59: How to Avoid Burnout

Because we're entrepreneurs, it means that we're our own boss, which means that we are in charge of our schedules, we're in charge of our deadlines, and honestly, sometimes we're a little too hard on ourselves.

I'm Bonnie Christine. And this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer.

Fast forward to today.

I'm not only licensing my artwork all, all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life

and experience the same success.

I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast Podcast.

In our last episode, I explained to you these three phases of creation. They're inspiration, creation, and rejuvenation. And I wanted to kind of just pluck one thing out of those three phases to talk about today because it's such an important conversation. This is all about self care and avoiding burnout. So if you haven't listened to episode number 58, it's going to give you so much more context for this conversation today. But I think that the phase that most of you probably resonated being stuck in was phase number two, the creation phase. And being stuck here. Looks like we don't have time to rest or play or rejuvenate. And we also don't have time time to learn new things, gather information and read books and take classes and listen to podcasts. Well, you're listening to this one, so yay for you. But being stuck in the doing phase is where we often find ourselves. We're wearing so many hats in our business. We're doing all of the things and if we're not careful, this can lead to burnout. And so I know that we're all pretty familiar with what we call the hustle, and I think it's okay to have seasons of hustle. You know, sometimes we just really need to put our head down and get some work done in order to make progress in our business. But it is so important to realize that that cannot be our always way of being. We've got to learn how to move out of that hustle, that doing phase, and make sure that we're making time for rejuvenation and also learning new things. And so I want to talk about burnout today, as I think it's crucial for every creative entrepreneur. And one of the reasons is that because we're entrepreneurs, it means that we're our own boss, which means that we are in charge of our schedules, we're in charge of our deadlines, and honestly, sometimes we're a little too hard on ourselves. And so today, I want to talk about recognizing the warning signs of burnout and then how to take actionable steps to really step away from that so that your creative journey can continue. The good news is that true burnout gives plenty of warning signs. You know, true burnout is something that I actually don't think that I have experienced. I think I've come really close to it before. But true burnout if. If you've experienced it is really, really immensely difficult. And so oftentimes we don't just all of a sudden experience burnout. There's so many signs along the way that we need to be paying attention to. For instance, if you feel like you couldn't take a day off and you can't remember the last time you took a day off, then you need to start paying attention to preventing burnout. You know, working more than five days a week, working on holidays, working on vacations, working into the evenings, you know, losing sleep because you're working so much. These are all signs of potential burnout. And you've got to prioritize your self care. I'm such a huge advocate of self care, meaning no matter how busy I am, I am adamant about getting eight, if not nine hours of sleep and working out every single day. I'll also add to that cooking dinner. So every single day, no matter how busy I am, I prioritize eight to nine hours of sleep at night. I prioritize working out, and I prioritize making sure that I've got time to make a healthy meal in the evening for me and my family. And so if any of those three things slip, I am in the red zone. And honestly, if you know me and you know my real life, you pretty much know that I don't let these things slip. You know, I think the last time that I skipped a workout was, like, on opening day of the immersion course launch because I just needed to get to work and make sure all systems were go. So what that's like one day a year that I skip, you know, strictly due to Being too busy. That's what I mean. I skip other days for other reasons, like travel or, you know, vacation or something like that. But skipping strictly because I'm too busy just doesn't happen. So if you find that your general self care is slipping, that's a huge warning sign of burnout as well. Other warning signs could be decreased motivation or maybe just loss of of creativity. You know, we as creatives, we really need to have space in our daily life to feel inspired in order to create. And so if the thing that you love to do has become difficult and maybe you don't feel motivated to even do it, or maybe you don't feel like you've got those creative ideas, those are also signs and symptoms of potential burnout coming. So I want to encourage you to just kind of take note of the symptoms and signs that you might be experiencing. You know, I think burnout really shows up for everyone in a different way. And so warning signs for me are typically the things I've already mentioned. So maybe working too much but also feeling a lack of creative inspiration is one that I always pay attention to. When you recognize one of these signs, you must be a good boss to yourself. And in order to be a good boss to yourself, you have to really create boundaries and prioritize your self care. In other words, if you were an employee working for yourself, you likely would have quit a long time ago. Right? We put these huge high standards on ourselves and we really must be intentional about making sure that we take care of our energy and in our mind so that we are more resilient.

Okay, picture this. Have you ever spent hours scouring through your video or maybe your podcast content trying to find that one place that you said that one thing? Or if you've forgotten or never found it and you had to re record everything. I've been there and it's so frustrating and honestly a huge waste of time. But, but it hasn't happened to me ever since I started using Searchie. Searchie is the software that I use for all of my videos and all of my podcast content because it not only transcribes it, but it makes it searchable by keyword. And so for you to see this in action, I have an example set up for you over on BonnieChristine.com resources. Again, that's BonnieCristine.com forward/resources. And you can actually play with Searchy and see how it looks on one of our videos because once you understand what it does, it's a game changer. I also host all of my workshop and my class, my membership and course material through Searchie as well. So students can search for any question that they have and go to the exact time in place where I talked about that one thing. And just imagine this. If I ever do a Q and A and they want to know if I answered their question, all they have to do is search for their name and see if I did or not. It's literally like having your very own personal search engine for your content. So no more wasting time scrubbing through your video or audio to find that one golden nugget. With Searchie, you can easily find what you're looking for in seconds. Just type in a keyword or phrase and Searchie will pull up all the relevant content. It's a game changer for anyone who create audio or video content. But honestly, that's not all. Searchie's new AI powered transcription and captioning tool makes it easy to create accessible content that everyone can get access to. And with their customizable player, you can embed your videos and your podcasts on your website or social media channels in a way that looks and feels so professional. So if you are ready to take your video or your podcast content to the next level, head on over to Bonnie Christina Forward slash resources and just give Searchie a try. It's incredible. I think you're going to love it and I can't wait to see how it revolutionizes the way you create content.

Let's talk about minding your energy, because it is crucial to mind your energy and recognize that it's okay to do less. You can either reach your goals more slowly with health. Right. Or learn to delegate tasks. And so I wasn't really willing to move more slowly. I like to move quick, I like to have big goals and I like to make progress quickly. And so I had to learn how to delegate. I had to learn how to create positions in my business and get help. And so I've built a team so that I don't necessarily have to slow down, but that I can mine my energy at the same time. And so if you want to learn more about this, I highly Recommend Episode number 51 and 52, because this is all about not only how to delegate, but the top things that you could consider delegating along the way. So examples of this start in your personal life. Things like housework and meal prep. And then they move into business categories like accounting and bookkeeping and shipping and, and maybe getting help from a virtual assistant or with your email management. And so we've got to learn how to delegate so that we can create more time if you want to move quickly. You know, one thing that's really helpful when we talk about burnout is accountability. I truly believe that it's essential to have a support system that understands maybe how you got here in the first place. And so for me, this is other creative entrepreneurs. It's always nice to talk to someone who loves me, who's a friend or family member, but if they're not an entrepreneur themselves, they can't really understand, you know, what we're talking about here. And so I love having a group of other creative entrepreneurs that we can really talk about. Well, hey, I'm feeling this. And everybody's like, oh yeah, I am too. Or hopefully they're more like, oh yeah, I've been there and this is how I got out of it it. And so having that support system, having people around you that understand how you got to where you are and more. So how to help you get out of that potential burnout stage is so incredibly important. So let me wrap up by just giving you five actionable takeaways to help you start implementing on what we've learned today. Okay? Number one is reflect on your current balance and identify areas where you might be pushing too hard. Number two is reflect and really begin to recognize your unique signs of potential burnout. I think sometimes people have their own set of warning signs that are unique to them that I won't have even covered in this episode. So take some time to think about what they are for you. When you're nearing burnout, what are the warning signs that show up for you in your life Then step number three is to be proactive about setting boundaries and really prioritizing self care by carving out that time for yourself and your well being. So why don't you make a list of, let's say, five non negotiables, meaning every single day you're going to do these five things and that's going to help prevent burnout for you. So for me, these five things may look like getting eight to nine hours of sleep, having time to do my morning routine, which includes being able to read a devotion for 20 minutes, then working out, drinking enough water. So let's say I drink 120 ounces of water a day. That's a non negotiable. And then having a healthy dinner at night and time to cook that dinner for my family. So that's an example of my five non negotiables knowing that they're going to Help me prevent burnout. And it's also going to help me know that if I lost one of those, it's a warning sign. So set up your own five non negotiables that are anti burnout for you so that you can start to pay attention when something begins to slip. Now I want to encourage you for number four to just consider some tasks that you could delegate. Consider some tasks that you could hand to someone else, which is going to free up your energy and allow you to do more creative work. And if you're unwilling to delegate at this point in your business, then perhaps permission to just move through it a little bit more slowly again. It doesn't really matter how quickly you arrive, just that you maintain consistent action. And then step number five is to seek accountability. Truly get a group of your friends or family or hopefully some other creative entrepreneurs who you can talk about this stuff with. It's so important. Maybe just do a little check in. Even if you're not struggling with burnout right now, maybe you could pop open your phone and text a group of three other entrepreneurs that you know and just do a little check in. Hey, I've been working on avoiding burnout. These are my five non negotiables. How are you doing? Or do you have any warning signs of burnout right now? If so, let me know so that we can help you out. Accountability is huge and I truly believe that by taking these five steps, you're going to be proactively addressing the risk of burnout and setting yourself up for long term success. Because my friends, we're in this for the long term. If you can't do what you're doing today for the next 10 or 15 years, you're in trouble. It's time to learn how to maintain balance and respect your own energy levels and your own health so that you can play this game for a long, long, long time. It is so rewarding. As long as you know how to take care of yourself, you deserve a fulfilling and sustainable career. And it is 100% in your power to make it happen. Friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you. I'll see you next time.