As a self-professed workaholic and burnout survivor, I have a thing or two to say about this.
I was a great producer!
I went from corporate diva to entrepreneur almost overnight and have never looked back. The thing is, I took all of my man-mode ways of doing business that I’d learned in the corporate world into my new ventures.
I then burned out in my 40s.
I entered early menopause.
I lost a lot of strength in my body.
I lost 50% of my energy.
I had chronic fatigue.
I felt quite sick.
What was all this for?
After going through that, I had to take a step back and ask myself, was it all worth it, burning the candle at both ends and in the middle?
For what?
Being really productive, exhausting myself for my or another companies business. To make a bunch of money?
It wasn’t worth it.
I realized that I’d lost touch with myself as a woman; my feminine energy was all but gone. Frankly, I’m not sure if I’d ever really known what it was or that it was the key to my life-force and real success.
So, I went into an extended meditation retreat to return to myself, and what I realized was that I really love creating businesses, but I had to do it a different way.
A way, I now would call a more feminine style of operating and being productive.
Many of us bought into the notion that pushing, striving, working harder and harder made us a valuable and productive member of society; and that this was the only way to make a valid living.
But, after spending almost a decade healing from serious burnout ramifications, I beg to differ.
What if bringing more pleasure in our work actually results in more productivity?
What is a pleasure-filled way of producing?
Creating space in your schedule – stop that back to back scheduling of such things as client sessions, meetings, video, or social media production. Leaving barely enough time to eat a delicious, healthy lunch or dinner. Create space to do nothing, walk, hike, create, cook, make love to my partner, and live life
Focus on your genius zone – what’s that? It’s what you LOVE to do, can do any day or night, and it flows through you. Delegate the rest.
Outbreath – this is the equivalent of letting the tide come back in, and receive from all of your glorious efforts, create space and time to receive back from the universe. When we fill in all of the gaps, we leave no space for things to come toward us.
Sleep – LOTS of sleep – This results in creative recovery time. I call this, putting it to the night. This means to let things digest overnight, especially big decisions. You’ll be surprised how clear you are if you just let the night help you in this way.
Pleasure date with yourself – plan unplanned time with yourself. That sounds crazy! I know your type, you’ll need to plan for this! When you get your google notification for your “unplanned time”, you drop what you’re doing, and you fill this time with something that you’re inspired to do in the moment. It could be read a book, go for a walk, play with your children, or just cuddle with your partner.
It took me over a decade to overcome burnout that happened to me in my 40s.
One of the most significant discoveries I’ve had since then is that I’m more effective and productive when I do these things even though they may not make sense at the time.
I’m enjoying life more, experiencing more pleasure, taking more time out for myself, my loved ones, and the things I love to do in my life.
I’ve had to push against decades of a tide of guilt for doing this.
But, I’ve come out on top, with my health restored, my loved ones are given my time, love, and attention, and I am now happily running an international business and school for women to learn to love their feminine selves and power.
I do this from my home in my own time and on my own terms.
Pleasure is one of the five core feminine arts that I teach women.
Through time and experience, my international sisterhood has realized how important pleasure is to us as smart, savvy, successful women.
If you don’t want to go down a path of burning out, losing yourself, and wondering why you’d done it all in the first place, try injecting more pleasure into your day and watch your productivity soar!