My #1 Strategy to Combatting BURNOUT & Staying PRESENT

Sisters!

Feeling burned out? Eyes stinging from staring at your computer and phone all day? Heart hurting from “mom guilt” and wanting to cry because you just can’t seem to find peace amidst all the online hustle?

I have a strategy for combatting burnout that keeps me balanced and PRESENT every-single-week. This is something I will NOT negotiate because I know that distraction and hustle are lies from the enemy. Once you see, you cannot unsee and once you try this strategy, I believe your life will be changed just as mine has been.

I have been doing this ONE SIMPLE thing every weekend for the past three years and I will never go back. I wanted to highlight this for each of you because it’s easy to forget how critical and important PEACE and PRESENT LIVING is to your mental sanity.

Take your life back. You deserve it. Your kids deserve it. Your loved ones deserve it.

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:01)
Hey friends, I’m recording this episode for you on my phone while I sit outside on my patio watching my kids play. So you’re gonna have to bear with the audio on this one sister friend, but this episode’s gonna be quick. It is though going to be completely transformational and very, very important I think for every single one of you to hear me. I haven’t done an episode on this one specific thing, but it deserves to be highlighted because it’s changed my life and I know that it will change yours.

(00:30)
What I’m gonna be sharing with you right now is the number one way that I personally combat burnout and stay super present, like real presence with my family, with myself, with my husband and just stay sane. This is the secret. This is the thing and you all need to hear about it.

(01:46)
Anyway, about 10 days ago, I did the bootcamp for you guys in the Facebook group and it was everything I had to give. Like I poured it out for y’all and it was awesome. It was so incredible. But when you pour out so much energy, it’s almost just as mentally and physically exhausting as like running a marathon. If you haven’t yet had some type of huge event or crazy like exertion of energy in your business yet, where it’s day after day after day after day, you may not know what I’m talking about, but you will eventually.

(02:29)
Basically after that, I had one day off on Sunday and then I launched into the workshop. So everybody that was part of the bootcamp with me, half of them joined in on the business booster bundle, which included a workshop. I did not anticipate that my friends, I thought 10 people, 10 people would end up joining, but OMG there was 60. So I then had to set up workshops, which I did Thursday, Friday of the following week and Wednesday of this week. They ended up being two and a half hours long.

(03:08)
Then to top it all off, half of the people that joined the bundle wanted to do a coaching session. So you guys like my normal sane workload is like four hours a day because I’m still raising babies. We’re in quarantine. My husband and I are coworking. I want an hour to myself. Like it was eight full, full hours and not just, oh, I’m working, doing email, but like coaching sessions, workshops, full on energetically pouring out everything I have to give for days and days and days on end.

(03:50)
I found myself after the second workshop on this last Friday, burnt out, burnt like to a crisp, crispy burnt. You burned the pancakes. They black, like I was burnt, and I still had so much to do. Right. I had emails I needed to go through, had contracts that my VA and I needed to get out, like so many things that we still had to do. But I made the choice. It was two o’clock on Friday. And I’m like, you know what? I have the choice right now to keep working, which is easily an idol for me when I let it get there.

(04:31)
I’ve made that choice that that’s not happening in my life. Not glorifying busy, not letting social media become an idol, not drowning in work because makes me feel accomplished, which makes me feel worthy. We know these are lies guys. Right? I’ve talked about that enough, you know, and I know that those are lies from the enemy. And so I made the choice. I went ahead and just deleted Instagram right there as I do every single weekend, even though I had a bunch more stuff to do.

(05:01)
Normally I have a clean inbox before I delete it. Normally I have an email inbox of zero before I delete it, but I deleted it anyway. I also deleted the Facebook app, which I sometimes do not do because I run paid groups in there, like the Podcast Pro membership group. I have clients in my mastermind, but delete it. And I turned off the computer and you know what? Holy smokes did I need to do that. And it’s just a constant reminder every time I do that, for me, from God that present living is so much more important than getting the work done, than doing the to-do list and having the inbox zero. Right?

(05:45)
So over this weekend, when I was able to completely refuel and refill my tank and recover from that high energy expenditure I had over the past 10 days or whatever it was, I feel like totally renewed, refreshed and reborn in a way. It’s everything to refill and refuel every single weekend. And you can’t do it with Instagram in the back of your mind. You just cannot. So when I get rid of the apps, the first time I did it, like three years ago, I had so much anxiety wrapped up in it. Oh gosh, what’s happening. I need to get it back. I’m gonna check. I wanted to log in for my husband’s phone. Like that’s how bad of an idol that was in my life.

(06:43)
Now, the second I delete ’em I feel completely at peace and I’m able to play with my kids without putting my phone in my hand, I’m able to come outside and just breathe in the fresh air and look in the trees and watch the sky. We laid on the trampoline and looked at the clouds without thinking about my phone because every single one of us do it. We’re making excuses for why it’s okay. Because we run businesses online. We are showing our children that having a phone in your hand is something normal.

(07:15)
We are leading by fierce example and we have to change the narrative and you don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. But I highly recommend deleting the apps every weekend, Facebook and Instagram. And if you’re on TikTok, get off. Get off all of ’em get off. And if you feel like you have to, which I do, I say, bye guys, deleting the apps. I’ll see you Monday. That way everyone knows. If it’s an emergency, people can email me. Everybody got my email address. So it’s not that serious.

(07:48)
Now what happens when you fully detox, your energy has a chance to reset, your eyes have a chance to readjust, to get off the screen. Your kids get a chance to really be seen. When’s the last time we talked to our children without also staring at our phone. When’s the last time we gave them 100% focused attention. When is the last time you got off social media for a full 24 hours? I challenge you to ask yourself those questions. Those questions are hard questions.

(08:26)
If you are feeling burnt out right now, overwhelmed. If you are feeling the eye strain, having that numbing, dull headache from staring at a phone for too many hours, if you feel addicted to the apps and you’re feeling your thumb go there without your control any longer, you need to identify that that has become an idol for you. A distraction that the enemy is using against you to pull you away from your kids, from your family, from your present moment, and then self-identify and inventory the lies that you’re telling yourself about why that’s okay.

(09:05)
In no way, shape or form is that okay. And this is not meant to shame anybody or to make you guys feel bad. It’s to make you aware. We have to be aware and wake up to the small distractions that we are letting steal from our present moment, steal from our joy, steal from our children, steal from our spouses, and steal from us and social media is one of them. So I thought this deserved its own mini episode. Sorry about the children in the background, but sorry. Not sorry. It’s life. And if you can hear the wind, great.

(09:44)
Just imagine how beautiful it is for me to record here right now, watching my goats play, watching my kids dance. Maybe this was a bit distracting for you guys, but it was very, very peaceful for me to record this here, right now, share my heart with you. And also let you know, after deleting the apps it’s Monday, right now. I’m renewed, refreshed, refueled, ready to pour into you guys for another four days.

(10:08)
I am so excited to be back on Instagram, to be back on Facebook, to be back pouring into everybody, to do my coaching sessions, to work, work, work, work, y’all, but I’m also a gangster at boundaries and you will not find me on the apps on Saturday, on Sunday. And I challenge you to join me. Let’s change the narrative. All of you that have an audience. Once you do this and feel the transformation, share my tip with your audience as well, because I think we can spread this and create a new norm for other working moms like us to know that it’s okay to stop showing up and to rest. Love you. I’ll see you later. Love and light, Stef.