Why you are reaching burnout and how to avoid it

I’m sure you’ve experienced this before. You love what you do and look forward to actually doing your work. But you get to a point where you just can’t do it anymore.

Symptoms of burnout include:

Loss of passion
Dreading going to work
Avoiding the serious work for menial tasks that make you feel productive
Stress
Trouble concentrating
Ready to quit

Are you heading towards burnout?

You’re not alone. In fact most entrepreneurs feel this at some point in their career as a business owner. The good news is that there is a cure. Burnout doesn’t have to be a standard part of owning a business. It’s not something that goes hand in hand with being an entrepreneur, and realizing that is the first step to doing business (and life) without it.

Why you are reaching burnout

I’ve been down the road of burnout many times. I never knew why I ended up there or how to avoid it. I always thought it was just part of being a business owner and working hard to grow your business.

I was working long hours and throwing everything at the wall trying to get something to stick. I was spinning in circles trying to do what everyone else was doing and hoping that something would finally work for me and my business would grow.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

Then I realized that I couldn’t follow their plan. I couldn’t just copy and paste their strategies and cross my fingers that it would work for me too.

Most often, burnout comes from being overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed out about what to do next. And more often than not that feeling of being overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed comes from following everyone else’s formula for success instead of determining your own.

How to avoid it

So often business owners get caught up in following a specific formula for success hoping that it will be a quick-fix to overnight success. And it almost always ends in disappointment.

When you stop following everyone else’s guaranteed formula for success and start creating your own, your business will finally be able to thrive. You’ll break free from the mold. You’ll be able to build a business that supports your life instead of burdening it. You will finally be able to stop spinning your wheels and wondering why nothing seems to be working.

When you set up a plan built for your business that can grow and adapt as you grow and change, you will finally understand how to manage your business well without the headaches, failed attempts, and burnout.

Avoiding burnout starts with a shift in mindset. This means that you have to start thinking about your business differently. You have to start thinking with intention and clearing out all the other distractions.

We have to be in the right frame of mind and remember what really matters to us to be able to move forward with purposeful intention.

Instead of working too much and heading towards burnout trying to figure out how to make your square peg fit into their round hole, think about things differently. You can use the things you’ve learned about business to create a plan that works for you.

When you finally have clarity about your business and a plan that will work for you, you can move forward with ease. You won’t be confused about what to do next. You won’t spend hours at the computer trying all the tricks and learning all the things because you already know what you need to do.

Which ultimately means you’ll be able to work less and live more while still growing your business. You can grow your business without the hustle, stress, overwhelm, and burnout and it’s up to you to do it.