Burnt Out

Looking for sign from the universe?  TRY MAKING YOUR OWN.  You don't need to wait for some random occurrence that you then read into as your sign. Sometimes they may be signs, sometimes they may be things your mind is locking onto in order to do, or not do, something.  Try taking an object, a phrase, or a color, anything really, and making it your sign. A friend of mine uses Hummers (the car) to represent a sign that today is going to be an amazing day.  Just like that, whenever he saw a Hummer (this was when they were around more often), his mind would automatically think that today was going to be great and he entered into a positive mindset.  Cool! Try you own and let me know what your sign is and how it works for you!

Nadine Wathen, PhD (nadinewathen.ca; @NadineWathen) is Full Professor at The University of Western Ontario, a Research Scholar at Western’s Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children (www.learningtoendabuse.ca), and a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. Her research examines the health and social service sector response to violence against women and children, interventions to reduce health inequities, and the science of knowledge mobilization, with a focus on partnerships to enhance the use of research in policy and practice. The Burnt Out Experience Nadine admits that she isn't sure whether she's actually burnt out in her life or not, but as a teen, undergrad student, and elsewhere, Nadine experienced a lack of alignment with her values when she was learning, researching, or working in certain areas.  She calls it a "slippage."  It was fairly exhausting to not be aligned.  Nadine also experiences compassion fatigue in her line of work. While she isn't specifi

Anita Kothari is faculty member at Western University. In addition to work, she's a mom, runner and general extrovert. Her life motto at the moment is: everything is possible. The Burnt Out Experience Anita feels that there are two distinct types of burnout; mini and major. We all work hard each week, in our parenting roles, paid roles, or our personal roles. The hard work we put in each week causes us to have these mini or micro burnouts. Within her first six years at university (pre-tenure phase), Anita started feeling immensely tired. Academics work especially hard when they first start because they fall into the trap of "publish or perish." They're still learning the rules of the game and it feels like grinding to the bone is the only way through.  How did she deal? Sabbatical Since starting Burnt Out, I have come to love this word and aspire to have it in my life someday. Anita suggests that a change of routine or a change of environment can help you change your thinking. It can help you to relax. In

Regina Mtonga is one of three founding members of Asikana Network. Asikana is an organization that engages females in STEM, with a particular interest in Technology. The main focus is training capable women in the tech space and creating a safe environment where women are free to explore this world of STEM without judgement and fear. Currently Regina's official title is PR & Fundraising Director. She has a background in Computer Science and continues to do programming and practices software engineering aside her responsibilities with Asikana. You can find the Asikana Network on social media: Facebook | Twitter  Asikanna is also partnered with Taungana.  The Burnt Out Experience Regina was focused on school. She was loving computers and all things programming. She was also dealing with some hardship in school though. As a female in the STEM field, Regina was named called at school and told she wouldn't become what she had dreamed of.  Still, her parents were extremely supportive and she kept her mind to t

Since 2006, Allison Graham has shown professionals how to grow their business and build profitable relationships. She is a master at helping others overcome obstacles in business. Her bestselling book, From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Profitable Networking & Personal Branding Made Easy (John Wiley and Sons Ltd.) is the foundation for her original work. She’s been featured as an authority on business development and networking in the media and her clients include Fortune 500 companies to small financial services firms and start up tech companies to solopreneurs. Each week, she is invited to share the Business Lessons from the Big Business Headlines on Global News 980 CFPL. That’s her public image. Behind the scenes, she’s been dealt a series of difficult blows that magnify the collision between home and work. Her struggles with chronic pain, grief and the internal messenger of B.S. have earned her the moniker, Resiliency Ninja. In her latest book, Married My Mom, Birthed a Dog: How to Be Re

Have you ever realized, nearing the end of a work day, that you didn't get done nearly as much as you set out to do??  As someone who highly values efficiency and productivity, experience makes me feel bad. Burnt out bad. Sometimes I feel like I'm just not a highly productive person or that I expect too much of myself and I need to lower the bar, which can feel bad too.  Still, I wasn't ready to accept those thoughts. When a friend of mine suggested we try a productivity technique, I was both intrigued and excited. It turned out fantastically within the first few hours! I'd like to share that technique with you, so that you might be able to experience the same great productive feelings.  The Pomodoro Technique  The main problem we have when we are trying to get so many things done, is that we go for too many things all at once. Switching between tasks and projects takes up so much more precious time than we realize and causes us to have that "It's already 5:00!!" feeling.   The Pomodoro Technique helps you ge

  Stefanie Diaz is a successful marketing strategist, radio host, and brand guru who specializes in empowering entrepreneurs. With over a decade of experience providing marketing strategy to companies spanning pre-launch to over $100 million in annual revenue, Stefanie’s insights have been sought out by serial entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Today, her passion is working with emerging female founders and leaders as they claim their unique voice in the marketplace. Inspired to deliver an Ellen meets Oprah concept for entrepreneurial women, Stefanie launched W.O.E. {Women Only Entrepreneurs} on April 25th, 2017 at The Wimbish House in Midtown Atlanta to much success. With glowing reception, what began as an event quickly evolved into the powerful WOE community that exists today. Prior to founding WOE, Stefanie spent two and a half years sharing her insights and compelling stories from Atlanta entrepreneurs as Host of the Mastermind Your Launch Podcast which generated over 130,000 unique listeners per e

Three tips of forming habits! Habits are a three step process If you have read or researched habits at all, you know the name Charles Duhigg. He wrote the fantastic and widely referenced book, "The Power of Habit" which I suggest you read (or listen to!). Click the picture of the book to head to amazon to check it out.   The most important point of this book is that habits aren't just made up of the action. There's a before piece and and a after piece that make habits just that: a habit. Those three part are: (1) The cue or reminder, (2) the routine or action, and (3) the reward. By thinking habits this way, you can utilize cues and rewards to successfully create a new long-term habit or even break an old bad habit. Break your goals into pieces Dreaming big is super important, so when creating a goal, go for it; however, if you go big and forget to break down your goal into smaller pieces, you might run into moment where you feel like giving up. Obviously, the goal of the Burnt Out podcast is not to burn you

Allison Lawrence is an Account Manager at Healthwise. She strives to empower people to live healthy lifestyles and make good health decisions. Her current focus is to promote patient engagement through innovative technology, clinical workflow integration and world-class patient educational content. She is mission-driven and has a natural "bias for action." The Burnt Out Experience Allison defines being burnt out as "being out of balance." She says that you might really enjoy the work that you're doing that makes you feel burnt out, it just that you're doing too much of it all at once.  Through a long journey to get to where she is today, she actually feels the most burnt out right now. She recognizes that she's feeling that way right now and it's because she has her role as an Account Manager, but also she holds roles as a mother and a community member trying to give back. She says that achieving balance among all of these things is just hard to accomplish.  How did she deal? Allison's Top 10 Tips 0.  Inte

Eating healthy isn't just good for your body, it's good for your brain... but you already knew that. Didn't you?  Sometimes it just takes a reminder for us to get on the healthy eating track or have fallen off it for a bit. I know I need a reminder at least once a week to make sure I am at least TRYING to make the right food choices for my brain and my stress levels.  It's hard because I love ice cream. A lot. I have been tempted for years to become an ice cream connoisseur!  But the truth is, comfort foods are bad for stress and can lead you to feeling burnt out. Comfort foods make us feel lethargic and less able to deal with stressors that occur. Foods to Avoid Foods to avoid when you really need to deal with some stressors would those high-fat foods like meats and cheeses and, of course, ice cream.  Caffeine is a big one too. I love coffee and it makes for a fantastic routine in the mornings, but if I'm ever in a high-stress time or I'm attempting to avoid burnout, caffeine is one of the first to go. In fa

Lauren Rogers is a freelance event planner and marketing guru based out of Brooklyn, NY. Her talents have led to her work for purpose organizations such as The Trevor Project and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Other corporate clients include Jack Morton Worldwide and David Tutera Studios. She is currently the Events Director for Womanly Mag, a publication and platform that circulates updated health information to women around the world through the lens of art. You can find her favorite tunes on her playlist series Listening with Lauren on Spotify.  The Burnt Out Experience Lauren was busting her butt in college and killing it. Once she graduated, she thought to herself, "Where's my job?" She applied. She waited. She applied again and then her family started with the classic questions like: "What are you going to do with your degree?" Lauren is already her biggest critic, so it was really rough to go through a period of what-the-hell-am-I-doing. She felt like a failure and like she couldn't do any

  Li Lin is the founder of Immigrant CEO School. She came to the USA from China in 2000 and has helped 200+ skilled immigrant professionals and international students with getting their job search to land their H-1B and OPT jobs. She has been featured on TEDx, Inc Magazine, Huffington Post, and lives in Southern California. Basically, she's a total badass of the coaching world.  The Burnt Out Experience The lowest point of Li Lin's life was in 2013. She was fired from multiple jobs, she was out of money, moved back home, and felt like a loser. She decided to to get one more job, just something to build skills, so she got a job as a waitress. ...and got fired on the first day.  She thought to herself, "I suck. I can't even do basic things that I thought I could." Li was walking out into the parking lot with just $40 in her pocket, feeling low, and suddenly remembered her 18-year-old dream to become an entrepreneur. How did she deal? Try Something New She started posting ads on Craigslist to teach English

  Laura Jantz is a seasoned professional with experience ranging from environmental work with a large multinational corporation. She has a strong background in research and writing abilities and is a "soon-to-be author" – She's currently looking for an illustrator to finish off the children's book she wrote. Laura could also be described as a perpetual student of life which is something you can tell about her from hearing her speak.  Check out one article written by Laura here: bit.ly/HireABallerina The Burnt Out Experience In college, Laura took a 17-22 credits every semester, worked part-time, was on the dance team, and she was also a cheerleader. She describes it as "a formula for burnout," but she didn't know it at the time.  So, one Saturday she had a BIG day planned, but what ended up happening? She put in a movie, cuddled on the floor with her dog, and couldn't move because she was so exhausted.  How did she deal? Recognition Now, Laura starts to recognize her behaviors and how they give her clues i

Kristina Olson is a musician and composer. Her current project, le destroy whose debut release "Knives" was released just a few days ago on February 23, 2018! She wrote, performed, produced, and engineered it herself in her studio in Austin, TX. You can check it out on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, and Amazon.   Kristina was also recently hired to sing on a trailer for the Wonder Woman film. She worked with Lakeshore Records and she has written and performed songs for films such as the CBS film Beastly (mixed by Danny Lohner - NIN, A Perfect Circle) and worked with producers ranging from Dave Jerden (Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addiction) to Damon Elliott (P!NK, Gwen Stefani).   In the past Kristina played at festivals such as the Sunset Strip Music Festival (with bands such as the Smashing Pumpkins) and the Sundance Film Festival. She also spoke on a Grammy Panel for the Recording Academy hosted by Mike Clink (Metallica, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe) called Building a Rock Band.   In 2014, Kristina

Goldie Chan is a top LinkedIn Video Creator and a global social media strategy and branding expert. She is the Founder and Head of Creative at social media agency, Warm Robots, where they run strategy and content creation for large B2B and B2C startups and corporations. She serves on the PGA's New Media Council and has been featured as a fresh voice on strategy, branding and pop culture in Inc. Magazine, Huffpost, Fast Company and Buzzfeed. Check out Goldie's LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/goldie The Burnt Out Experience Goldie got a degree in biology (mostly pre-med) from Stanford. It was incredibly tough and looking back at her time, she had many creative outlets that kept her going, which now makes her see that she was probably in the wrong major. She and a friend were always at the bottom of the grade curve among the genius-level students; those students who were all battling their way to the top of the class and be the best. Goldie said, "my friend and I were just going for average." It was a st

Valencia Griffin-Wallace is an international speaker, bestselling author, radio show host, and entrepreneur. She is passionate and committed to the lives of women overcoming adversity to become successful. She helps women overcome adversity to gain unapologetic confidence by teaching them how to focus on their strengths and be resourceful. Confidence, vision, and goals can help a person overcome anything. She has overcome many adversities such as growing up with two parents in addiction. She uses her experience to inspire and educate her Define U community through Define U Radio, Define U movement and her annual conference, Define U Live. Currently, she is writing her story, Motherless Child, to be released in February 2018 and producing an anthology Through The Valley.   The Burnt Out Experience To get the full effect of Valencia's childhood and her story of growing up, you'll have to listen to the episode. I don't think I would do it justice in writing. She overcame an INCREDIBLE amount of adversity to bec

Chelsea Fancis fell in love with photography because it was just another way to connect with people, which is all she has ever wanted to do. While she got her degree in Marketing and PR, the traditional job kept her away from what she loves most: people. Chelsea has been photographing professionally for over five years and every day she wakes up thankful for the people who allow her to stand in front of them with a camera in hand and her heart open. Find Chelsea here: @ohhhchelsea The Burnt Out Experience Chelsea says that, yearly, she hits a wall. She realizes that she hasn’t been taking care of herself and she has been grinding to the bone. Chelsea feels like she could work all day, everyday, for 150 days straight, but on the 151st day, things go poorly. She questions her actions and her passions and more. It all feels terrible. The worst part? She has NO IDEA when the burnout storm is going to hit. How did she deal? Prepare Knowing that, at some point, she is going to hit that wall, Chelsea has a game p

Dr. Samantha Madhosingh is a Licensed Psychologist, Bestselling Author, & Speaker. She received her doctorate in professional psychology from The George Washington University and has dedicated more than 20 thousand hours to researching, understanding, & solving the infinite possibilities of human potential, behavior, & performance.   Dr. Samantha is the founder and CEO of ElevateHER, an organization serving women leaders (and interested men) in business and in life by providing key strategies to achieve mastery in mindset, communication, & relationships, and ultimately create a legacy of lasting wealth. Through her programs, trainings, and workshops she guides audiences and clients through powerful experiences that help them achieve exponential growth and fulfillment. Dr. Samantha has a unique ability to help clients and audiences go deep and move forward. Her cutting edge system was built on principles of neuroscience, human potential, positive psychology, cognitive therapy, leadership, and c

Kate is a former Corporate Psychologist turned Life Coach. She studied and researched stress and burnout and knows all the technical elements, but came face to face with feeling it not when she was working, but when she was a stay-at-home-Mom. It wasn't until she had experienced burnout herself that she could really bring all the pieces together. Now she has her own business and helps people reconnect with themselves and create self-renewing fulfillment and joy in their lives.   Listen to her podcast, Here To Thrive, here: https://www.thrive.how/podcast/