Is your busyness likely to lead to burnout? that's a high chance. There are statistics all over the place and some of them are really scary. One I was reading from the University of California suggested that 50 percent of entrepreneurs face burnout. Now that's worrying. There's a whole other set of stats from GitNooks here which I was looking at. 29 percent of small business owners report feeling constantly stressed by their work and that's according to a quick book study. Accounting platform. 41 percent of entrepreneurs report higher levels of anxiety, which can be a result of burnout. And that was according to a study by the University of San Francisco. I won't go on with the numbers. I will go on with the reality that I see. It's only working with clients in the coaching arena. Now, stress seems to be this kind of regular thing now, right? we're all busy. There's a lot to do. And it's both true and not true, so we need to be really careful of what truths we tell ourselves. I had a guy come to me, and he was a super intelligent, high level exec, and he had been basically diagnosed with burnout by his, GP. And he came to me, he'd been in a little bit of recovery for a while, and he wanted to get back on, back on his feet, back into his workplace, and, back to life. and I asked him some really fundamental questions, and I was like, okay. Tell me a little about your, your working format. What do you do? Now, how many days a week? How many of that sort of thing? And it came back like this. Six days a week minimum, sometimes seven. Twelve hours a day. I'm like, whoa, already? How are you going to sustain sleep, nutrition, relationships, exercise, if you give that much time to work? And then of course it went on, and you may be familiar to this, back to back meetings with no breaks. Constant demands out of the office. So on the train, or, from one place to another. and we had a nice, conversation at the beginning to see if I could help this guy. And essentially my work was to help them see what were the. Factors that got you here. What were the practical factors that got you here? And what were the mindset factors that got you here? Now, there's a lot of information that tells us about burnout. Things to look out for. Now, if you're listening to this, you might be a little bit concerned. So here, according to the Mental Health team and research, they've got a bunch of things we should look for. So feeling tired or drained most of the time, feeling helpless, trapped and or defeated, feeling detached or alone in the world, having cynical and a negative outlook, self doubt, procrastinating and taking long to get things done and feeling overwhelmed. Now they're the common signs of burnout. What I see with, people I've worked with who are moving towards burnout, there is this whole sense of depletion and you may resonate with. I've been here, right? I've been on the edge of burnout myself, so I know it firsthand. it's a terrible place and I, I remember giving a metaphor to someone. it was like going down a really steep hill and you can see the edge of the cliff coming as well. So not only is this steep hill bad and unpleasant, but There's a cliff edge at the far end, which if you go off it, it's all going to end, which is no good at all. If you're running a business You cannot lose your health. Otherwise you've lost your business. So back to burnout. Looking out for these signs are important, but what I find really important and I really want you to know this, is that signs, symptoms are signs and signs are symptoms. It's very easy to think I can medicate this. I can meditate this. I can just sleep a bit more and all these things can help. But what are the symptoms? They are signals and they're telling you something and they're perhaps telling you them. Something needs to change. Now I've worked with another person not too long back, Sarah. Sarah was a founder of her own company, in the recruitment sector and she had been absolutely bang on it for several years, really working hard. Now the work ethic, is admirable. The approach, damaging. So we need to be very careful of this and Sarah got to the point where she was just fried basically and just had to stop, to stop the business, had to stop working. She was a mom, she had a relationship, so it's a really big effect on everyone and everything. And what I found with working with these individuals, plus people who are moving towards high stress. There are certain things that we can do to make a significant difference. The first thing is to recognize the signs and symptoms, rather than put your, head in the sand as the expression goes, is to name it and call it out, and probably speak to someone close to you, like a partner or a friend, and simply speak of it so we don't bury it. The first place of, change is acknowledgement, so you need to acknowledge it. This is the first step. Then the second, and this is a practical tool, and I I use this all the time and this is super, super helpful. So I want you to work with this. this is the what? This is the what tool. So what is causing me high stress, chronic stress, or perhaps on that slippery slope to burnout. So if you have a pen and paper, or you have a Miro board or a digital screen. Drop a line down the middle. On one side, you put the word drain as in D R A I N and the other word sustain. On what I'd like you to do, and you may not have time while you listen to this, but do it after. Write down everything that drains you on that left side. So for me, it might look like a lot of emails and admin and stuff and maybe I should give it to the VA. Whatever the things that drain you. Lack of sleep, disruptive sleep. I have an autoimmune condition, so health factors. What is it that drains your energy? What takes away from you? Get it all down. Now, every one of us is different. For a lot of people, there are money worries, there are pressures, there's time deadlines. Get them down. Understand what drains your energy and adds to the burden. And when you've got that clear, then look at what sustains you. So this is, it could be a relationship, children, exercise, fun, laughter, daylight, some of the most obvious things, but look at what sustains you. So you have this really quite clear contrast between the things that drain you and the things that sustain you. Now, it doesn't take a psychologist to tell you this, but you want to reduce the amount of drain. and increase the amount of sustain. This is super, super easy to do. And sometimes the sheer act of naming, and identifying has helped so many people I've worked with. So start with that. That's the what. So that's a great tool to work with. Then let's go deeper into the why. This is something which comes up for my, a lot of the people I've, I coach. So founders, business owners, sometimes high level execs. But this is the why question, the meaning question and the fear facing question. So how come you're working so hard? Question. Yeah. Why are you doing 12 hour a day, six day weeks, whatever it is. Now, normally our lovely brain comes out with some justifications. They're called cognitive biases and they confirm our worldview, but we will need to get underneath that. So for example, so many people say, you know, I've got to grow the business. I need to make sure revenues coming in. They're all, credible things that we need to do. But there's a distinction between knowing the facts and having a highly charged emotion and meaning connected to them. And what I find with high achievers is often that there's a huge investment of one's ego and one's sense of self in the business. Trying to be a success versus looking at the percentage growth of your business are very different things. And this meaning making part, this emotionally led part, the thing that will push you, probably unconsciously, into driving too hard, overworking, overstressing, this needs uncovering. So I'm looking for meaning and generally toxic beliefs. Figure out what are you afraid of. Why are you working so hard? And be careful of not giving it the old justification. Well, I've got to do this, got to do that. Why are you doing it? Because if you compromise your health, you compromise everything You know, you are number one. You're the business. You are the business. So look at that and be honest with yourself, but be gentle as well. This isn't a state of how do you judge oneself? This is a state of self awareness to understand what am I doing? So that takes us into the why tool. Why might I be getting towards burnout? Why am I doing these long hours? What's really driving me? And we want to change toxic drivers for healthy drivers. So there's a difference between I'm working really hard to grow my business versus I'm working the right amount with absolute focus because my business makes a big impact on people's lives. One can drive you into the burnout state and one can drive you forwards into a healthy state. So there we are, that's the whine. And the third tool I'd love to share with you is the howl. Now, many, many people, including myself, spend way too much time thinking. And we're in our heads, and we're conceptualising, and we're worrying and ruminating, and boy oh boy, I have a mind that could be so active, I could have probably 300 thoughts within 10 seconds. So, I get it, I know what a busy mind's that's why I do the work I do to calm it. But if we're in our heads all the time, if we are in thought and abstraction and worry, we are not embodied. we probably are. We're having stress in our body, but we're not connected to our body. So regular listeners, you'll know what I'm probably going to say. My new listeners, you need to get into your body. Exercise is a non negotiable. You don't need to be an athlete today. But if you are sedentary, a knowledge worker, high levels of stress, and you are not physically processing that through some form of movement, there is your opportunity to shift this. Now walking, obvious, daylight movement processing. Physical strength training, brilliant, because it works on the musculature and the metabolic system, dancing, walking, running, skiing, whatever your thing is, what can you do that is embodied? And what can you do on a regular, and I would say daily basis, not just a quick session once a week, what can you do every day? Now, I've had many people say to me, Oh, I'm too busy. I haven't got time for exercise. And on some level, there's a truth. I'm a very busy individual. I have a lot of things to do. And sometimes time feels like it's squeezed, but there's a distinction between priority and justification. So it's back to the why question, right? So if you prioritize exercise, whether it's a 20 minute session in the morning before you start work, you prioritize yourself. and your health. If you do not, if you prioritize, dopamine charging your brain with emails, first thing, you're prioritizing someone else's ruling your life. So you get to choose and it's really, really important. And the better you are physically, the more connected you are physically, the healthier you are. Your stress tolerance levels go up, your stress capabilities go up, your ability to process things like those Adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones you may have heard of, they physically are processed. So I would say if you're a stressed individual moving towards burnout, find a strength and conditioning program. Get on something really good so you can physically be in your body and process that. It will help balance that sway towards too much of my time in your mind. So there are three tools there. There are three tools I use with many people that I work with and I want to share them because you should know this. If you're struggling, use the right tools. It can really help. So you've got the drain sustain model. to see what is happening. You've got the meaning making question, like why is this happening? What meaning am I making of this? what fears are driving me? And the how question, how can I change this to become a physically healthier situation will move you away from that burnout edge. It will give you a better perspective and it's so, so important, isn't it? why are you working? I run a business because I love it and I love what I do. The business doesn't run me. And make sure if you are leading that, you are leading those choices. It's gonna be a healthier and more sustainable approach to both your health, your life, and your business. Now, again, it's a whistle stop store, as I do with these solos. I hope that you can grab these stores, take them, and utilize them if you are having a challenge. If you want to know more, if you've caught this on a social platform somewhere, or if you want to reach out to me, all the contact details are linked. Drop me a message and let me know how you get on with one of these tools. And, yeah, don't be too busy. Don't burn out. Stay well. Till the next time. Take care.

Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe. And if a friend would benefit from hearing this, do send it on to them as well. If you would like to get in touch yourself, then you can go to my website. Which is Sal Jeffries dot com, spelt S A L J E F F E R I E S. Sal Jeffries dot com. Hit the get in touch link and there you can send me a direct message. If you'd like to go one step further and learn whether coaching can help you overcome a challenge or a block in your life, then do reach out and I offer a call where we can discuss how this may be able to help you. Until the next time, take care.