I was coaching a client this week:
A high achieving successful female entrepreneur who is struggling with burnout... feelings of exhaustion, overwhelm and lack of interest in her role.
Although December can be a magical month for some, for many people, especially leaders, business owners, and high achievers, it can be extremely stressful and lead to burnout: end of year deadlines, Christmas sales and targets, trying to complete the never ending to do list before you sign-off, pressure of parties, the 2024 Strategy(!), presents and family expectations and a time where we reflect on the year and review whether we met our goals and expectations.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, exhausted or disinterested in your role, try to simplify and focus on self-care this December to avoid burnout.
Here are 3 tips to help:
1. Positive reflections to avoid burnout.
Rather than reflecting on all the things you/your team didn't achieve this year, write a list of all the positive experiences, wins and things you're proud of. You could also ask your team to do the same.
Underneath that list write what you/your team did to make a positive contribution to those things happening.
Sit back, read your list and notice how you feel.
Who can you share this positive list with? E.g., your team, your investors, your customers?
Who can you encourage, thank or positively recognise for their contributions to the successes of this year?
2. Positive goal setting to avoid burnout.
In November my client set quite lofty goals for the end of the year but soon discovered that these goals put her under pressure and it had the opposite effect of what she wanted.
If you're feeling a sense of burnout, instead of setting ambitious goals for this month, set positive goals instead to make sure you are able to simplify and focus on self-care.
Some positive goals could include:
To slow down and focus on self care
To do more things you love at work and home
To be honest and communicate better with yourself and others
To spend time connecting with your team, loved ones or local community
To end the year with a positive mindset: thinking and speaking positively about yourself/your work/others
3. Prioritisation to avoid burnout.
Now you know your positive goal, try prioritising the things that get you closer to that goal.
This could look like:
Deciding what are the most important and urgent things you need to focus on this month and rescheduling the rest for 2024 in time-blocks. You could ask a colleague or coach to help you with this if you're struggling!
Asking for help or delegating. Is there anyone on your team/in your world who could support you in certain tasks that are more aligned with their strengths, to free you up to focus on tasks that are more aligned with you strengths and that give you energy?
Having a main focus for the week
Choosing 1 main focus for the day, rather than 3-5
Doing at least 1 thing each day that energises you
Time-blocking priority tasks each week
Giving yourself more (realistic) time for each task, e.g., 3 hours rather than 1 hour (this was a huge help to me this week!)
For me
Similarly to my client, I also set ambitious business goals for December (alongside a big house move) and found myself feeling quite overwhelmed.
I used the steps above to help me and I am feeling so much more focused and energised. Some things on my to-do list have disappeared completely as I realised that they weren't as important or urgent for my business or life.
I hope you find this helpful to enable you to simplify and focus on self-care this Christmas.
The kinder you are to yourself, the kinder you will be to others!
If you'd like to explore coaching and working together to achieve positive goals in 2024 contact me here.
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