I don’t know about you, but I feel like I skidded into the holiday season on empty. I blame it on managing a full book of business with a lot of moving parts, a major move across the pond on relatively short notice, and my exhausting tendency to people-please.

I know I’m not the only one that entered the season in this state. I’ve got several entrepreneur friends who were barely keeping their shit together over the last few months. We exchanged voice messages that sounded as though we’d lost our ever-loving minds, or just finished watching Tears of Endearment followed by Schindler’s List. (If you don’t want to cry, stay away from these films.)

That being said, I’ve got to say that it’s amazing what a few days off will do for one’s attitude.

I can’t think of a better time to crack open Therapist Burnout by Kelly Higdon and Miranda Palmer, who run the Business School for Therapists. They decided to write a book about the single biggest challenge their clients experience: burnout.

I thought I’d share an excerpt of the book with you here. I’m betting you’ll relate, even if, like me, you aren’t a therapist.

 

You were once energetic and full of creativity when it came to your business. What happened? You chose this work because you felt called to it. You know the power of what you do, how it changes lives: that used to sustain you. The future looked bright, full of possibilities; now it looks like a whirring treadmill. You had purpose and meaning then, but now it’s hard to do the work and to care anymore.

Worse, this feeling is seeping into every area of your life. Ambivalence? Depression? You’re not sure what to call it. Whatever it is, your friends and family are concerned. The word burnout has been thrown around.

We’re here to tell you that experiencing burnout doesn’t mean you’re broken, and it doesn’t mean that this is the way it has to be right now, particularly if you’re just starting out in private practice. Burnout symptoms simply cue you into the necessity of making a change (or ten). The symptoms tell you that you can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Many of our Bootcamp members can tell you the exact moment they recognized they’d gone into full burnout mode:

• “When I started feeling angry with everything and everyone with no rational explanation.”
• “I was crying over everything! I couldn’t stop.”
• “When I freaked out over a shirt that didn’t make it into the hamper.”
• “When I would wake up in the middle of the night every night in a panic attack.”
• “When I came home one day and my husband (who had lost his father just months before) wanted to talk and my first thought was, Ugh, I’ve been listening to people all day. That’s not what I want to do now!
• “When I laid on my bed and cried by myself after fixing all four kids and my husband dinner—before I went back to work to see clients. E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D. And I yelled at God.”
• “When I couldn’t wait to get shoulder surgery so I could get a break.
• “When I was dreading seeing clients. When I was feeling depressed and couldn’t remember the last time I had fun. When I felt like I had to drag myself through the day.”
• “When I literally had fantasies about working at the bakery section at Target.”

Maybe you recognize yourself in these words

But there are a few shifts that you’ll need to make to move from burnt out to fulfilled, well-compensated, and energetic. Clearly, that doesn’t happen just because you’re sick and tired.

Namely, it’s incredibly important to change your mindset, strategies, and vision of what it means to be a successful businessperson if you are to avoid burnout in the future. Also, it’s incredibly easy to inadvertently create the same dynamic that you’re seeking to avoid if you’re not intentional about your business and you don’t take regular time to assess and reassess how things are working.

We know that you want to put your clients first; that’s what you were born and trained to do. But you have other responsibilities, other roles you must manage.

If you just so happen to see yourself–Maybe I could relax if I got COVID anyone?– know that the solution to this cyclical issue is spelled out within the pages of the book. In the interest of preventing  burnout, I’ve taken more notes while reading than I ever did in college … even though I helped write the thing!