For many business owners, burnout isn’t happening because they don’t know how to manage their time.
It’s happening because there simply doesn’t seem to be enough time.
- There are bills to pay
- Clients to look after
- Staff to support
- Emails to answer
- Problems to solve
- Marketing to do
- Compliance to manage
- And somewhere amongst all of that, money still has to come through the door
So you work longer…
- Start earlier
- Finish later
- Take work home
- Answer messages over dinner
- Think about the business at 2.00 am
And promise yourself:
“Once I get through this next bit, things will settle down.”
Except the next bit keeps coming.
When Survival Becomes the Business Model
There are times in every business when we need to put in extraordinary effort.
The problem arises when extraordinary effort becomes ordinary life.
When you’re responsible for keeping the wheels turning, stopping doesn’t feel like an option…
- If you don’t do it, who will?
- If you don’t take the client, will there be enough income?
- If you don’t answer that message, will you lose the opportunity?
- If you take a day off, will you simply return to twice as much work?
This is where burnout becomes more complicated than simply being tired.
- You may still be functioning
- You may still be turning up
- You may even appear highly successful from the outside
But internally, something is changing.
- Sleep may become less restorative
- Your patience shortens
- Your creativity disappears
- Small decisions become exhausting
- You stop exercising because there’s no time
- You grab whatever food is convenient
- Relationships receive whatever energy is left over
And eventually even the things you once loved about your business can begin to feel like another burden.
The Raft Has Become Unbalanced
At The Raft of Life, we look at health and life as interconnected.
Business is not separate from health.
Financial pressure is not separate from mental wellbeing.
Mental wellbeing is not separate from the body.
And the body is not separate from the environment in which we continually ask it to function.
Imagine your life as a raft.
Your business may be occupying most of it.
But you’re still carrying your body, mind, emotions, relationships, finances, responsibilities, environment, choices and need for rest along with you.
If one area continually demands more and more resources, something else eventually receives less.
Often the first thing we sacrifice is ourselves.
“But I Can’t Just Stop Working”
And this is important.
For someone struggling to make ends meet, advice such as take more holidays, switch your phone off and reduce your hours may be well intentioned — but completely disconnected from reality.
Sometimes you genuinely cannot stop.
But you can begin to notice what continually drains your resources.
- What are you doing because it genuinely needs to be done?
- What are you doing because you’ve always done it?
- What could be simplified?
- What could be delegated?
- What isn’t actually profitable?
- Which clients or activities consume disproportionate amounts of energy?
- Where are you saying yes because you’re frightened of saying no?
And perhaps most importantly:
Is the way you’re currently operating actually keeping your business alive — or merely keeping you busy?
That can be an uncomfortable question.
It can also be a powerful one.
Your Body Doesn’t Understand Cash Flow
Your body doesn’t know that BAS is due.
It doesn’t understand that you’re short-staffed.
It doesn’t know that three clients haven’t paid their invoices or that this month hasn’t gone according to plan.
It responds to the conditions in which it finds itself.
- Constant pressure
- Interrupted sleep
- Irregular meals
- Too little movement
- Too much stimulation
- Insufficient recovery
- Persistent worry
And while the human body has a remarkable ability to adapt, adaptation has limits.
From The Raft of Life perspective, symptoms are worth listening to — not merely silencing so that we can keep going.
- Sometimes tiredness is telling us something
- Sometimes irritability is telling us something
- Sometimes losing enthusiasm for everything is telling us something
- Sometimes the person who says, “I’m fine, I’m just really busy” hasn’t felt fine for quite some time
Resilience Isn’t How Much You Can Endure
Business culture can sometimes glorify exhaustion.
- The 5.00 am start
- The midnight finish
- Seven days a week
- Never switching off
But perhaps we have confused endurance with resilience.
Resilience is not the ability to endure indefinitely.
True resilience includes the capacity to recover.
Nature works through rhythm — activity and rest, expansion and contraction, growth and renewal.
Business has seasons too.
There will be times when we need to sprint.
But we cannot live permanently at sprinting pace.
Perhaps the Question Isn’t “How Can I Do More?”
When business is difficult, our instinct is often to add.
- More hours
- More clients
- More marketing
- More products
- More strategies
- More effort
But sometimes the answer lies in subtraction.
- What can stop?
- What can change?
- What can become simpler?
- What is consuming enormous effort for very little return?
- What responsibility are you carrying that no longer needs to be yours?
- What would happen if you designed the business to support your life rather than continually sacrificing your life to support the business?
These aren’t always easy questions.
But burnout may be the body’s way of forcing a conversation that we’ve been too busy to have.
At The Raft of Life, one of the philosophies I return to repeatedly is:
Health is not accidental.
Neither is sustainable business.
Both depend upon the conditions we create, the resources we have available, the choices we make and our willingness to recognise when something is no longer working.
Your business needs you.
But it needs you functioning, not merely surviving.
So perhaps this week, instead of asking:
“How am I going to get everything done?”
ask:
“What has to change so I don’t have to keep living like this?”
The answer may be important not only for your mental and physical wellbeing.
It may be important for the survival of your business too.
This article is for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for individual medical or mental-health care.
About the Author
Sandy B Simmons is an integrative health consultant, educator, author and speaker, and the founder of The Raft of Life and Simply Better Health Co. Practising since 1987 and working globally since 1999, Sandy brings together natural health, nutrition and transformational approaches to help people restore balance, vitality and sustainable wellbeing.
To contact Sandy B Simmons, click here.