How to not get burned out

by Patty Azzarello

Business is Hard

Sometimes business opportunities, challenges, activities, and responsiblities become overwhelming. You get tired.

And as your business grows, things don’t tend to get easier or less busy!

Pick your pace

It’s important to find a pace that you can maintain, so you can keep making forward progress and not get burned out.

I am a cyclist.Â

There are some tough hills that can challenge a rider to the point of total system failure — you can’t breath, your heart races, your legs are on fire.  The only problem is that that happens after 10 minutes, and it may take 30-60 minutes to ride up the thing!

“I can do this all day”

So I force myself to pick a pace, one where even though it is still really hard, I can say to myself “I can do this all day”.Â

When I get my thinking, my legs, and my heart rate and lungs calibrated to “all day”, when I finally reach the top I have accomplished the task, and I am still not at the absolute end of my energy.Â

If you know the how long the hill is, you can push yourself to get to the top faster. But you don’t always know how long the hill is.

So you need a strategy to make sure you don’t burn out on the way.

What is your pace that you “can do all day”

If there is no end in sight to the craziness or turmoil, how much physical and mental energy can you invest over an indefinite amount of time so that you can make it to the top no matter how long the hill is? and still have energy to go forward after you get there?

Get ahead of the competition

When the market gets easier and there are more opportunities, you want to have the energy and the resources to use another cycling term “jump”— to go really fast, right away — while the competition has burned out, given up, or failed along the way.Â

Don’t let you head give up before your legs

Part of the “I could do this all day pace” it to make sure you don’t talk yourself into stopping before you really need to.

I compare this to miserable tough jobs I have had. It is always interesting to note how much of the misery I put on myself, compared to that which was strictly imposed or required by the job.Â

You can actually make a pretty big change in how you feel about your job, by deciding how YOU will manage your energy, and not letting your head give in.

Some ways to get up the hill:

It is your job to keep making forward progress in uncertain and challenging times.  Otherwise you end up just working really hard, and not really moving the business forward, or getting anywhere personally.Â

• List all the things you are worried about.  Are they all equally worthy of worry?  Budget your worry.  Don’t burn yourself out worrying about things that are not worth it.
• Stop something. Identify at least one thing you will negotiate “away” and stop doing.
• Pick a single area to ensure success. Choose one thing that you won’t fail at no matter what – and don’t let the uncertainty throw you off course.  Complete that, then do the next one.
• Talk to your team. Let them tell you what they think is hard about the current state.  Don’t underestimate the value of letting them talk about this.  Acknowledge the difficulty openly, then focus everyone on something they feel they can control and do well.
• Build your Personal Brand.  How you act in difficult times does a lot to show the world your brand.  Are you positive and in control, or are you changing your mind all the time, uncertain, all over the place? When you are stressed, are you treating people with respect or are you nasty?
• Don’t give up on your aggressive brilliant plans.  I do some of my best problem solving on a long hill.  Keep learning, keep thinking, keep building so that you are ready to jump when the obstacles clear.
• Think. No matter how over-scheduled you may be, schedule some time to think every day.

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Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO-advisor. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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