Imagine thriving in your career, yet struggling with an underlying exhaustion that erodes your well-being. In this solo chat, I explore the story of a successful client who navigated the subtle onset of burnout.
They took a step back to reassess their health and business commitments, eventually reshaping their life to achieve a balance that blends professional success with personal happiness and aligned meaning.
This story serves as a powerful reminder that we all must listen to our bodies and make adjustments as our own life's seasons evolve—whether in our careers, relationships, or personal development.
Imagine thriving in your career, yet struggling with an underlying exhaustion that erodes your well-being. In this solo chat, I explore the story of a successful client who navigated the subtle onset of burnout.
They took a step back to reassess their health and business commitments, eventually reshaping their life to achieve a balance that blends professional success with personal happiness and aligned meaning.
This story serves as a powerful reminder that we all must listen to our bodies and make adjustments as our own life's seasons evolve—whether in our careers, relationships, or personal development.
You don't have to hit a wall in order to make a shift. You can listen inwardly to that little voice inside saying, okay, what feels off, what would feel better, and it's one little step. Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botelho podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of the Seasons self-care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and live your version of a happy, successful life. And on today's solo chat I wanted to talk about burnout, the realities around it and how insidious it can look and how it can creep up on us when we don't even think it's a thing in our life, when it's something maybe someone else is dealing with. We've got this.
Sheila:
I want to talk about a story from my past experience with a client years ago who had been very, very successful in their international business. They were traveling a lot, they were experiencing luxurious living, they had a couple of different homes and they had a lot of mouths to feed. As a result, in this business, they had created something much larger than themselves. They really felt it was their mission in life to be doing this work, and as the years progressed and as the economy shifted and as the way we did business shifted. They noticed that they were starting to have to push themselves more. Things that used to be easy for them were challenging. The hiring experience, the dealing with different international things changing regarding their business were starting to take their toll, and they were at a place in their life where they had children who were growing up and they didn't want to miss out on that time that was so precious. And so, when we connected, they were looking for a way out of this incredible life. They've built this incredible version of their life and, as I talk about creating the version of your life that you most want to live, they had done it and they realized that it was time for a change. And so, when we think about the seasons of our lives, it is truly such a reflection of nature. We have the springtime of our life, where everything is young and fun and new and fresh and our energy is vibrant, and then we come to a place where we're in the sunlight in the summertime, where we are expanding outwardly and everything is growing and blossoming and blossoming. The seeds we planted in our youth are now really growing like crazy. And then we come to the autumn and it's time to now harvest that and maybe start to go inward a little bit and start to look towards a time of rest so that we can continue on through the journey.
Sheila:
And I believe that that was really where this person was. They were in the middle of autumn and they were recalibrating. They were assessing, kind of like as a farmer, might you know, reassessing. Well, do these farm equipment pieces? Do they need to be replaced? Do we need to look at a new type of crop? How is the land? This is something that starts to come into play as you are reaping your harvest, because you're seeing how is it all working.
Sheila:
And so, for them, they were at a season of life. They wanted to slow down a little bit. They didn't want to stop. They never saw themselves stopping. They knew they had a big mission. They always wanted to be really on purpose and inside of it it was just going to start looking different. They could feel really what the catalyst was was. They could feel it in their body.
Sheila:
The energy that once came so easily to them was now not so easy to come by, and the demands that were added on, based on the growth and the size of their business, started to help them. Teeter and totter a little bit about what they should do next, and so they were on a search, and that's when we came into contact, and this was when they were looking at having a real overhaul in their health, and so we walked alongside of them. We walked alongside of them through this journey of getting to know their bodies and what they really needed. What needed to shift, and what was really beautiful is the big, massive burning down of their life. That they were ready to do didn't need to happen. They scaled back. They still were able to keep parts of their business intact. Other parts that weren't lighting them up, they let go of.
Sheila:
But they were able to create a new version of what their life would look like, and it began with their wellbeing. It began with their health, and it began with listening to that still small voice within them that was telling them something was off. And if they kept going in the direction like at the speed that they were going, who knows where they'd end up. They wouldn't be feeling their best. And they wanted to feel their best. They wanted to be their best for this time in their life they had been building for and building for. They wanted to start enjoying the fruit of their labor and they wanted to spend more time with their loved ones. They had had their head down so long, just focused, and that was the culture around them at the time as well. So it was totally normal. It felt normal. Everyone that they spent their time with was on a similar trajectory. And they say look around at the five closest people in your life and their net worth, and likely you're going to have a similar net worth. The same is true of well-being, the same is true of relationships, the same is true of their passions.
Sheila:
So, as you listen to this story, think about where you're at right now. Are you in the springtime? And I'm not even just talking about age. Okay, age is one part of it, but let's talk about the seasons of your business, the seasons of your career. Are you in the beginning of something new and it's all exciting and fresh? Soak it up, enjoy it and know that you will come to the summer and to the fall and, yes, to the winter. We are nature and we're going through those seasons, and our businesses go through those seasons, and our desires and our relationships go through those seasons too. And so today we're talking about burnout, so we're focused more on our careers, on business?
Sheila:
Where are you at? Are you feeling content with the trajectory you're on? Are you feeling content with how you feel in your body? Certainly, no matter what we do in our life, no matter how much we love it, there's always going to be elements that we don't really enjoy. That's just the human experience. This is not utopia, we are not there yet. But overall, are you feeling like, okay, this is good and I can manage these things and I actually even thrive through these other elements that are maybe not my most favorite things, but everything else in my life makes up for that. Take an assessment get quiet, get still. If you've been following along, recently, I'm going through a 40-day abundance meditation series and it is really to allow you to have space just for like 5, 10, maybe 15 minutes once a day to really still yourself and to focus on abundance, specifically your version of abundance, what that might look like. What is the area you want to feel more abundant with? Is it your time? Is it your finances? Is it abundance of really healthy relationships? Is it abundance of your physical well-being and energy?
Sheila:
So this person I was working with went through this transformation and what happened as a result of them getting quiet and listening to the voice, before it became a screaming situation and they said, whoa, let's just put on the brakes for a moment, let's take time away, figure out our next steps. And once they made the shift, they started to really do. They went on. A wellness journey is what they did, and, of course, what does any visionary entrepreneur do when they see anything that works really really well for them? Well, they turn it into a business, of course, and that's what they did, and so we worked on that together and it was really really beautiful to see the incredible, incredible reach that their desire helped others with. They were transformed. They were so lit up by how good they were feeling. They shared it with everybody and they started to guide other business owner friends, other family members, just people around them who they really wanted to see thrive to, so that they could be able to thrive with the people they cared about and enjoyed spending time with, and it rippled out and rippled out and rippled out to a global phenomenon, really, and it was wonderful to walk along that journey with them and to witness who they became.
Sheila:
In the process, they learned new things about themselves that they didn't even know existed. They thought there was one way of doing things for the long haul. That's what they've been told when they first started out in business that this is the way it is. This is the way you get success. You burn yourself out, you just go hard head down and then you get to one day sit back and say, oh look, what I built and now I've arrived. Sometimes we don't really get to experience that. We end up working so hard and then our health takes a hit. Something happens in our relationship that maybe because of all of the time we've spent so focused on one thing and not those other really heartfelt things that we really knew that were important to us, because we didn't invest the time there and because we didn't invest the time in our health and our well-being, the relationship kind of hit back. Our well-being, the relationship kind of hit back. The health hit back maybe stopped us in our tracks, caused us to reevaluate. This is just how it goes sometimes.
Sheila:
But if you're listening to this today, do an assessment of where you're at. You don't have to hit a wall in order to make a shift. You can listen inwardly to that little voice inside saying, okay, what feels off, what would feel better. And it's one little step, and if it means I just need to take time every day, five, 10 minutes to myself, to be still and to connect with the divine, to connect with source, to connect with the creativity that created you, maybe that is a great place to start. So I invite you to go to the link in the show notes you can tap to get more information about the meditation experience and how you can get the beautiful studio recording of it that will be available very soon.
Sheila:
And as we close, I want to just leave you with a quote, and it's from someone who is very well known. You may have heard this before and we can feel like life is just so big and to make a change feels like such a huge, huge thing. But think about what Martin Luther King said. He said you are standing at a staircase. It looks so steep. You don't need to worry about the scale of the staircase, you just need to take the first step. The first step here is trusting yourself, trusting your intuition, and I'm really glad that you're listening today.
Sheila:
Have you ever found that you're scrolling through your podcasts, you're scrolling through your Instagram, your LinkedIn, and you're saying, ah, I don't know. I'll just listen for a moment and you didn't know what you're looking for. And then you start listening and you're like whoa, this is exactly what I needed to hear today. This happens all the time to me. I hope this is a moment for you, that this was exactly what you needed to hear today, and I want to invite you to, as you think about that next step and taking the space to meditate into it, think about what it would look like being with a group of other like-minded people who are wanting to grow into the next version of their business.
Sheila:
Maybe they want to write a book. Maybe you want to write a book. Maybe you want to start speaking on stages. Maybe you want to start diving into that creative passion of yours like painting or music. Maybe you want to start a whole new health journey and you want to look at it through the lens of all that is possible and be around people who also are wanting to grow.
Sheila:
If that's the case, I am doing something really special in this season, just for six weeks. It's my first time offering it. It's geared towards business, and yet I know there's going to be some people in there who are also looking at some health transformations, and so I invite you in to the Season to Shine Summer Incubator. We can have a conversation. If you feel like it's something that you want to look into doing, tap the link in the show notes for more information, and I hope that you spend your day considering all that is possible for you, because it's all inside of you. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for sharing, tagging people on social. It's so helpful to get the word out about this episode. I really appreciate you. Have a beautiful rest of your day. Big blessings.
