A short YouTube monologue by Ryan Daniel Moran describing his recent experience with entrepreneurial burnout. He normalizes doubts and fatigue among entrepreneurs, observes that entrepreneurship often involves ‘building the plane while it’s flying,’ and offers a two-step practice: (1) write on paper all current stressors and, on the opposite side, the activities you wish were on your plate to reveal what can be delegated, postponed, or scheduled; (2) step away for a few hours or days to gain perspective and make the list feel manageable. He also reflects on common entrepreneurial fantasies about impact and retirement.
So I'm gonna be real honest with you, fastlaners. I am not operating in the fast lane. The last few days, I'm actually dealing with a decent amount of burnout. This week, I kind of hit a wall, especially yesterday, where I just had one of those moments as an entrepreneur where I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Does anything I do really matter? Do I really want to work this hard? Where's the end in sight? When do I get to retire to a beach and just hang out, enjoy my life, and not work so hard? So. So.
I know I'm working too hard. I know I'm trying to do too many things when I have those thoughts. But at the same time, as an entrepreneur, this naturally comes up partially because we're starters, and we like to start new things and not actually complete anything. But the other is because we're making it up as we go.
There are manuals. Sometimes we put some of them right here in this stack of books about being an entrepreneur. But. But really, we are building this plane as it is flying, and sometimes I have to remind myself of that. So I wanted to take a second and talk a little bit about dealing with burnout, because it is something that I work through kind of in cycles. And I know I'm not the only one. And we don't like to talk about it as entrepreneurs. We like to talk about crushing it and hustling and work your fricking face off. And this is my ninth cup of coffee today. And really, look, we're human beings. And unless what you are doing is, if you are Gary Vaynerchuk, this is a video game to you. So it is constantly energizing. Not everything I do is energizing. And I'd love to sit here and tell you that wasn't the case. I would love to tell you that everything that I do on a daily basis leaves me more energized than the opposite. But that's just not the case. I deal with voices and voices in my head. Great, somebody's gonna edit that into a YouTube clip. I deal with you. I deal with wondering if I'm doing it right. I wonder if I'm making the impact that people tell me I'm having. Like, I've created over 100 millionaires, and I wonder if I'm having an impact. Right. Elon Musk has alluded to the fact in interviews that he wonders if he's making an impact, if he's really making a difference in the world. So us as an entrepreneur, as entrepreneurs, we all kind of deal with this. But let me get to my point, which is this. I know that the brain creates fantasy lands, which means that regardless of how good you think you're doing or how poorly you think you're doing, the truth is probably somewhere in between there. So when I'm dealing with burnout, there's two things that I do that can really switch me into a different mindset. Even when I'm. I feel like I'm balancing everything in the world. I'm managing multiple businesses, I'm building a YouTube subscriber base, I'm trying to get six pack abs, I'm trying to be a good dad while managing personal life. First thing I do is I get down on paper all the things that are irritating me, all the things that are actually causing me stress, all the things I wish weren't on my plate. And on the other side of the paper, I write down all the things that I wish were on my plate. What are the things that I wish I had more time for? What are the things that I wish I had more of in my life? And immediately upon seeing that list, it's out and it is manageable. And what's interesting is as soon as you put the list on paper, you know the things that can be delegated, the things that can be ignored, the things that can be put off. And there are some things on there that can be scheduled, like the vacation you've been putting off, the thing that you want to add more. And last night I did this exercise and the first thing that was on my list of what I wish was on my plate more of was investing more in businesses. Meaning I wish that I had more deal flow, that I could just mentor people and put cash into it and inspire people. And then it was like, well, wait a minute, why don't I just do one of those? We could record it, it becomes content. That's things that people would really like to see, that would create more deal flow and more good things I would want to do. So why don't we just do more of that and I can delegate some of the other things that I don't want to do. And all of a sudden there's creative strategies that start to come in and, and make it look more manageable. The second thing that I do is get away from it for a while after it is out on paper. Get away either for a few hours or a few days, because when you come back, the list doesn't seem so bad. And giving myself a break from.
Crushing every workout, or crushing every podcast, or hitting everything at 100%. It's okay to take a step back, because when you return, you're much sharper, and that list of things to do doesn't seem so daunting anymore. So dealing with burnout comes from getting some perspective, realizing how good you have it, realizing how close you are to what you want by making that list of things that are irritating you and the things you want more of, and getting away from it all so that you're sharper when you come back to it. And that is how I personally deal with burnout on weeks like like I'm having right.
