Burnout: How It Can Impact Your Finances & Moving Past It
Shownotes
Have you ever struggled with burnout? In today's podcast episode, Charlotte talks about her experience dealing with burnout over the last few months, how burnout can impact your finances, and some boundaries Charlotte is setting to overcome & prevent burnout in the future.
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Burnout & How It Impacts Your Finances
(Episode Transcript)
[00:00:30] Oh, my gosh, the thrive with money podcast is back. It has been a hot fricking minute since I have recorded a podcast episode because I have been burnt out. I've been dealing with probably the most intense burnout that I have ever experienced at this point in my life. And there were a lot of things that I learned about it, and I also saw its impact.
[00:00:52] On my finances and my productivity and like the way that I was showing up for my work every single day. And I was like, [00:01:00] this is going to be. My first podcast episode back is talking about burnout, how it impacts your finances and other aspects of your life. And then sharing the things that I have done to recover from burnout over the last couple of months. And hopefully the.
[00:01:15] The alerts or the things that I wanted to notice about the balance that I'm experiencing in my life to hopefully. I avoid getting into burnout again in the future. So. Let's dive right into it. So burnout is a trio of feeling emotionally exhausted. You're starting to feel more negative and cynical. This is also called depersonalization, which is basically when you start feeling distant or more indifferent towards things. And then you start also feeling less of an accomplishment or achievement about the things that you're doing every day. You start feeling less productive, you start questioning your competency, your abilities, and you just start to feel like you aren't.
[00:01:55] Performing as well. So when you, you notice that you're feeling that emotional [00:02:00] exhaustion, depersonalization, and lowered census of accomplishment, that is a good sign right there, that you are feeling burnout. Some other signs of burnout, there are physical, emotional, and behavioral signs and symptoms of burnout.
[00:02:13] So some physical symptoms are feeling tired. Most of the time, you're getting sick more often frequent headaches, back pain, muscle aches, change in appetite or sleep habits. Your emotional signs are feeling self-doubt you're starting to feel more detached. Your motivation is decreasing.
[00:02:28] You have more and more of a , negative and cynical outlook on things. And you're feeling less satisfaction and less of a sense of accomplishment and the things that you're doing every single day, the behavioral signs are you start withdrawing from responsibilities. You start to feel more isolated.
[00:02:43] You're procrastinating more. You might start taking out your frustration on others. I know that when I was in like the depths of my burnout, my patients was like, So it was paper thin. I had such a short fuse with the people in my personal life.
[00:02:57] And maybe you start skipping events. Maybe you start showing up [00:03:00] late, or you want to leave things early because you're just feeling so fatigued in so many different ways. And I realized that I was in burnout. I go to therapy. Every two weeks to once a month. And my therapist started asking me these questions of like, Hey Charlotte, like, are you identifying with X, Y, Z? And I was like, yes. And she was like, you are burnt out.
[00:03:20] You need to start putting up boundaries, taking time for yourself to avoid continuing this cycle that is perpetuating the burnout that you are experiencing. So there were a lot of things going on in my life that were leading up to the burnout in the first place. So one. These things were happening even before I really started feeling burnt out Oliver and I, we moved in to our first home this past spring, it's a fixer upper and we were doing all of the renovations ourselves. So our house is a DIY renovation zone in progress, which.
[00:03:55] DIY, and it's a stressful task, but it is a lot of fun. We're learning a ton during [00:04:00] this time and doing this project together. We are planning our wedding. We're getting married next year and wedding planning, super busy. There's a lot to do, but it's also fun and I'm really enjoying it. And then there's, Save-A-Lot thrive. I'm a solo entrepreneur. So everything that happens that you see with Sable thrive, I'm doing myself and that can be a lot of responsibility, but it's also something that I enjoy doing.
[00:04:21] So prior to August, I was balancing the home, the wedding and save live thrive. All at once. And. I love doing each of those things. I was, I was definitely feeling like I had a lot going on. But I wasn't feeling at capacity, but I knew that I was getting really, really close to it. And I feel like sometimes I don't know if this is Murphy's law. I'm not familiar with Murphy's law very much at all.
[00:04:48] But I feel like I was at capacity. So of course something was going to come up in my life to remind me like, Charlotte, you cannot do everything at once. You have to. Pick some [00:05:00] things to prioritize. And the thing that ended up happening in my life at the end of August is that my mom got unexpectedly very, very sick. And she was on life support for about a week. And it was really scary. Like there were a couple of days there where we did not know what the outcome of things were going to be. But luckily she had got cleared to go home. And she was not able to travel back to the state that she lives in. So she happened to get sick in the state that I live in which was nice because then I was able to take care of her for a couple of weeks while she recovered. But she did not have the all clear to travel for about a month after she was discharged from the hospital.
[00:05:38] So she came to stay with us during her recovery. And I was so grateful the entire time that she was with us, that I ran my own business so that I could make the call to take. A couple of weeks off from working and focus on taking care of my mom. And I was also grateful that we were in a home that had the space to accommodate her during her [00:06:00] recovery.
[00:06:00] So I was, I had so much gratitude for all those things. Also, my mom was fully recovered now. Like she is, got the medical total all clear. But back in September, There was just a lot going on in a lot of unknowns and it was a really, really scary time. So I was taking care of my mom. End of August through the end of September.
[00:06:19] And caretaking is a lot. It is a lot of responsibility and there's just a lot of you don't get a lot of time for yourself. And when my mom was sick, I had to stop progress on all the ever other aspects of my life, of course, because I wanted to be there and support my mom when she needed me. So after my mom recovered end of September.
[00:06:45] I was like, okay, I need to take a break for myself and just focus on me and rest and relax. And at the beginning of October, I'm going to get back into work. And that's why at the end of September, I intentionally took this step back and took time [00:07:00] for myself.
[00:07:01] Oliver. He took a trip to Europe to go backpacking and hiking. At the end of September. So I have this like whole week to myself. Well, all over on this trip ended up hurting his legs. He was mountain scootering and he ended up hurting his legs and was pretty much. On crutches, not able to walk around very much because he was in a lot of pain.
[00:07:25] For about two to three weeks in October, when he came back, his legs weren't broken. But he got like some pretty intense, like swelling and things like that. And it was just really uncomfortable for him to walk. So I found myself back in a caretaker position. In October as well. And it was during that time.
[00:07:45] When I was like, oh my gosh, I am exhausted. Like so exhausted. And at that point it also felt like I was just kind of getting thrown, like tennis ball after tennis ball that I had to bounce back and [00:08:00] I just hit. This point of like, I, I can't like, I need to let some of these balls drop. So I felt like a lot of balls dropped for what felt to me like a really long period of time, because if you've been following me on social media very much, you would probably notice that it was about in August that I.
[00:08:20] Sort of went a little radio silent. Like I would still post on my stories and things like that, but I really wasn't posting. To the feed. I wasn't posting to Tik TOK very much at all. I had to let a bunch of balls drop. And I decided that the things that I was going to focus on were of course my clients continuing to show up for them every single day, but I stopped sale selling. I stopped posting on social media and I really just focused on my client work.
[00:08:45] Relaxing and taking time for myself and doing home DIY projects that I really, really enjoyed. And those were ways that I just took a step back from the things that I was working on, but I was still feeling very, [00:09:00] very burnt out during this time. And I noticed it impacting different aspects of my life as well. So how does burnout impact your finances? If we take a look at the research.
[00:09:10] We learned that overspending on conveniences is a big impact. That burnout has small tasks when you're feeling burnt out, start to feel way bigger than they do when you are outside of a burnout period. So making dinner, making coffee, making a run to the store. Those things start feeling like really giant tasks that you have to deal with. So what you might do is start.
[00:09:35] Paying for food delivery, for example, and it can be. Very quickly that these convenience purchases can start to happen outside of your spending comfort zone. And it's important to remember that budgeting for conveniences. I think it is a form of self care. It's important to include this in your budget every month. You've heard me talk about this before.
[00:09:56] But it can hurt your finances when it starts to go overboard and [00:10:00] impacts your progress towards your other financial goals, or it leads to the accumulation of debt. Draining of savings and so forth. Burnout can also lead to retail therapy when you're looking for these quick. Boosts of dopamine that we get through shopping and your productivity can go down.
[00:10:16] And when you're feeling burnt out, your productivity can start to go down because you don't have the same amount of motivation to do things or work on things because you're just so exhausted your. Efficiency goes down. Maybe you are a business owner and you don't want to work on your business as much.
[00:10:31] That was me. And you start to avoid your financial to-do lists. And I was doing so many of these things. I started going to Starbucks more. That became a bit of a routine that I would do to just take a couple of minutes to myself while my mom was here, I would just go to Starbucks and get myself a coffee.
[00:10:49] I started doing more convenience purchases. We were ordering takeout a lot more over the last couple of months. Because there just wasn't as much time and [00:11:00] energy to make meals and things like that. I found myself going to target more and more. And those target purchases.
[00:11:08] Started to become less and less justifiable over time. But going to target was a fun thing. That again, I felt like I could do for myself. My productivity definitely went down. I was not feeling the motivation to sell post on social media grow my product, suite, all of those things and my business.
[00:11:27] And I started feeling. Uncomfortable with my finances. I started feeling those signs or symptoms that you've heard me create podcast episodes on in the past about starting to avoid my own financial to-do list, which is something that I work with my clients on every single day. But at the same time, like I am human. I am going to experience.
[00:11:49] Ups and downs in my financial life as well. And I think it's important that we normalize that things aren't going to be clamorous all of the time, but I'm also very happy that I had. [00:12:00] The education and experience that I did as a financial counselor, to recognize these signs and symptoms on my own and start addressing them as quickly as possible so that I didn't get into a negative financial situation because of the burnout that I was experiencing.
[00:12:16] So what are some signs that burnout could be impacting your finances? You're not saving as much, or you start to ignore your budget. Maybe you are relying too much on your credit card. Thinking about money is starting to make you feel anxious and you want to start avoiding your finances and you maybe start missing payments. Maybe you're feeling too exhausted to look at the duty that you have for your different bills and things like that.
[00:12:39] Or you are overspending in different ways due to your burnout, and you maybe don't have the cashflow available to make payments on time. And the thing about burnout is that it creates a very short term view of life, your money in your goals, which can make it a lot harder to think about longer term things like saving, investing, and even [00:13:00] setting financial goals in the first place, which can make it a lot easier to accumulate debt. And when I started feeling like.
[00:13:09] My shift because of my burnout was becoming very, very short term with so many different aspects of my life, finances and included. That was a sign. And of course, talking to my therapist as well that I was like, okay, This needs to be addressed right now. And how am I going to prevent burnout from happening in the future?
[00:13:30] So these are some things that my therapist shared with me. These are things that I have implemented in my life over the last couple of weeks and months and things that I plan to continue doing in the future. And I also want to share the signs of burnout with you in the first place, so that hopefully you can prevent.
[00:13:46] Finding yourself in a place of burnout as much as possible, because it is not fun. It is not a fun time. And I am not trying to say that I am. Out of burnout by any means right now, but I am actively in a [00:14:00] place where I'm trying to move past it and continue to set the boundaries in my life to. He'll from the burnout and prevent it from escalating in the future.
[00:14:09] Okay. How to prevent burnout recognize when it's coming on. This is why I'm even sitting here and making this super delayed podcast episode in the first place is because these conversations in our society about burnout in general, they become a lot more common since the start of the pandemic. But then also the fact that I go to therapy so frequently and have these conversations with my therapist.
[00:14:32] I was able to recognize with her help I was able to recognize like, oh shoot, like this is something that I think I'm experiencing. How can I start to address it? And even though there was a lot of stuff going on where I wasn't really able to take.
[00:14:48] Time for myself because I needed to care for others and I needed to be there for others, which. As I'm saying that. You know, self care. You always want to make sure that you're filling your cup first. But yeah, [00:15:00] September and October, it was kind of a, it was a high. Stakes situation that I hope doesn't.
[00:15:08] Repeat itself. Oh a long, long time, but anyways, recognize when it's coming on so that you can start making the shifts and adjustments that you need to. So when my mom was recovering or when Oliver hurt his legs, I recognized I cannot do everything. I need to let some balls drop for the time being. And I know that they will bounce back up later on. Even if I'm not able to catch the first bounds I can catch the second bounce serve bounce, Forrest fourth bounds, whatever balls, bounce back up.
[00:15:37] And you can collect them later on. Number two, start to reduce your S your exposure to stressors. So I started looking at my life and all of the things on my to do lists and started asking myself what things are actually a priority
[00:15:51] versus what things are just taking up time. . What's the word for, if you have a homework assignment and it doesn't actually feel [00:16:00] like it is something that you need to do, I'm totally blanking on what the word is. Busywork. What are the things that you actually have to do that are high priority that are actually helping push the needle forward in your life versus what are the busy work tasks, the tasks that aren't actually helping you get anywhere, but they just end up on your to-do list because you feel like you're doing something, but they're not actually pushing you forward.
[00:16:23] Anyways. So a lot of those busy tasks, the items were really making me feel more and more stressed out. And like I had more stuff going on and more stuff than I needed to do. So I started. Cutting out busy work as much as possible. There were tasks on our home renovation that I just stopped focusing on because I was like, Nope, , we can live in this space without.
[00:16:45] These walls painted, or I can set up my office without the finished trim of being up on the doors, which I'm like looking at our unfinished trim right now. And that will be done eventually. But. I started asking myself in my business, how can I [00:17:00] do the most effective tasks as possible that when I show back up, it's keeping the ball rolling, but is helping me put as minimal effort as possible so that I'm not wasting energy on things that I don't need to. So for a while, that was just supporting the clients that I currently had on my plate.
[00:17:19] Just showing up for my client calls, Voxer group coaching programs, all of those things. I also pause and reflected and started making sure, especially when I got to a position where I had more time to focus on my own self-care. So this was after my mom was getting closer to her, to her recovery. And then when she got the.
[00:17:39] All clear to travel home. And then when Oliver started feeling a little bit better and he was able to walk more and stuff like that. I started saying, how can I make sure that my needs are getting met every day? I started making sure that I was prioritizing my sleep schedule as much as possible. I was going to bed on time. I was trying to get up at a consistent time, creating more of a routine around my [00:18:00] sleep because.
[00:18:01] If I don't get enough, like, honestly, if I get less than seven hours of sleep, I feel it like I am not. All right, the next day. And my, I can feel my cortisol levels are higher. So I really started focusing on getting eight to nine hours of sleep as consistently as possible. I started reevaluating the expectations that I had for myself. This was huge. I know I've talked about letting balls drop, but I started asking myself questions of what do I want the direction of my business, of our home renovations? What are the expectations I have of those things and what are the expectations for me to show up every single day?
[00:18:41] And I started asking myself, how can I make things more enjoyable for me to show up, even if it's not a fun quote, unquote fun task to do, how can I make it more fun so that I'm excited to do those things and I'm feeling. More inspired to do them, even if it's not as fun of a task. [00:19:00] And then I started being realistic with and prioritizing my schedule. Now, this is an activity that my therapist shared with me that I have really been loving, and it's a form of time-blocking, but it's basically where you block your day into three different chunks. So you have your morning chunk, let's say that's eight to 12 afternoon chunk, which is 12 to four and evening chunk four to 8:00 PM.
[00:19:23] And , in every single chunk of time, you pick your things that you want to do during that time. And you make a plan for your week or your day in advance. And once you check off those things on your list, Do not add to the list. So one thing that I was really guilty of that my therapist kindly called me out on is that I will just keep adding and adding and adding to my to-do list and I won't stop.
[00:19:50] And it'll feel like there's just ever growing list of things, but I never feel like I get to feel a sense of accomplishment as I finished something. [00:20:00] So she said to me, she was like, Charlotte. You are going to pick the things that you want to do on your mornings, your afternoons and your evenings. It doesn't have to be the same every day, but you want to try to accomplish each thing and start to create more of a routine in your schedule. And she said, once you finish the tasks on your list, stop, like don't add to it, take a break and take some time for yourself.
[00:20:27] And that has been really helpful to help me get back into feeling like I have a routine, because when you feel like you don't have a routine, it's really, really, really hard to. Do things on your to-do list in the first place it is so easy for me to just procrastinate the heck out of everything when I don't have any routine that's going on. So this activity has been so great and it's helped me be, be more realistic with what I'm able to accomplish during a day, and also prioritizing my schedule to do the things that I actually need to do that are [00:21:00] pushing the needle of my life forward and not overwhelming my to-do list in the first place.
[00:21:06] I also started prioritizing self care more and more. This is still an ongoing journey. I'm not pretending like I'm perfect with this in any way, shape or form. But as I mentioned before, I started prioritizing sleep. Um, I'm working on this still, especially during the holidays, it's pretty challenging, but I'm trying to make sure that my diet is a little bit healthier.
[00:21:26] Getting the nutrients that I need taking my daily vitamins, things like that. Getting regular exercise going for a walk, walking our dog also, I haven't posted about this on the podcast, but we got a dog. His name is Lando and he's a 10 month old puppy and he's the best dog in the entire world.
[00:21:45] I love him so much, but I want to take him on a daily walk. And then do something that I enjoy every single day. So during the holidays I love like the holiday season season is when like the crafting in me really comes out. So I've been doing [00:22:00] different holiday crafts and that's been a lot of fun and it also puts me in a place of mindfulness where all I'm focusing on is the craft that I am doing.
[00:22:09] And now all of these other things that could be on my to-do list and. Many different areas and instances. So finding self care things that you can do, maybe it's taking a bath, maybe it's going and grabbing yourself your favorite donut or coffee or something from a bakery, whatever it might be, make sure that you are prioritizing the things that you personally and individually enjoy in your schedule every day.
[00:22:33] And then I started reaching out to people and seeking connections more and more when I was able to, so of course I was talking to my therapist. I started sharing more about how I was feeling with Oliver and letting him know, especially when my patients was like paper thin. Like, it is nothing that you have done.
[00:22:50] Like, I am struggling right now. Like I'm having a really hard time. Here's how I'm feeling and talking through. I was being very open with my [00:23:00] business coaches and mentors so that they could support me through the process I was talking to. My friends, both in the internet space, which I will say having friends.
[00:23:12] In the industry that you are in makes such a big freaking difference. And I'm so grateful for the internet friends that I have a special shout out to Elise full Moore, who has gone through many, a late night Voxer conversation with me, just like talking about burnout in business and all of these things and helping me just feel really, really supported.
[00:23:34] During this entire time. And then talking to my friends that like aren't in the online space, talking to them about how I'm feeling and like getting the encouragement and support from all those people, because burnout. It is a long haul of a thing. Like, I definitely feel like I am still in the trenches of burnout right now, but I am.
[00:23:55] Over the hill. I think I'm over the hill of it. And now I'm focusing more and [00:24:00] more and creating those boundaries and those routines accordingly to prevent it from happening again in the future. But I just want to say, if you start recognizing any of the signs of burnout, Take time for yourself. Take a step back. Reevaluate reprioritize, do whatever you can do to reduce those stressors. Because if I hadn't done that early on.
[00:24:23] I think the burnout that I'm going through would have been much more severe than it is. And maybe I wouldn't have noticed it for another couple of weeks or a couple of months. And then that energy level that you have just continues going down and down and down, and it leads to this whole slew of things.
[00:24:40] So that's what I will say about burnout. And it does have an impact on your finances. And if you are going through burnout right now, and you start seeing it impact your money. Give yourself some grace, give yourself some forgiveness and say like, just because I've done XYZ with my money does not mean that I am [00:25:00] bad with money. Right.
[00:25:01] I acknowledge the situation that you're in and start making a plan. Maybe this could be budgeting for additional convenience purchases costs. For example, start making a plan for your money going forward, but then also start making a plan for what can I do?
[00:25:15] Two. Create space for myself so that I can heal from the burnout that I'm in. And then one thing that I always want to say, whenever we're having conversations about behavior, mental health, and money and finances. Talking to a therapist I started seeing its positive impacts on so many different aspects of my life.
[00:25:34] So I would always encourage you to reach out I feel like everyone can benefit from therapy but reach out for support if you need it, because it makes such a big difference. Okay. That's all that I have for this podcast episode. I have a lot of exciting episodes planned for the end of December and going into January, save Lyft drive is back . Like we are getting into it. There's lots of juicy stuff going on. It makes sure you're following [00:26:00] me on Instagram and send me a message.
[00:26:02] . If you liked today's episode a few. And if you'd like to hear more episodes, kind of like this in the future as well. Okay. I will see you next week. I love you so much. Thank you for your support and encouragement and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
Disclaimer: The content and information provided on this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute professional mental health, financial, legal, or tax advice. For recommendations on your specific financial situation, you must additionally seek the services of an appropriate licensed mental health, theraputic, legal, accounting, tax, or investment professional.