As women professionals, we’re expected to be resilient.
Have you ever thought that same quality, if taken to an extreme, can actually be a negative, health sucking trap?
Let me explain.
I’ve been an entrepreneur since 1992.
My mindset was hard work was honest work.
And pushing to exhaustion on a daily meant I was somehow doing a really good job!
I prided myself on being able to multi-task, fit it all in, grind.
Until it started taking a serious toll on my health.
The biggest, immediate change was my weight.
The first year that I started my corporation I gained 78 pounds. Yep! That’s not a typo, seventy-eight pounds!
I didn’t change the way I ate at all. But my stress levels changed dramatically.
From there, I just pushed through thinking I need to work hard at dieting now too.
I began to experience serious exhaustion, which was later diagnosed as adrenal fatigue.
For years I ignored it and continued to run my company in the same manner. Additional symptoms arose like multiple visual migraines on a weekly basis.
I just added a small loveseat in the back of the office to close my eyes when they struck (with a 20 minute cut off, of course).
It wasn’t an option to go home or rest.
And then, there comes a time when the body just won’t allow you to continue to ignore it. It got to a breaking point where it was no longer sustainable.
Sometimes a breaking point is actually a good thing because then you must change your destructive course.
I put healthy boundaries in, added a cut off for when the computer had to be shut down, took daily walks for stress reduction, and most importantly started implementing various aspects of my business that didn’t need to rotate around me in order to get accomplished.
It was a way for me to save myself. Because the previous track didn’t have a pretty longterm outlook.
I know this happens to many women…perhaps just like you.
Maybe you’re at the point where there are too many fires to put out – this is for you.
Maybe you’re at the point where you don’t know what to do and the overwhelm has you spinning – this is also for you so you don’t have to experience chronic fatigue and other health issues.
This is why I am so passionate about business without burnout.
Because I struggled for years and I don’t want that for you.
There’s a better way.
Here are a couple of things that you can do to prevent feeling like a wet washcloth at the end of a workday:
? Embrace progress and release perfectionism
? Craft a healthy mindset around the work/life balance
? Practice self-care on a daily basis before it becomes a crisis
? Build multiple revenue streams, including a passive income source
? Automate everything possible to save time, redundancy, and stress
? Cultivate community and ask for support before you think you need it
Sustainability doesn’t just apply to your bottom line. It applies to your body, mind, and spirit as well.
Take opportunities to uncover ways that you can craft safety nets for your health and wellbeing while earning a fruitful living.