you don't want to escape from. So if there are things in your life that drain you, people in your life that suck the life out of you, energy vampires— I have a whole chapter in my book Joy Through the Journey about energy vampires. If you're doing things that they really just don't fuel you, and I'm not talking about you know, feeling like, oh, I don't want to do that. It's so hard. It's too hard. But what are the things that you're doing on a daily basis that are really either knocking the confidence out of you, robbing you of your health mentally or physically, and really start prioritizing your soul care. For me, that's prayer. And I talked about gratitude. I pray every morning and have gratitude for God for giving me another day that I'm able to get out of bed, that I I get to do the things that I get to do. I get to be a mom. I get to be a wife. I get to have a roof over my head. And the little things, like I get to have healthy food. Every night when I go to bed, there's not a night that goes by that I don't get in bed and I thank God for keeping me sober another day. And so that helps with my soul care. I realize you know, I talked about getting this walking pad for under my desk. Yes, that helps. But I realized what helps me the most with soul care is not just prayer, but being connected to God out in nature. And so I've been taking Nugget for walks. They're not long walks, but it's getting out in nature every morning, every afternoon, and every night. And what a difference it is. So think about what is something you can do. And I'm not talking about just bubble baths or Massages, although I love those. Those are great. But maybe soul care and self-care is even flowers. Buy yourself some flowers, whatever is— flowers. I love candles. I have things that mean the most to me in the room I spend the most in. Like, I've got my Serenity Prayer in front of me. I have my cross in front of me. I have the Serenity Prayer over here on an angel that my friend Nicole gave me. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know difference. But really prioritize you, your soul care, your self-care, because your impact is only as strong as you are healthy. The next part of SPARK is A for align, which means align With your God-given vision and your God-given values, what is your vision? Not what somebody else thinks that you should do, but what is it that you are called to do? And I will tell you this: if you have somebody on your team that does not align with your values, it is not going to work out. Believe me, I've tried and it doesn't work. You have to be so grounded in your values, and when you are and you are being authentic. authentic about who you are and authentic about the vision and where you want to go, the right people will come, the right doors will open, you will connect, and your energy attracts the same kind of energy. You will get around the right people. And so align with your vision and get super clear on what your vision is. I even have it written about kind of what my values and my vision is, and I have it written on a card. I'll read it to you. It says, I was created to use my talents of connection, compassion, and instruction to perform my passions of advising, leading, and promoting to accomplish my mission of influence and producing change and progress. Now, this was actually like a little quiz I took and it printed out kind of what my vision and my mission was. I encourage you to think about what is your vision, what is your your mission? What are your values? And really align yourself with those every single day. R is for release what no longer serves you. Now, this could be from the things that you're doing, the habits that you've created that are not moving you closer to your goals or your— and that could be in your health, it could be in your business, it could be with relationships. But release what no longer serves you. This could be the own self-doubt, limiting beliefs that creep up. I know for me, I've got that inner bully that tells me I'm not good enough or I can't do it. That's why it's so important to align with your vision and your values and connect with the right people. Because in moments of self-doubt or limiting beliefs, sometimes all it takes is for someone to believe in you before you can believe in yourself. And so really think about what do you need to release so you can move forward. I know for me, I had to release alcohol. I got sober in 2016, and that did not serve me. I wouldn't get to do the things that I get to do if I had alcohol. I wouldn't get to have my sponsor. I wouldn't get to sponsor people in the program. I wouldn't get to have this show. And so So I had to release that. There are some people— I was just on a walk with my husband last night, and we've been trying to do walks together and more dinners together and just really have that time to talk. And he always says, and not all about your work. But we were talking about a relationship and somebody that was a really, really close friend. And how we got to talking about it was my daughter was really upset. Oh, I know. upset that she had a friend of hers that was saying bad things behind her back. And she was a friend and she was making up things about Ruby, which just hurts my heart. But Ruby was really upset. And I said, you know, you need to talk to her about it. And so she talked to her about it. And then I guess on Snapchat you can— I don't know what you call unfriend, unfollow, unadd, I think is what it is. But she released that. And I told her, I said, you know, Ruby, when you have people in your life that are talking bad about other people, it's only a matter of time before they're going to be talking bad about you. And so I was talking to my husband about this, and I had this one friend of mine, and we were close for a long time. And as I started to get out of a hospital bed and then get out of a wheelchair, then get off crutches, and then reinvent myself and start to get a little more confidence for going after my goals again, I noticed she was saying some not so nice things. Oh, well, don't you think you're— you just think you're all that. Oh, you're too important to go to lunch. No, I wasn't too important to go to lunch, but I had work to do. I was aligned with my vision and my mission, and I knew I had some work to do. And I had to release that friendship. And that was hard. We were friends for years, and I had to release that. So release the people that are no longer serving you, that are gossiping, that are doing things that just make you feel bad. It could be releasing even people that you don't know. If somebody on Instagram, if you see their post and nothing against them, but it just doesn't make you feel good or they don't motivate you or inspire you or they're not educating you, or even worse, they're putting you in comparison mode sometimes. And I've said this a lot. You have to bless them and block them. And so release what no longer serves you. And then the last part is K for kindle connections and connection to yourself, to your higher power, which I call God, and to people in your community. Y'all, if there's one thing you can get from this whole episode today, Is this: don't do it alone. You're never alone. I just had a friend of mine who's doing some scary things, and she said, I just feel so alone. And I said, you're never alone. Take God with you. I have another friend who's going through a pretty scary medical procedure. And I said, you know what? Take God with you. But kindle connection. Connection is key. I think success is built on relationships. And people ask me a lot, you know, how did you get to speak on that stage? How do you get on that person's podcast? How did you get to be friends with that person? And I really kindle those connections by adding value however I can in those relationships. Ask what you can give and not what you can get. Make sure you're connected to your higher power, to yourself. Check in. Have those moments of quiet time so you can check in with yourself and your intuition. So I hope that you will spark joy whenever you're feeling down. You will think of how to shift your perspective, how to prioritize soul care and self-care, how to align with your vision, how to release what no longer serves you, and how to kindle connection. And then there's one other thing that I will tell you that has made a big impact on me. is I've really been focusing more on my sleep. And, you know, I used to think, oh, well, I'm only going to get 2 hours of sleep or 3, and I'm not kidding, 3 hours of sleep because I have to get all these things done. Your sleep is a priority. And so I've gotten serious about my sleep. And I also want you to think about everything that you're consuming, both looking at, watching, listening to, but also what you're taking. What supplements are you taking? So I've tried everything. To get healthy, to, you know, get out of pain for CRPS. And I was trying to explain to somebody the other day, and my friend Tiffany, who she is— has a book coming out, she's going to be on the podcast. Tiffany is amazing. She's in my mastermind and she also has CRPS, was diagnosed with CRPS, and she gets it, like how the pain can get so intense that it will literally cause like this brain fog where it's hard to even get words out or write an email or come up with a caption for social media. And so I recently started taking something. And, you know, I don't share anything unless I really have tried it and it's made a difference. And you know that because I don't have sponsors on this podcast. I don't promote something unless I've tried it. And I started taking this product. And I thought, well, I'm not going to talk about it until I know it works for me. I'll put the link in the show notes so you can try it for yourself. And I think by the time this is going to come out, this episode— I'm recording right now, but it should be out in a couple of weeks— I'm going to get you a discount. So I'll make sure you get a discount. I'll talk to the founder of this company. But I started taking these supplements. And one is for calm. I don't know about you, but when— especially if you're an entrepreneur, but also with CRPS, it— your nervous system is all out of whack. And I'm taking something called Calm, and I'm hoping that it will help me get— eventually get off of Lyrica, which this Calm is a natural substance which increases the GABA. In your brain. I don't know how it all works, but I've been taking it and I have cut down on my Lyrica. I'm not a doctor. I'm not trying to give you medical advice. I just like to share what I'm doing. I'm also taking something and it's called Focus and it's been helping me. I will tell you, just the other day, I flew to California to give a keynote. At the airport, I had to take a bus To the rental car, and from the rental car where I picked it up, it was two hours away from the location. Now the thing is, I forgot that I'm not normal, and I can't drive long distances with my right leg. I have a Tesla, so I put it on self drive. That's the whole reason I got the Tesla. I've always been a truck girl, but it does help me have the freedom to drive long, long distances. And I had forgotten. Holy crap! What am I going to do? So. I drove the whole time with my left foot. I made it there. I drove with my left foot, but I was in a lot of pain. So I took my Calm before I went to bed. In the morning, I woke up and I had the focus and it helped me feel sharp. I don't know. I don't leave home without this because it's made that big of a difference in how I feel energy-wise, focus-wise, with brain fog, with being able to go to sleep better and get Restorative sleep, and so it's called Make M A K E Make Wellness. And I'm going to put the link in the show notes. I just like to share everything that I've been doing that has helped me. And so I am excited about what's coming up next on the show for you with episodes from you know Malik Mack who is on my team and he is a genius at branding and websites and just the whole entrepreneurship. And he's got a book about, I think it's 101 maybe side hustles. I should know the title of it. Anyway, that's coming out. Devin Sizemore, Andrea Rogers. We've got Justin Prince, so many. So if you— I just want to say, if you've been in the season of pause, give yourself grace. And no, it's not wasted. It's preparing you for what's next. I would love for you to give me your biggest lesson or takeaway from the show. I would also love if you, you can email me. It's my personal email, amberly@amberlylago.com, or shoot me a DM on Instagram @amberlylagomotivation. Tell me, who would you like to hear on the show? What What topics would you like to hear more of? Better yet, leave a review and let me know, because you know what? You can even write a review. Amberly, you know, somebody wrote a review. Amberly has amazing guests, but she talks too much. Well, I heard that, so I'm just going to be asking more questions to my guests. But I am going to keep doing solo casts. But leave a review. Let me know. Do you want to hear more solo casts? Do you want different topics? topics? Do you want more guests? Do you want celebrity guests? Do you want the person that lives down the street from me that has an amazing story? Let me know what you want to hear. And I just want to thank you for being here, for your encouragement when I was on a pause, and for you sticking with me. It was a really tough decision, but a much-needed one to get intentional. And I hope that you will do the same. And so, I appreciate you being here. Thank you again for tuning in to The Amberly Lago Show, and we will We'll see you next week. Bye.