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This is what life after burnout looks like
I want to tell you about the results of a radical lifestyle experiment I’ve been running for one year since I had a burnout in November 2018 (I wrote about what I did to heal myself here).
When I burned out, I had to let go of my biggest consulting clients and lost 80% of my income.
Since I had to start my business again from scratch, I thought: I may as well do things differently.
For one year, I decided to see what would happen if I put my mental, physical and emotional health first over clients, over opportunities, over money. My health was in such bad shape that I was willing for my career to take a hit if that’s what it had to take.
So I took the risk. The results might surprise you…
Let me first rewind to November 2018. 9 months into starting my marketing consulting business, things were going really well. I’d had my first £10,000 month, and I was doing things the way I assumed they had to be done in order to be a responsible, valued consultant.
I said yes to every job.
I said yes to every client request.
I said yes to every coffee, speaking and networking opportunity.
I always replied within one hour.
I was also working 6–7 days a week and if I wasn’t, I was jetting off around Europe for a long weekend or a party. My life was go-go-go. I felt on top of the world.
And then, all of a sudden, I collapsed.
Burnout took me completely by surprise. I didn’t think you could burn out doing what you loved. I didn’t think you could burn out whilst being your own boss.
I was wrong.
While my ego was on a joyride, my body was telling me loud and clear: not this way.
It’s not like workplace stress and I were strangers to one another. I’d already had two stress-related herniated disc surgeries by age 27, I was developing Repetitive Strain Injury in my wrists and near-constant backache was a tolerated feature of my life.
But the experience of burnout shocked me. And for the first time in my life, I agreed to listen to the signals.
