I'm going to share a little behind the scenes with you. This is a topic that is so close to my heart. 

Burnout.

Been there 2x myself, and I have no intention of being there again. I had 3 very small businesses, a cleaning job and mum/wife life. I was far too busy and I felt myself getting dangerously close again a few weeks ago, so it's timely that we are focusing on self care this month. 

We might define "burnout" differently, but at the core of it all, it's the same thing.

• Always feeling stressed out.
• Sickness that you can't get rid of.
• Worrying about every little thing.
• Your "to do" list seems to just get longer, no matter how much you tick off.
• Your mind is always running at a million miles an hour.
• Sacrificing family time in favour of work.
• Constantly worrying about letting clients or friends/family down.
• Not taking days off.
• Lack of sleep/always tired.
• Making poor food choices.
• Never saying no, even if you know you don't have the capacity for new commitments.

Eventually, you'll likely end up just like I did both times. 

Exhausted, depressed, really strung out and with some very real health problems. I already had my fair share to begin with, but once I reached that point, I was a mess. 

I was sick - started with a cold  and I didn't rest, I just kept going. Well, I kept TRYING to keep going. Then it was a chest infection. Then Xrays to check for cracked ribs from so much coughing. Then months of complete exhaustion, sinus infections, bordering on pneumonia and hospitalisation. I was SO sick. I lost about half my hair in the process, as my immune system was so ruined. 

Even now, coming up to 3 years since I was sick, my hair is still really thin, and falls out all the time, my lungs are still not fantastic and I get tired really easy. 

The second time around, I finally learnt my lesson. When your body tells you to stop, you STOP. 

You rest. Take some time to recover. It's highly unlikely anything in your work is so urgent that you can't allow for some down time. You can't get better if you keep pushing through, and as much as my health has suffered long term, I learnt to listen to my body. 

If you've not been through something like this yourself, then please trust me. There is no need to keep pushing and forcing it. If you need to stop, then you need to stop. 

Besides stopping, what can you do?

• Plan your week. Book in breaks and work free time, and honour them.
• Let yourself have days off.
• Say no if you don't think you can realistically do it.
• Keep family and friends time in your schedule, and keep it there!
• Don't work all night and get up early and keep going. Your body needs rest.
• Delegate. Automate. Eliminate. Outsource what you can to free up space. I'll talk more about this in the next article. 

Just don't let yourself get to the point I did. It's so bad for you both physically AND mentally. No business is worth sacrificing your health for.

Nikki.