27. Burnout, Motivation and Progress

Welcome to my podcast where I share my passion for self improvement, education, homesteading and horses. I’m so happy you are here, let’s get started!

I am in a phase in my life where I am hustling to move forward in my life and career. This means long hours, minimal time off, stress and sometimes lack of sleep. I’ve been in this hustle stage for awhile now and have experienced a lot of highs and lows, working hard, nearing burn out, losing motivation, getting laser focused and back again.

In the last 10 years or so I have come to realize that these waves need to be ridden properly, and consistently in order to not lose forward momentum.

Something we learn in horseback riding is that impulsion and speed are not synonyms. Speed doesn’t mean you will be more successful it just mean when you fall you are going to hit harder. Having steading impulsion through life is just as important as it is in riding.

We can better see what’s coming ahead, steer and have the ability to change course or jump obstacles as they appear. We also get a better chance to think and reevaluate our goals along the way.

I am happy to say I have managed to avoid full blown burnout for the most part, but I have definitely veered dangerously close on many occasions.

Being a very driven person is difficult because we want some much, and push so hard often we go too far to the extreme and put too much on our plates.

Sometimes in the past when I have felt this coming on I have done a full stop. Taken time off work, stopped all projects and pulled away from riding and anything that wasn’t the absolute minimum life responsibilities. But every time I’ve done this I have just become depressed and lost all motivation, making starting the hustle back up so much harder than it needed to be, to the point it felt insurmountable.

I am in no way perfect, but I’ve started to be pretty good at listening to my body and mind and finding balance between what they need and what I want.

What I’ve done instead is found ways to maintain impulsion, while slowing down. Finding ways to fill my tank more than I empty it so as to build up my reserves to go another few miles of highway. This way I can both avoid burnout and loss of motivation.

A note on motivation

I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth noting again. Motivation is not this strong all consuming force that makes us want to get up at 4am despite our better judgment, Its a quiet voice that tells us to keep going towards our dreams, even when we don’t want to. Don’t think that because you don’t feel like lacing up your workout shoes or driving to the barn in -10 means you’ve lost motivation, it’s still there you just have to listen.

Now on to how I avoid burnout and maintain progress.

Find your baseline

Figure out what are the things you need to do at a very minimum to keep moving towards your goals even at a very reduced rate. For example I am working towards buying a farm and building a name for myself as a coach so minimum tasks for my growth are maintaining my client base, keeping up on my social media presence and riding/working with my horses at least enough to keep them and myself in shape and maintaining a good budget and credit standing.

Those things will keep me going forward, but slowly. If I want to get back to the forward motion I had before we add back in actively advertising to fill empty client spots, riding consistently to maintain progress in training, working out to increase my own endurance and strength, keeping client engaged and learning both in lessons and online, making extra income and paying off debt.

I know what my baseline is in every aspect of my life, I know what the bare minimum is to continue to improve but to allow time for rest, both mentally and physically.

Find your ideal growth range

Once you know that the bare minimum is, finding the best spot for you to sit to be moving as quickly and consistently towards your goals while avoiding the need to down shift anytime soon.

It’s possible for you to near burnout no matter what, but you should try and avoid it best you can. Life will throw you curve balls of course so a lot of it is out of your control, but do your best to find a comfortable spot where you can hustle from without fearing the edge of a cliff all the time.

Know when to push and when to pull

Life can be just like that time you didn’t notice the pull sign on a door and pushed incessantly until you embarrassedly noticed it was the wrong way and red faced, switched tactics. Sometimes we fight so hard in one direction we don’t realize there is a much easier way to get to the other side.

If we move too fast, of have our sights fixed too solidly on our goals we miss what’s right in front of ...