At one point in practice I was serving patients 10-hours a day, 5-days a week and a half-day on Saturdays. I don’t know if I could even do that now-a-days! Maybe I’d surprise myself (it wouldn’t be the first time I rose to a challenge).
But this heavy-duty appointment roster was my norm when I was just starting to gain traction in my business.
I was discovering what a ‘normal day’ could look like for my work schedule.
And with that discovery, what income I might expect to regularly take in each week. Then I asked myself if I would want to keep that up.
Attached to that, came the essential awareness of how much was necessary to keep a balanced account; financially and energetically!
You may not be there yet; or you already have a burnout prevention strategy, either way let me share an important concept for all of us who crave a sustainable business.
Take a look at your situation from above and realize you may be driving your scheduling choices based on beliefs — rather than intuition or fact.
Maybe you have the belief that working head-down without end is just ‘how it is’. I did that for a while, until I found a better flow.
By using intuition and fact I embraced two seemingly opposing guides which help me map out what work could look like for me. These tools brought with them a clarity that allowed me to exhale.
By using a little self-regulation and inquiry, I could keep away the hungry ghosts that love to dine on scarcity thinking. And scarcity thinking can most certainly lead to burn-out!
Embrace knowing when enough is enough.
How do I know when that is?
- First use financial limits as an operating gauge.
The number one tool to understanding financial limits is being aware of the outflow of money. How much does it cost to operate? Really.
If you don’t know- do you guess?
I did that for a long time with sometimes disastrous results! Then I made a budget and built a structure to refer to as fact (not fantasy).
I personally understand how creative people get wiggy and feel caged by a spreadsheet. But I’m here to tell you — it’s awesome once I overcame the ‘I don’t think like that’ hurdle.
- Then trust your intuition before the meltdown happens.
Self-trust is the number one tool for knowing your energetic limits.
I’m a FELT SENSE person. It’s my lifeline to intuition and guidance and ultimately my choices.
For you, your intuition may speak when you reason things out, or you take your cue from what emotion is being generated by how the situation makes you ‘feel’.
For me- it’s my body speaking (devoid of well-meaning mental rationalizations).
I learned to really hone this by practicing The Konmari Method where I learned to recognize when I’m on track and when I’m not. I teach people I work with how to get super-clear on what their ‘Joy-Resonator’ is (that’s my name for sensing pure intuition).
This sense helps me know if I’m in balance or if I’m pushing too hard, or if I’m working in a way that needs to be changed around to match what my energy needs to function.
Opposite ideas keep us in balance.
By dancing in the middle of the paradox between spreadsheets and felt-sense I found my way to a sustainable flow. There’s a calmness; not wondering if there’s going to be a self-made crisis around the corner.
So let me ask you;
- Do you have a budget?
- Do you know how your intuition speaks?
In my journey, both of these skills were learned, and worth it!
