103. Born with Brilliance | Book Club

Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey to conquer burnout and reclaim your passion? Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson, better known as PBJ, invites you into a profound exploration of her latest book, "Disrupting Burnout." As we journey chapter by chapter, expect to uncover strategies that will guide you to live a purpose-driven life, away from the precipice of burnout. Your participation is more than welcomed—it's essential. Share your insights on social media or reach out via email as we build a community dedicated to supporting each other in this collective healing process.

Discover the quiet power of self-reflection, an often-overlooked tool in our arsenal for combating the noise of daily life. Dr. Jackson shares her personal experiences with 'Morning Pages,' a simple yet transformative practice that helps clear the mind and shines a light on the inner wisdom we all possess. This episode is a heartfelt reminder to guard your attention like the precious resource it is, dedicating it to personal reflection and embracing the unique brilliance that defines you. It's about more than just finding peace amidst the chaos—it's about reconnecting with your purpose and standing firmly in your own truth.

By the end of our Book Club series, you'll have journeyed through the essential steps to rediscovering your inner creativity and significance. Dr. Jackson's poignant reminders of our individual power and the love that envelops us will leave you feeling affirmed and inspired. So, as you turn down the volume on life's external pressures, remember that this is your opportunity to unearth the treasure within. Your brilliance is not just a light at the end of the tunnel—it is the path itself, guiding you towards a life of fulfillment and joy. Join us, and let's embrace this transformative adventure together.

Let’s Connect
●   To connect with Dr. PBJ, go to https://www.patricebucknerjackson.com
●   Do you need a dynamic transformational speaker?  Dr. PBJ is ready to serve.  Check out Dr. PBJ Speaks | https://www.patricebucknerjackson.com/speaking
●   Access the audiobook- https://www.buzzsprout.com/1213895/supporters/new

Transcript

PBJ: 0:00

Hey, friend, I am Dr Patrice Buckner Jackson, but you can call me PBJ. Welcome to another episode of the Disrupting Burnout podcast, where we are giving you the strategies for pouring out purpose without living through the consequences of burnout. Friend, you have joined us in the perfect time because for the next few episodes, we are walking through this beautiful book, my new book, disrupting Burnout. Listen, we are breaking this thing down chapter by chapter, section by section. All you have to do to be a part of our book club is read your book and join these episodes every week. That's it, friend. That's it. Grab a book if you don't have one, from Amazon or anywhere else. They sell books online. If you prefer audio, listen now, friend, hear me, I recorded every one of these chapters in my own voice, and when I tell you it was just recorded to share with my pre-order folks. But the level of emotion and heart and I added extra spoonfuls of PBJ throughout. So there are pieces in the audio book that are not in the printed version All you have to do is upgrade your subscription. So these weekly episodes are absolutely free, as always. But if you want access to the full audio book, if you want access to bonus content for the price of one coffee a month. Now, friend, come on now. For the price of one coffee a month, you can upgrade. Have the entire audio book read in my voice with all the emotion, with all the extra spoonfuls of PBJ. Go on and upgrade so that you can listen to it while we are walking through it. Are you ready for this book club? Listen, I got some things to share with you this week. I can't wait. Let's get started.

PBJ: 1:57

You struggle with perfectionism, holding yourself to a higher standard than you hold others. You also struggle with comparison, never feeling like enough as you compare yourself to other professional women with clean houses, perfect partners, extraordinary children and a laundry list of professional accolades. You may even find the work you once loved is now wearing you thin, which distresses your soul. Now you're questioning if you were truly called to do this work in the first place. Your career frustrated. You feel checked out and no longer interested in things you once loved. Your emotions are all over the place and your wellness habits seem to have vanished from your life. You taught everyone in your life that you could be all things to all people, and they believed you. Now, friend, you just want to run away from it all. You think you are all alone. You feel like the only successful woman living with these struggles.

PBJ: 3:08

Friend, it's not just you. You did not make this up. There's a name for all that. It's called burnout. More specifically, I call it the cycle of burnout. Friend listen, did you read the introduction and chapter one? We're gonna get into it a little bit today and I gotta tell you so.

PBJ: 3:32

When I first decided that we were gonna do this book club on the Podcast, I'm thinking, okay, 12 chapters, 12 weeks, we'll just do a chapter a week. Friend Listen, I made the same mistake that many people make when they start reading this book. I cannot tell you the number of times that people have said I sat down and thought I was gonna read this in a weekend and I was stopped in my Trax because this is not a pickup over the weekend and just finish it. This is not a let me sit down for a couple of hours. This is a manual. There is heart work to do in this book. So I don't know if we are going to be able to do a whole chapter in one episode.

PBJ: 4:18

Friend Like, we are going to slow walk ourselves through these chapters Because I am so determined for you to be free from the cycle of burnout that I'm not going to rush. We are going to take our time. Where are we going? We got plenty of episodes, plenty of time, and we're gonna take our time to walk through these chapters together. It is one thing for you to read and I hope you, I hope you will, I hope you are reading the book, I hope you are listening to the book but it's another thing for us to come together and connect and discuss. So, yeah, I'm excited to do this with you. Listen, if you have Questions, comments, I would love to see it. I want you to show up on my social media pages If you have a private question. You can always respond to my emails if you're on my email list, but I want to hear from you in this book club. Tell me how this is working for you. All right, even as I'm talking, maybe we'll start a little Facebook page or a LinkedIn group or something that we can go in there and talk about these chapters together. Let me think about that. All right, let's get into chapter One. Oh, my goodness. So first of all, let me say that chapter one needs a trigger warning. Okay, when on the audio, when I was recording the audio, I did give a trigger warning and I've heard over and over and the words people keep saying you came out swinging. You came out swinging. But here's the truth. Chapter one wasn't originally chapter one. I think you heard this from last week's episode. It was chapter eight and I had some beta readers and some women who I Walk with my purpose partners, who said no, no, no, no, that is chapter one, that's where we need to start. So that's where we are starting and chapter one is called.

PBJ: 6:16

I was born for this and I talk about the toughest day of my career and let me just say this I I've dealt with many tragedies in my career. Just the nature of the job that I've done and also my brilliance. So I'm not comparing one tragedy to the other. The reason why this one continues to Come to my heart, the reason why I continue to share about this day, was the massive impact. I'd never Expected that we would have to face such a tragic day, but even now, several years after, I mean, I tell that story and I still feel the emotions. But I know I was supposed to be there. I Know, without a doubt, that I was supposed to be there.

PBJ: 7:07

So one of the first lessons from chapter one is your brilliance may position you to be in some tough spots. Listen to me I, the brilliance that is on the inside of you, may call for you to be in some tough positions. For me, that has been crisis. It's been crisis on campuses, crisis with students, crisis with families and friends. I know other professional women who are very sensitive to the struggles and the concerns of other people and they can see a need and they won't leave them alone until they do something about it. I know other folks who have a brilliance to hear what the mouth didn't say. So you're saying words, but they can hear your heart. You know what I'm saying.

PBJ: 7:57

So all of our brilliance is innate and unique, but I want you to know that sometimes it's because of your brilliance, it's because of your brilliance, that you find yourself in situations that you find yourself in. I was speaking with a woman at a workshop that I did recently and she talked about how her brilliance is to bring peace. Her brilliance is to bring peace. So, of course, if you have a brilliance to bring peace, then you are a peaceful person and you desire peace, but she finds herself constantly in a fight. She will leave one battle where now there's peace and she'll be sent to another battle before she experiences the peace herself. So I'm almost like she works out the battle and then she moves on to the next battle.

PBJ: 8:49

If you don't understand that that is connected to your brilliance, then you will think you're doing something wrong or, at the very worst, you will start to despise the very thing that you were given to change the world. And when I say change the world, I'm talking about the world around you, your community, your family, your people, your colleagues. If you're not careful, if you don't understand it, if you're not aware of it, you can become frustrated around your own brilliance. I always say it's your superpower and your kryptonite. So what situations do you constantly find yourself in? How do you? When you look back over your life over and over and over, you found that you're the person that's called on to do this or that, or you are the person that shows up and the company is falling apart. You are the person that, when you arrive, oh my goodness.

PBJ: 9:47

There was another woman that I encountered on my book tour and I asked them we were digging into brilliance and I said what is the most impactful compliment you've ever received? And she talked about. We dug into this conversation and she talked about how every professional situation that she walked into is like things were crumbling, things were just falling apart and she would come in and she would pick up the pieces and put it back all together. And her frustration was why can't I just walk into something that's good? Why can't I just walk into something that's strong and that's fortified and ready to go? Why do I always have to clean up the pieces? And I looked at her and I said because you're the one, sis, you're the one, you're the one with the brilliance to clean up the pieces.

PBJ: 10:37

So your perspective around your brilliance has to change. You can look at it as this is always a heavy weight on my shoulders, or I'm always drug into these situations, or this weight is always on me. Or you can look at it from the perspective of I'm the one. I'm the one, I'm responsible. And hear me when I say I'm not talking about pride. We don't have no room for foolishness. I'm not talking about pride, I'm talking about responsible.

PBJ: 11:08

Nobody gets better by you pretending that you're not brilliant. You, people around you people you work with assignments that you have. None of it gets better by you pretending that you're not brilliant. So it's time for us to own it. It's time for you to not only discover your brilliance, know what you were born for, but to own it and stand in it and maximize it, pursue it, get after that brilliance. You don't have to be buried under your own brilliance. How often are we buried under our own brilliance Because we don't understand the power of it or how to use it? So I want you to discover your brilliance so that you can be wise in it, you can build some boundaries around it so that it doesn't overtake you, but also you can stand on it and you can make the difference that you were created to make. That's where your fulfillment comes from. That's where that internal motivation, that fire, comes. When you show up in the room, knowing what you bring, knowing who you are, knowing the difference you make, when you show up in the room with no confusion about your identity, it changes the impact you can have. I want you to know you were born for this. You were born for this, ooh, okay. So, first of all, your brilliance is going to put you in some sticky places, but you can handle it because you're the one Number two. I want you to know that your brilliance is not hidden. Your heart already knows.

PBJ: 12:57

I'm gonna read a quick few lines from page nine of the book says after fighting through burnout and supporting other women through it, I understand my response so much better now. In that moment, my heart had identified something my mind was not aware of. All right, friend, I'm just popping in really quick because I need your help. Would you go over to Amazon right now and leave a quick review for disrupting burnout? You don't have to finish the whole book to leave a review, and it doesn't have to be long or fancy, just your honest take on the book. I know that there's some algorithm fairies out there. If you leave enough reviews, they will share this book with other readers who need it. So would you help me out? Would you help our friends out who haven't heard about disrupting burnout yet? Go over to Amazon and leave your honest review for disrupting burnout. I appreciate you. All right, let's get back to the episode my heart knew I was made for.

PBJ: 14:00

Crisis it's my thing, it's what I do well, it's what I've always done. It's what I was born for. Crisis is my shine, it's my light. Crisis is my brilliance. I have an innate, unique brilliance for connecting with people who are struggling and helping them find the light again. When I look back over my life, this is something I have always done, from childhood to this very day. I am the person you call when your life is falling apart. I am the person you call when you cannot see your way through. I am the person you call when you don't know what else to do. Your heart already knows your brilliance is not hidden.

PBJ: 14:48

This question of how do I find my purpose, your purpose is not lost. Here's what I think the problem is. I think the problem is there is such a battle for your attention. No, really, like companies pay millions and millions of dollars just to get your attention. Think about a 30-second Super Bowl commercial. How much money goes into 30 seconds of your attention? Your attention is a commodity right now, and if companies and organizations can see your attention as so valuable, don't you think it's worth it for you to pause and get some of your own attention? Don't you think it's worth it for you to pause and know and hear your own mind?

PBJ: 15:39

Listen, I've got to tell on myself a little bit because I am one. I'm an information junkie, I'm an information seeker, right. I will listen to the podcast, I'll listen to the sermon, I'll read the book, I'll read the article. Like when I am overwhelmed, when I'm stressed, I go looking for information. I go do my student thing because I'm good at that right. And what I've found recently, especially in the last couple of months and you know what it was while I was writing this book, but also more intensely in the last couple of weeks I've heard Holy Spirit say I need you to be quiet. I need you to find some quiet time.

PBJ: 16:28

Don't get up first thing in the morning and start listening to something. Don't spend your day, every waking moment or every clear moment that you have, filling your ears with something. I have some things I need to say to you, but you can't hear it if you're constantly listening to everybody else. And I'm not even saying that these things are bad. I'm grateful for folks who share wisdom.

PBJ: 16:53

Now, there's a lot of foolishness out there, friend. There's a lot of foolishness. You know. My students taught me it's called doom scrolling just scrolling for foolishness. That's not what we're talking about. There's a lot of good, valuable information out there, but it should not replace your own quiet time and your own ability to hear your own mind. The answers that you seek are closer to you than you think the struggle to discover who you are and your brilliance and your identity. It is already in you. It is not hidden from you. There is evidence of brilliance throughout your entire life, but when was the last time you spent enough quiet time to discover it? We are overwhelmed. We are drowned with information. You know the TV there's something to consume 24 hours a day. Our phones there's something to consume 24 hours a day riding in our cars, conversations with people. There's information everywhere. How do you fight through the noise? How do you slice through the noise to hear what's on the inside of you? Friend, you need quiet time, you need silence time. You need time where you can hear what's going on with you.

PBJ: 18:28

My good friend, dr Ramona Lawrence. You met her in episode 102. She's one of my purpose partners and recently Dr Lawrence shared this practice with me that she read in a book and y'all forgive me, I will have to find the name of the book I think it's called the Artist's Way. I'll correct that if it's wrong, but I think it's called the Artist's Way. But there's this activity called Morning Pages, where you get up in the morning and you sit down and you write whatever's on your mind three pages worth Whatever's on your mind. I need to put chicken on the grocery list, I need to tell my spouse this or that, or this deep thing is bothering me, or I couldn't sleep last night because of this, or I have this great idea, but I don't know how to flesh it out. Like, whatever is on your mind, you just pour it. I call it morning pour, because that's what happens for me. You just put it on the page. It's just for you, like there's nobody else's business. So, whatever the thought is, I'm angry with this one, or I'm frustrated with that one, or I need to tell this person that, whatever it is, get it out. Get it out on the pages.

PBJ: 19:36

And what I've found, as I have taken on this practice, is there's so much clarity about what my next step is and what I'm supposed to do next. And when I talk about clarity, I'm not talking about 10 years of clarity. I'm not even talking about one year clarity. I'm talking about the next step. I know what my next step is and what I need to do next and it has put me into action. Like there are some pieces of my life that I've struggled with my health journey and some other things that I goals that I've had for years, right Years and I've just been carrying these goals from year to year to year and not really frustrated with myself about why I haven't made progress in these areas.

PBJ: 20:25

But with these morning pages, the morning pour, it is allowing me to get out. It's allowing me to really I think in the book at some point I call it an intellectual obesity Like you are so full of information that you can't get to the information that you really need. Like you are so full of ideas and thoughts and strategies that you cannot connect to the ideas and thoughts and strategies that work for you. So I want you to know that you were born for this and your brilliance is not hidden from you. But you need to take time to investigate your own life. Spend time with you, get used to silence, get used to hearing your own thoughts. Where is that space where you just hear you without anybody else's interruption? Find that space. Write what comes to you and I'm talking about with your hand, pencil and pad. Like write what comes out and you will be amazed at what you discover about yourself that was already there. It was there all the time. Brilliance has been there all the time. It doesn't wait until you get the fancy degree or you get the fancy job or the big goal. Brilliance has been a part of you all of your life. It is who you are, friend. It's who you are, but you can't get to it because it's too noisy, it's too loud, life is too loud and you need to turn down the volume. You need to get some quiet time so that you can hear and see what's in your own heart.

PBJ: 22:19

Number three, number three standing securely in my brilliance ended a lifelong search for significance. Every human being let me get my notes here Every human being has a need for significance. You have a need to know your own value, who you are, what you bring, what makes you unique, what makes you different. Every human being has that and when we are not aware of our own brilliance, it drives us into low self-esteem and imposter syndrome and overworking and overwhelm and burnout. Because there's this fight on the inside of you to be significant, to be valuable, not even a striving for perfection or trying to be something that you're not. But there's a natural desire, a natural need in you to know who you are. And when I tell you, discovering your brilliance not only does it release you from low self-esteem and imposter syndrome and I'm not saying it doesn't arise, but when it does arise you can address it because you know the value you bring to the room but it also eliminates the need for comparison. It eliminates the need for comparison because when you truly understand how brilliance works, when you truly discover your brilliance and know the value that you bring, you will understand that there is no replacement for you. There's nobody else. You're the one.

PBJ: 24:16

Other folks may have a brilliance that's similar to yours. There may be other people who have something that aligns, but it's not you. It'll never be the same. Just like if you had a set of twins and genetically they are as close as possible. There's still distinct differences. Your brilliance sets you apart. There is no competition. There is not another, there's not another person, there's not another soul that could walk in your shoes. I always say in the professional world we have this bad habit of well, we'll just replace them. If a person leaves, we'll just replace them. No, you'll fill the role, but you'll never replace them. You'll never get that specific collection of brilliance again. You'll never get that specific gift again. It will be different. You may find another gift, but you'll never get that gift again Once it has moved on. Your brilliance helps you understand why you are significant and hints what you are responsible for pouring into the world. You know what sets you apart. You know how you make a difference, you know what you are responsible for bringing to the world and you also know that you're the only one that could do it like you. And if you don't like, let's say you decide I'm not gonna do it. Somebody else might rise up, they probably will, but it won't be the same. It won't be the same. It won't be the same because it wasn't you. So I want you to know that discovering your brilliance will free you from the search for significance.

PBJ: 26:24

I need to say this for my folks who are in the church, as I'm giving this summary, and this is only part of chapter one. We're gonna keep walking through it. But what I'm hearing and I've heard this a lot is that my identity is simple. My identity is to serve God and my identity is to worship Him. My identity is a child of God, and that is all true, absolutely. I believe all of that wholeheartedly. I also believe that there's a specific assignment. Let me give you words, let me give you the scripture.

PBJ: 27:11

There's a specific assignment for each of us Ephesians two and 10, and I'm getting into the next section of the chapter, ephesians two and 10, and I'm reading from the NIV version. It says for we are God's handy work, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. So I want you to know that there is a specific work that God prepared for each of us to do before you were assigned to the earth. He didn't just send you here and say, gosh, now, what am I gonna do with her? What do I need her to do? Let me find a job. It says the purpose was prepared in advance, before you got here. You are the handy work, created to do good works which were prepared in advance. So there's a specific yes, we are called to worship Him. Yes, identity is as a child of God. Yes, absolutely, all of that is true.

PBJ: 28:26

And you have a specific thing that you are equipped to pour into the earth you, individually. If that was all the purpose we need. We could all have the same personality, we could all have the same path. We could all be the same person, but we're not. We are uniquely and innately created differently, to pour different brilliance into the earth, and it is important for you to know what your specific brilliance is so that you can live your assignment.

PBJ: 29:04

I'm gonna end with this. Brilliance is deeper than your job. It's not your job description, it's not your job title, it's not your salary. I believe that one day, each of us will stand before God and we will have to give an account for what we've done here in the earth. And I don't believe that it's just did you sin or did you not? I mean, all of us have Thank God for grace and mercy, right, but I don't just believe it's. Did you live for me? I think it's. What did you do with what I gave you? What did you do with the brilliance I gave you? What did you do with the assignment I gave you? Don't live your whole life searching. It is time for you to discover your brilliance so that you can pursue that brilliance, maximize it in your life, so that you can live full, fully in the identity and who he created you to be All right, we're gonna stop here Next week.

PBJ: 30:15

We will continue walking through chapter one. We'll start on page 10. We'll start on page 10 with a section called this treasure in you. This thing is about to get good, this thing is so good. So I want you, over the next week, I just want you, to find some quiet time. Maybe you wanna practice the morning pages, or the morning pour, what I call it. Maybe you want to practice writing out what's on your mind. Find some quiet time no music, no podcast, no sermon, nobody else's voice, just your own. Just your own, and see what might come out of you. I think you might be surprised. All right, friend, as always, you are powerful, you are significant and you are loved. Friend, you are brilliant. Love always. You be safe. Bye, y'all.