Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E23: How to Thrive After Burnout
Transcript
- 0:01Hello. Hello.
- 0:03Welcome back to the Lila Ro Show.
- 0:05How's everybody doing? Happy July.
- 0:07I can't believe it's July. We are more than halfway through
- 0:112021. I feel like it was just 2020.
- 0:14So many things are happening. And yeah, I have some updates
- 0:18for you guys. I also, I'm going to talk about
- 0:20this topic of burnout because I think I know a lot of people who
- 0:26are wrestling with burnout in different forms.
- 0:29And I also know people who are feeling like they're coming out
- 0:32of their burnout experience of COVID and just the craziness of
- 0:36the last 6 to 18 months. So yes, hello, good.
- 0:41This is going to be a very upbeat, positive episode.
- 0:44And yeah, I feel like there's so much to say on this topic.
- 0:47But first of all, thank you so much to everybody in the last
- 0:51month and two months. I guess it's been two months
- 0:53now. It's crazy.
- 0:54Who have been so supportive of fighting for life.
- 0:56I was so excited to get this book finally birthed and
- 1:00released. So fighting for life, becoming a
- 1:01force for change in a wounded world.
- 1:03If you haven't already heard or seen, my first book is out, and
- 1:07I'm just love getting letters and messages from many of you
- 1:11about how it's affected you and how encouraged you are and how
- 1:14do you feel inspired to go make a difference.
- 1:16And I have some of you even who are starting new businesses or
- 1:19nonprofits after reading the book, which is really cool.
- 1:22That's what I'm hoping for. People who see that.
- 1:25Listen, we're all called to make a difference in the world.
- 1:29A lot of that has to do with the difference that happens inside
- 1:31of us. And it has to do with taking
- 1:32risks, getting out there, being a force for change, but doing it
- 1:37in a way that is full of love and truth.
- 1:39Because I do think there's like tremendous polarization and
- 1:44division right now in politics and in our country.
- 1:47It's very represented on social media and in news media.
- 1:50So I'm not saying we have to be at each other, at each other's
- 1:53throats, but I am saying that we go out there and stand up for
- 1:56what's right and fight really for each other.
- 1:59Because really, at the end of the day, that's what this is
- 2:01about. Those that are feel strongly
- 2:03about some of these cultural issues to the human rights,
- 2:05abuse of abortion, fighting for life.
- 2:08It's not not because we hate anyone or want to hurt anyone.
- 2:10It's actually because we want to help people.
- 2:13We want to help people be alive, choose life, see the beauty and
- 2:16gift of life. So if your your your fight, what
- 2:20you're building, what you're trying to do, whether it's in
- 2:22politics or culture is because of love, because you want to
- 2:25help and serve people and that's the spirit with which you
- 2:28operate, then I think that's an incredibly powerful and
- 2:31transforming force for good in the world.
- 2:33So thank you everybody. I love getting the feedback.
- 2:36It's also funny, the trolls are some of the negative reviews.
- 2:39There haven't been a lot, but there definitely been some.
- 2:42The latest negative review on Amazon, I saw it last week.
- 2:46I think about the book was about fighting for life was from some
- 2:50poster that I don't think they read the book.
- 2:52They're like, I've been following Lila's social media
- 2:55and her media comments for years now and I'm like, OK, well, is
- 2:59this a review about my social media or is this a review about
- 3:02my book? But whatever.
- 3:04And the commentary, the commentator or whatever, the
- 3:06whoever is writing this, I think was anonymous name, of course,
- 3:10or some sort of like slogan for their name instead of an actual
- 3:13person's name. But they said she's sentimental
- 3:16and has an unrealistic worldview.
- 3:18And of course, I hate women. Is, is the, is the, the
- 3:22allegation of the reviewer. And it's just I, I like, please
- 3:27read the book and let me know if you still think that because I
- 3:31was super raw in fighting for life, shared a lot of personal
- 3:34things and I think provided a very holistic view of the
- 3:38pro-life battle and the larger culture of life work that needs
- 3:41to be done. Because it's absolutely 100%
- 3:44anti abortion. We have to stop killing babies.
- 3:46But it also has to do with building up families, supporting
- 3:50mothers, making the care of children and the, the, the care
- 3:55of our future generations, really the focus of our society
- 3:58instead of making it this afterthought, which I feel that
- 4:01it can often be. So anyways, thank you for the
- 4:04positivity that I have gotten. If you've reviewed the book on
- 4:06Amazon or just bought it or shared it or whatever it is on
- 4:10social media, talked about it, I thank you so much.
- 4:13It means the world to me. And yeah, excited to have the
- 4:17book out there and excited to continue to hear from you guys
- 4:19on it. So I also have some other
- 4:22personal news. I, I just recently shared this
- 4:25on some social media, I think last week, but we are expecting
- 4:29our another baby. So Joe and I are due with our
- 4:33baby, a little baby boy on November 9th of this year.
- 4:39So we are due and expecting a little baby boy later this year
- 4:43and we're very excited. This is actually our third
- 4:47pregnant, my third pregnancy or third child.
- 4:48So some of you guys know I actually had a miscarriage
- 4:52earlier this year was very hard but also very hopeful because I
- 4:56just have a lot of trust. I personally believe strongly
- 5:00that God has a plan for every life and that this child is in
- 5:03heaven and will be reunited one day.
- 5:05So I had a lot of consolation despite the pain of that
- 5:08miscarriage, and it just made me relate all the more deeper, more
- 5:12deeply to people who have been in those situations, especially
- 5:16not just mothers, but fathers, because I think miscarriages can
- 5:20take a toll on both parents. It's not just on the woman.
- 5:24But anyways, we're so excited for this new baby.
- 5:27We're in firmly in the second trimester.
- 5:30So risk of miscarriage is a lot lower.
- 5:32Thank, thanks be to God. But anyway, super pumped and
- 5:35just appreciate everyone's love and well wishes.
- 5:37And I'm also hearing about a lot of other babies due this fall.
- 5:41So there's always a baby due sometime in the year.
- 5:43Every day there's babies being born.
- 5:44But yeah, the first trimester. So the reason this is like
- 5:48connected to the topic of burnout first trimester for me.
- 5:52So the first three months of pregnancy have always been
- 5:55really hard and this pregnancy was no different.
- 5:59Lots of fatigue and exhaustion, lots of nausea, lost weight and
- 6:02sort of gained weight like you're supposed to do when
- 6:04you're pregnant. And so I felt that and I was
- 6:07also releasing the book and Live Action Work, my nonprofit, has
- 6:12been extremely busy. We're reaching about 15,000,000
- 6:15people every week with pro-life content.
- 6:17We're planning these new events and these doing these new
- 6:19activism strategies. So it's all very exciting
- 6:22because we're seeing lives saved.
- 6:24We're seeing people's hearts and minds changed on life, but it's
- 6:27also very challenging. So the the issue of burnout I'm
- 6:31really passionate about because I think it's a universally
- 6:35experienced state that we can find ourselves in being burnt
- 6:40out or some of us who are really high achievers or performers, we
- 6:44might be in this kind of perpetual state of semi burnt
- 6:47outedness, but we aren't really escaping it because we never
- 6:52slow down enough to rectify it. We're kind of stuck in our
- 6:55burnout. And I'm passionate about this
- 6:58because I think the state that we are meant to be in at the end
- 7:03of the day involves productivity and work, but it also involves
- 7:07leisure and being present to the beauty and joy and really the,
- 7:13the, even the relaxed state of just existence and enjoying that
- 7:18with our loved ones and enjoying that even before God.
- 7:21So I, I, I think you know my big, so the pro-life fight that
- 7:27you guys, some of you guys know me in with live action and
- 7:29everything else. It's about saving lives.
- 7:32But the ultimate end game is a culture of life and a culture of
- 7:38life is about thriving lives. It's about everybody, all of us,
- 7:43really thriving and not wasting our lives, not just living our
- 7:47lives and then dying, but living our lives in a way that was just
- 7:52at at its peak, full of the human experience of joy.
- 7:57Yes, it includes sorrow and it includes challenges, but it
- 8:00includes that maximal human existence which absolutely
- 8:04involves wonder, imagination, creativity.
- 8:07It involves rest and leisure. It involves these things that I
- 8:11think sometimes are not valued enough in our society today or
- 8:16people don't enjoy enough or don't get access to enough.
- 8:20And so they burnout. That's what happens.
- 8:22They burnout. So Business Insider, the I guess
- 8:27pretty popular business website has an article, a lead article.
- 8:31It's a headline news last item last week and it said the US
- 8:35workforce is feeling more burnt out than ever.
- 8:37And it's funny, or I don't know if it's funny, if it's sad, but
- 8:40you, you Google burnout on the news right now and there's so
- 8:44many articles about workers burning out and moms feeling
- 8:48burnt out and students feeling burnt out and everyone's just
- 8:52burnt out. And you look at mental health
- 8:54rates and it's not not a pretty picture.
- 8:57I mean, pretty much progressively over the last
- 9:00decade, people's mental health has declined.
- 9:05So you're seeing more cases of anxiety, more cases of
- 9:08depression, more cases of OCD overall.
- 9:11And yes, this can be connected to more of it being diagnosed,
- 9:14but I also also think it's connected to people just
- 9:17generally not experiencing as much well-being.
- 9:21So burnout is connected to that. Obviously that's not like, you
- 9:25know, feeling burnt out is the reason you get depressed, but I
- 9:28think these things are all interconnected.
- 9:30So when I first define burnout, because I think it can mean
- 9:32different things to different people, I would define burnout
- 9:36as you are living in a, in a state, in a pretty chronic
- 9:40straight state, sorry, chronic state, chronic state in a pretty
- 9:44chronic state, being stressed and tired.
- 9:48And when you're stressed and tired, you typically don't want
- 9:51to do anything creative. It's hard to be creative, hard
- 9:56to be imaginative. It's also hard to be present
- 10:00with other people and to really enjoy leisure time with other
- 10:04people. So when you're stressed and
- 10:06tired, it's pretty difficult to want to take your toddler to the
- 10:09park and just run around with them.
- 10:13Or it's pretty maybe difficult to give yourself permission to
- 10:17just get together and remember this with a friend and laugh.
- 10:21People who are burnt out, the work that they've been doing
- 10:24pretty intensely usually is not life giving anymore.
- 10:27It feels exhausting when you're burnt out.
- 10:31You're often feeling like there's no end insight.
- 10:34You can't you're the you're the hamster on the wheel and you
- 10:38can't get yourself off. You maybe have trouble sleeping
- 10:42for the little time that you're sleeping.
- 10:44Your diet's probably not very good and there's this general
- 10:47sense of hopelessness that you might be experiencing and
- 10:51frustration and irritability. And yeah, these are also
- 10:54symptoms of actual depression, clinical depression.
- 10:56But I think burnout is different because you don't, you don't
- 10:58have to be clinically depressed to feel burnt out.
- 11:00You can be not have some meant actual mental disorder and be
- 11:04burnt out. You're just overwhelmed with
- 11:06your state in life. You're just overworked.
- 11:08You need a break. But I would say it's more than
- 11:12just you need a break. Because here's the thing, I
- 11:14don't think it's healthy to just live in constant intense states
- 11:17of work and then just look forward to the weekend and then
- 11:20take a deep breath and and take a break and then get back into
- 11:23what can be an experience of burnout.
- 11:26I think that's actually not living a thriving life.
- 11:30It's not really flourishing as a human being.
- 11:32Ideally what we are doing as people is we have our priorities
- 11:38in order as human beings and our identity in order as human
- 11:42beings. So we're not constantly just
- 11:44trying to get to the next thing and trying to reach for the next
- 11:48milestone and being exhausted and stressed along the way.
- 11:52So it's really about the quality of our life and the really the
- 11:57energy, the emotion, the thought that we bring to our day, the
- 12:01state that we are in. And we can absolutely change the
- 12:06state that we are in through, I think, interior work that we do
- 12:10and also through the decisions that we make and what we choose
- 12:12to do with our lives in general. So I want to go to a couple
- 12:15principles and then I'll talk about some practicals on the
- 12:18issue of burnout and share some stuff where I have had issues
- 12:21with burnout and what I've done, what has worked for me.
- 12:24And at any point, I love your guys's thoughts and feedback.
- 12:27So please e-mail me thoughts@lilaroseshow.com.
- 12:31I love getting your emails thoughts at lilaroseshow.com.
- 12:34You can also message me on social media.
- 12:36I try to respond as best I can and I love seeing your comments
- 12:40there too. So some principles.
- 12:44So our society today, I feel, is in many ways obsessed with work.
- 12:50Our sort of value is how much money we're making.
- 12:54If we're financially surviving or thriving, you know what our
- 12:57productivity is. It's about work today, how many
- 13:01hours we're working, how successful we are with our work.
- 13:03Our society doesn't. If you go to Italy, by the way,
- 13:06I love Italy, I'm half Italian. Many of you guys know that.
- 13:09And if you go to Italy, they literally close their stores for
- 13:13two hours a day to go drink cappuccinos, to take a nap, and
- 13:17just to have leisure time or whatever else they want to do.
- 13:20And this is like standard. They are literally 2 hours a
- 13:24day. Imagine in the United States,
- 13:26Starbucks, I mean, not all the cafes always close down, but
- 13:29some of them do. But imagine like just all the
- 13:31stores closing down for two hours at Target closes down for
- 13:34two hours a day. Now, taking a step back, I'm not
- 13:37sure the major chains close down, but like your typical
- 13:39Italian businesses are closing down.
- 13:43Imagine that was in the United States.
- 13:44That would just be so foreign, right?
- 13:46That's not how we operate. You're open, you're working,
- 13:50you're on it. You're producing the idea of
- 13:52giving your employee, if you're a boss in the US, two hours off
- 13:56in the middle of the work day to just like don't chill.
- 14:00I mean, that's a very non American concept, right?
- 14:04Although I do think some dentist offices, I feel like when I call
- 14:08the dentist to make an appointment, they're always on
- 14:10lunch break. Have you noticed that like noon
- 14:12to 2:00 PM? They're not, they're just out of
- 14:14the office. And some doctor's offices like
- 14:16you just they're like gone. I'm like, OK.
- 14:18And and of course, as an American, I'm frustrated and
- 14:20like, I wanted to make my appointment.
- 14:22I needed to like change my appointment, whatever.
- 14:24But I digress. I mean, so maybe there's a few
- 14:26like a few of doctor's offices or dentist offices that
- 14:29practices, but typically it's like an Italian thing and I
- 14:33think it's also in Spain. There are other European
- 14:34countries that get this. And I think, if you might, my
- 14:38take on parts of Europe and other cultures beyond Europe
- 14:41certainly is in other parts of the world, being a human being
- 14:47is, is celebrated and, and more important than what you produce
- 14:51as a human being. And I think this is a principle,
- 14:55that who you are as a human being is more important than
- 14:58what you can make or do. I think that, and certainly what
- 15:01you make or do is valuable, very valuable, but that you are a
- 15:05human being, that you exist, that you eat, that you sleep,
- 15:07that you love, that you live, that that is ultimately the
- 15:11ultimate as opposed to your productivity.
- 15:15And I think that is the right view, that is the right
- 15:17principle. And I do think other cultures
- 15:20attempt this and certainly better than American culture.
- 15:23If you're in America. The idea of taking really even
- 15:29like being a mom, I mean, the way we talk about mothers,
- 15:31right? So mother versus career, we had
- 15:34these conversations. Like, I got a question, I did a
- 15:36live Q&A for my book on this, you know, book club group for
- 15:40face on Facebook the other day. And one of the questions I got
- 15:43was, well, how do you balance your career with motherhood?
- 15:47And I hear this a lot, not just towards me, but women in
- 15:50general. How do you balance career with
- 15:52motherhood? And I just, or your work, they
- 15:55say your work with motherhood and I just say, listen, you
- 15:58know, motherhood is a career. It is work.
- 16:00It is AI mean it has all the trappings of work and career,
- 16:05except it's even more important and more involved and it's
- 16:08certainly more valuable because you're doing actual work.
- 16:12You're actually raising the next generation.
- 16:15You're loving, you're living, you're existing in a
- 16:17relationship as you're meant to. It certainly has huge economic
- 16:21value. I mean, let me tell you, raising
- 16:23a healthy child, raising a strong child, raising an
- 16:25educated child has much more long term economic value than
- 16:29any other work you could do that day.
- 16:31Typically speaking, it's literally the whole future
- 16:35generation of workers and each person and their lifelong of,
- 16:38you know, economic contribution. And of course, not every child
- 16:41is going to go on to be some big high earning, you know,
- 16:44breadwinner or whatever. But my point is, you know, we
- 16:47don't have a future economically without the next generation,
- 16:50right? So I mean, economically, what a
- 16:53mom does is super important, you know, what she does for her
- 16:56household, what she does to empower her family or a father
- 16:59for that matter, in any role, domestic role he may play.
- 17:03But it's just a funny dichotomy, this idea of like work versus
- 17:06motherhood. Motherhood is a form of work and
- 17:07it's just as noble. And I would say it's actually
- 17:10more important than, you know, your typical day job.
- 17:13And that's not to say work doesn't have value.
- 17:15And like, you know, your actual jobs, like, you know, working at
- 17:18the bank or doing this or that, But I'm trying to say, you know,
- 17:21our, our, our mindset on this is, oh, go be professional,
- 17:26climb the latter, make money, be influential.
- 17:31And we downplay our family relationships.
- 17:34We downplay leisure time, you know, just being, just enjoying
- 17:38life in the simple things with our families and friends.
- 17:41And I don't think that's healthy.
- 17:43I think it has a destructive, ultimately a destructive impact
- 17:49on many, many of us. So another principle I'm going
- 17:53to mention. So I said we're not just, it's
- 17:55not just who we, it's not just what we do, it's who we are.
- 17:58You might have heard this before, but from a religious
- 18:01standpoint, you know, for those who are listening, Jewish or
- 18:04Christian backgrounds, or really a lot of people, I think
- 18:07subscribe to this. There is a reason we have
- 18:10Sunday. There's a reason like Kanye West
- 18:13singing closed on Sundays. You're my Chick-fil-A.
- 18:16Chick-fil-A closes on Sunday. Why?
- 18:18It's not the Mirando thing. Dan Cathy, the head of
- 18:20Chick-fil-A, closes on Sunday because he's trying to honor the
- 18:23Sabbath, which is one of the 10 commandments.
- 18:26And why is this important? Well, in the account in Genesis,
- 18:30the first book in the Bible, it talks about God creating the
- 18:33universe in a week, right? He creates all things, He
- 18:35creates man and woman, all the animals, the land, the sea, the
- 18:39air, everything, the universe. And then it says he rested and
- 18:43he it says he saw that it was good and he so he delighted in
- 18:46his work product, He delighted in his creation.
- 18:49And then it said he rested on the 7th day.
- 18:51And then he commands mankind to honor the Sabbath.
- 18:54And he says that the Sabbath was made for mankind, like he made
- 18:58it for us as well as he enjoyed it himself.
- 19:00Because like God, we're created. Like God, we're creative beings.
- 19:04Like God, we're also created to rest and to enjoy and to
- 19:08experience the fruit of our labor, the beauty of our labor.
- 19:13And Sunday is also in the Christian tradition, to work in
- 19:16the Jewish tradition to worship God.
- 19:18It's a day to take our eyes off of just what's around us in our
- 19:22immediate world and remember who God is and just worship Him for
- 19:26being perfection and all joy and perfectness.
- 19:30And that elevates our soul and it creates something beyond our
- 19:35immediate physical experience of remembering that we're not just
- 19:39what we do. We are who we are, our souls,
- 19:41and we are called to something eternal or made for something
- 19:44eternal. So Sunday matters.
- 19:48And I think, you know, every time we go to sleep at night,
- 19:51we're resting, right? We're restored, being restored.
- 19:54We're prepared for another day. Like there's 24 hours in a day
- 19:57for a reason. And we do one day at a time for
- 20:01a reason. And every day built into that
- 20:03day is our need as human beings to eat and to sleep and also to
- 20:09love and to laugh and to be with each other, be with our family.
- 20:13So there's a certain rhythm. There's a rhythm to human life
- 20:19and there that's natural, that's good that we should pay
- 20:22attention to. And that's why the Italians do
- 20:26their rhythm. And they take two hours off
- 20:28midday in the sleepy part of the afternoon to rest before they go
- 20:33and party, you know, and many of them work, but before the
- 20:36evening, and they usually stay up late, you know, that's also
- 20:38part of the schedule. But there's a rhythm, and when
- 20:42we're not in a rhythm as human beings, that's when burnout
- 20:46happens. It has to be a rhythm that is
- 20:50conducive to human flourishing. That involves the respect for
- 20:55the principal of Sunday, respect for the principal that we are
- 20:59who we are and not what we do primarily.
- 21:02And because we are human, that means we need to sleep, you
- 21:06know, not like just 4 hours every night and crying away, but
- 21:10probably at least 6 1/2 seven. You know, I'm pregnant right
- 21:13now, so I should be sleeping nine.
- 21:16I struggle. That does not typically happen,
- 21:18but you know, at least seven and a half. 8 making sure we sleep,
- 21:23making sure that we eat well, making sure that when we're
- 21:26eating, we're not rushing, but we're like enjoying our food.
- 21:29We're just being present with our food, making sure we have
- 21:31time with our families, you know, looking into our child's
- 21:34eyes, like really being present to them with our spouses, with
- 21:38our friends. I think another really important
- 21:41part of like the human experience is moving our bodies,
- 21:44like walking, not just sitting in front of an office screen all
- 21:47day, you know, working out. I think thankfully our culture
- 21:52seems really pro working out at least in the last several
- 21:55decades. Like the kind of full, you know,
- 21:58how physical health and fitness thing is big right now, which is
- 22:01awesome. It should be.
- 22:03So, you know, typically I feel like even people burnt out, they
- 22:07typically are doing some working out, which is good.
- 22:09So keep doing that. That's good.
- 22:11That's not bad, that's good. But another piece too is being
- 22:14in nature. That can be hard if you live in
- 22:16the city and like a high rise, but just spending time in
- 22:19nature, you remember that it's not just about what you're doing
- 22:23like a busy little bee all day, but it's just about enjoying how
- 22:26beautiful this world is and how wild this world is and how big
- 22:31this world is. And I think it places us
- 22:34appropriately in the universe because we can just be so in our
- 22:39heads, so in our own self regard that we forget the bigger
- 22:44things. And that also can contribute to
- 22:47the burnout because our world becomes really small.
- 22:51It's like we become inside a coffin of ourselves in our
- 22:54burnout instead of allowing ourselves to be broken out and
- 22:58in a state of rest and wonder in the larger world around us, the
- 23:03universe around us and nature in the universe around us.
- 23:07It also involves just being present and taking in the glory
- 23:11of another human being that could be a family member or even
- 23:14just a stranger that we encounter.
- 23:16Just be like, wow, human beings are crazy and amazing and these
- 23:19these mysteries, you know, we were like every human being is a
- 23:22mystery in a way. We are mysteries to ourselves.
- 23:24Even, you know, it's, we can't comprehend every single bit of
- 23:29what it means to be human, every hair in her head.
- 23:31I mean, there's so much mystery wrapped up in even our own
- 23:33existence and being in awe of that mystery.
- 23:37So physical health, you know, mental, emotional health are
- 23:43tied to rhythms, rhythms that respect our bodies, our minds,
- 23:49our souls, having the time for our families, our sleep, our
- 23:53eating, our prayer, you know, our meditation, our worship of
- 23:57God. These are all supremely human
- 24:00things that we need to do and be and live.
- 24:05And remembering those principles.
- 24:07You know, our productivity, our identity is not our
- 24:10productivity, right? Like my, how much I can make in
- 24:14a day, how much money I raise for my organization.
- 24:16You know how many people I e-mail, how many phone calls I
- 24:18do, how many social media or op eds I write or whatever I do,
- 24:24that is not my the sum of my existence.
- 24:28You know, that is not my, my value right there.
- 24:31My value is as a human being, a child of God is a wife, a mom, a
- 24:36sister, a friend, a woman. And that's innate.
- 24:40No matter where I go or what I do, it's innate.
- 24:43So remembering that and really living by that.
- 24:59One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from one of my
- 25:04mentors. I think mentors are so crucial
- 25:07for all of us. Mentors, advisors, guides.
- 25:10Anyways, he said to me that my best contribution to the world
- 25:16was not my work, but it was in the quality of the person I was
- 25:21becoming and how I loved others with my whole heart.
- 25:28And I really loved that because it's like your, your
- 25:31contribution is not so much what you do, but it's how you love.
- 25:36And I think that's also key to recovering after burnout is
- 25:42remembering, OK, what is life about?
- 25:44It's also, it's about loving and being loved.
- 25:47And I'm a gift. You know, human beings are
- 25:49gifts. We're gifts to each other.
- 25:51Love is a gift. Love is a gift of self, wanting
- 25:55the good for the other and being there for the other in our own
- 25:58being. And so to do that though, we
- 26:01have to value the gift of our own life.
- 26:02We have to value ourselves. So I love that you know my best
- 26:05contribution. Your best contribution is not so
- 26:08much what you do at your job in your work, even though that is
- 26:11awesome and has value, but it isn't who you are becoming and
- 26:15how you love others every day. So what do we do?
- 26:21You know, if you're right now listening to this and you're
- 26:23feeling burnt out or you have a friend who's burnt out or
- 26:27whatever it might be, what do we do when we are in a place of
- 26:29burnout? And I'll just share personally,
- 26:32you know, this has happened to me throughout the years.
- 26:34I was living in Washington DCA few years back and this was
- 26:38before I got married. And I talked a little bit about
- 26:41this in Fighting for Life in my book, but basically I was in DC,
- 26:45I was traveling like every week, at least maybe twice a week.
- 26:48And I was speaking everywhere. I was doing these national
- 26:51investigations and just really busy with my workout, live
- 26:55action. And I would come home to my
- 26:57apartment. I didn't really have a very
- 26:59strong rhythm. I tried to keep one on the road,
- 27:01but you know, my sleep was kind of disordered and eating was
- 27:04kind of off. And it's like my routine was
- 27:07kind of off and had been off for a while and I didn't really have
- 27:11like, you know, I wasn't married or had kids.
- 27:13So there wasn't like that like tethering me, you could say to
- 27:16like a daily rhythm. But I would get back to my
- 27:20apartment and I would just be exhausted.
- 27:24I had been doing good work and there was energy still in the
- 27:27work occasionally. But I just had, I had, I had
- 27:31Mac, I felt maxed out. I felt maxed out where even in
- 27:35like a weekend where I could crash wouldn't feel good enough.
- 27:39And I realized that my burnout, I was in burnout and it was hard
- 27:44to like imagine new ideas and be creative.
- 27:47And typically when you're stressed, you can't be creative.
- 27:50It's like you're being chased by a wild animal and you can't
- 27:52really like sit and they go, I'm going to paint a beautiful
- 27:54painting, right? When you're being chased by a
- 27:57wild animal, it's hard to sit there and come up with this
- 28:00amazing idea or write some beautiful novel, right?
- 28:03So, so yeah, I just was like, OK, I'm, I feel burnt out.
- 28:08Like it's hard. Like I feel like sort of, I have
- 28:11all these mixed feelings about the future.
- 28:13I feel this dread. I'm stressed.
- 28:16I'm not in a rhythm. And I was like, what do I do?
- 28:20I have my work to keep doing. I can't just like stop working.
- 28:24And I realized that the first step was to acknowledge where I
- 28:27was at. I think that's the first step
- 28:29with burnout. Like, yeah, I'm in a place of
- 28:31burnout right now and then and you can from that place, like if
- 28:35we know we're feeling burnt out. Like I were just being in my
- 28:39apartment kitchen, my high rise building in Arlington, VA.
- 28:42And I was like, OK, like I'm not.
- 28:45I'm sort of dreading my next trip.
- 28:46I'm exhausted. I'm not sure what I'm supposed
- 28:49to be doing. And I think on a personal level
- 28:51too, again, I mentioned I wasn't married or kid, had enough kids.
- 28:53Like there was a lack of regular community life I was living.
- 28:58Like it wasn't like seeing my friend every week and getting
- 29:00together. I mean, I was unrooted from a
- 29:02consistent community at the time.
- 29:04And I think that's really can contribute to burnout.
- 29:07And so I remember just looking in the mirror in my like,
- 29:09apartment bathroom or, you know, standing in the kitchen or
- 29:12looking in the mirror and like in my kitchen or whatever it was
- 29:15and just being like, OK, where am I at?
- 29:18I got to take stock of where I'm at.
- 29:19And I got to make some decisions to change it because it's not
- 29:24going to be dramatic changes at first.
- 29:26But I need to start making a plan because if I keep on this
- 29:29track, I'm just going to get deeper and deeper in this hole.
- 29:33And so I started to make a plan. I'm like, OK, I'm going to stop
- 29:35saying no to so many events. I'm going to start making some
- 29:39time for more time for my family.
- 29:41I'm going to make sure I'm getting sleep.
- 29:42It was like, you know, getting myself back on a wagon.
- 29:46And now I've learned to mostly prevent that by having just good
- 29:50habits to begin with, like making sure I'm getting the
- 29:53sleep, making sure I'm doing this.
- 29:54And it's constant tweaks throughout the day.
- 29:56It's like a regular reorganizing process that you go through of
- 30:01like, OK, how do I maximize and optimize my day, take care of
- 30:05myself, take care of my responsibilities, be there for
- 30:07my family, take time for rest, etcetera.
- 30:10But it was really recognizing where I was at that helped me.
- 30:15And I remember actually went to the doctor because I was like
- 30:18really feeling not well. I had like anxiety.
- 30:21And I went to this naturopathic Dr. that a friend recommended to
- 30:24me around this time. And she, well, she really wanted
- 30:29me to take all these blood tests and figure out what's wrong with
- 30:31my like, you know, blood levels. And then I went to this other
- 30:34primary care Doctor Who immediately was like, well, I
- 30:37can give you an antidepressant. I mean, she was just going to
- 30:39give me a medication and then after a path was going to, you
- 30:43know, have me do my blood work and all the stuff.
- 30:44And, and those are potential things to do depending where
- 30:48you're at and what your situation is.
- 30:49But I realized both with like all these oils I could have
- 30:54taken and these natural remedies or an antidepressant I was being
- 30:58offered, you know, if I wanted it, she wasn't saying I had to
- 31:00take it, but she was just saying like, you know, this is an
- 31:02option. I basically will prescribe this
- 31:04to anyone. I don't think that's a very good
- 31:06doctor, by the way. But anyways, I'm not against
- 31:09medication for mental health issues, but I think what I what
- 31:12I realized was if I just slept, if I just took time to do
- 31:17regular sleeping, I didn't do such a crazy travel schedule.
- 31:20If I wasn't, you know, so unrooted from family and friends
- 31:23right now. If I wasn't, if I actually took
- 31:26Sundays off fully and just took time to rest and, you know, took
- 31:30time for, you know, moving my body and being out in nature, I
- 31:33know I could be in a healthier place mentally and emotionally.
- 31:35And I know I could be more ready and creative with my work and
- 31:38more ready for the next thing. And so I realized that if I just
- 31:42did these normal, healthy, practical things and worked on
- 31:46them, that would get me in a very different place.
- 31:49And it did. I started to work in it and it
- 31:51did. And I think, I think sometimes
- 31:55because we're so work obsessed as a culture and we have such
- 31:58high demands in ourselves with our work, we do these kind of
- 32:03shortcuts. And I'm not saying don't take
- 32:06essential oils or like pills. You know, I'm not saying don't
- 32:09take supplements. What are they called?
- 32:11Or, you know, I'm not saying if you have a mental health issue,
- 32:13don't listen to your, you know, provider and and don't
- 32:16potentially take a, you know, mental medication at first for a
- 32:19period of time or if you need need that.
- 32:20You know, when I was in high school, I was on an
- 32:24antidepressant for two years and it helped me a lot.
- 32:26So I'm not saying I'm against those things things, but I am
- 32:29saying go practical, go practical with the rhythm of
- 32:33your life. Are you doing the practical
- 32:35things, the sleep things, the eat things that be in nature,
- 32:38things to be with your family things, the kid therapy things.
- 32:41I mean, being with little kids and loving on children and being
- 32:43present with kids. That's incredible kind of
- 32:45therapy. I mean, it's it's life changing
- 32:47and life giving, doing those things, you know, taking a set
- 32:53assessment of what am I doing with the hours in my week?
- 32:57How am I spending them? And is it is it disorder?
- 33:00Is it not a good rhythm that can go miles in terms of health and
- 33:06readjusting your life when we, I think are in a position of
- 33:11burnout or we may be facing burnout.
- 33:13So wherever you're at, keep up, keep trying, keep it up, keep
- 33:18keep making the adjustments. I'm a work in progress, like
- 33:21I'm, you know, I've got a toddler pregnant with our second
- 33:23doing a lot of different projects right now and you know,
- 33:27managing my home, you know, my marriage, making time for that
- 33:32friends, family. So every day it's a readjustment
- 33:35and for me, prayer, you know, taking that time each day to
- 33:38really take stock of where I'm at, talk with our Lord for me,
- 33:43deepening my faith. We're asking God to see it from
- 33:46his perspective. That is such a core of having
- 33:49that time to even understand where I'm at, being self aware.
- 33:53So I highly recommend that. But do the normal things, do the
- 33:56natural things, do the do the things for your health and be
- 34:01willing to take stock of where you're at and make those
- 34:03adjustments. And I think that's the the sort
- 34:05of practical, non glitzy way to ultimately stave off burnout and
- 34:10deal with burnout. So thanks for listening.
- 34:13I hope this was an interesting episode for you.
- 34:15I love this topic. I think it's really important.
- 34:19We're going to be doing the next episode is going to be on
- 34:21mentors and I'm really excited for the guests I will be talking
- 34:25to. I will be sharing that obviously
- 34:27when it comes out. But thank you for everybody
- 34:29who's been listening to the podcast and supporting it.
- 34:32I know that it's not weekly right now.
- 34:35It will be in future, in the future.
- 34:37So I'm still working on that. But just managing, yeah,
- 34:40preventing burnout, managing all my other responsibilities.
- 34:43But I love doing this. It's been awesome to just see
- 34:46the community that that is building, the amazing people
- 34:50that listen and people from all different walks of life.
- 34:53So thank you everybody. If you enjoyed the podcast,
- 34:56please share it with your friends.
- 34:56Of course, please leave a rating.
- 34:59It helps the podcast to reach more people on Apple.
- 35:01Give it five stars. Leave a comment.
- 35:03And if you haven't already gotten Fighting for Life, please
- 35:05check it out. I hope you love it.
- 35:07If you would like, there's an amazing free study guide with
- 35:11Fighting for Life that we will. We can send you.
- 35:14So if you e-mail live action, so you can e-mail
- 35:16info@liveaction.org. If you bought the book, we will
- 35:19send you the study guide. You can also buy the study guide
- 35:22at liveaction.org. We are selling it there for a
- 35:24discount. So you can check it out or you
- 35:26can get it at Amazon or wherever you get your books.
- 35:28But thank you guys so much. Have a great rest of your day.