Finding Balance And Minimizing Burnout In A Chaotic World

That Solo Life, Episode 251 - Finding Balance and Minimizing Burnout in a Chaotic World

Michelle Kane [00:17.467]-[00:33.077]: Thank you for tuning in for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros, marketers, and communicators who work for themselves. People like me, Michelle Kane with Voice Matters, and my ever-wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi, Karen.

Karen Swim, APR [00:33.077]-[00:41.642]: How are we doing today? Buenos dias for all of my Spanish speakers in the audience. And hello, Michelle. I'm doing great. Lovely.
Michelle Kane [00:41.642]-[01:09.935]: I'm doing well, thank you. Doing well. Chugging along, enjoying the sunshine when it happens. It definitely makes a difference in a day. We've had some days in a row of some gray, foggy, cloudy days and that immediately just kind of puts a damper on your mood and a little bit on your energy levels, right? Which is what we're going to talk about a little bit today.

Karen Swim, APR [01:11.138]-[01:19.961]: Yeah, I think gray foggy is probably a good descriptor of how a lot of people have been feeling, unfortunately, in 2024.

Michelle Kane [01:19.961]-[02:11.903]: Yes, yes, I, I remember back to, it sounds like I remember in olden days, certainly, gosh, the pandemic does feel like a long time ago. And, you know, we got through it. And I remember in 2022, thinking, Okay, I think we're starting to feel a little tired, just because we've gotten through a big thing. And now it's that the adrenaline let down of, we're through it. But it feels like because the earth doesn't stop spinning and complications do not stop arising, that it just feels like the fatigue is setting in. And I don't mean to say that every day is horrible or anything, and not to sound too woo, but the energy still feels like globally we're still, we're all tired, we're just fatigued. The spark is not as present.

Karen Swim, APR [02:11.903]-[03:59.725]: The level of burnout is really incredible. There is an article that came out, and I want to say it was Yahoo Finance. They talked about how people are really taking off work and taking sick days because their work is making them sick.

So not only do we have people dealing with toxic workplaces, but there was an article in Time in February of this year that talked about, you know, that we're exhausted from the global stressors, from, you know, things that are going on, inflation coming out of the pandemic, because believe it or not, we are still dealing with the effect of that. And so I, I completely understand why all of that just weighs on us.

I mean, you wake up daily, and you have all of these things that are just big issues that impact you. You have the conflicts around the globe. You have the conflicts here on home base. You have entire groups of people feeling marginalized and victimized and that's exhausting. And then, you know, you're just trying to keep your head above water and it's hard. And, you know, of course, social media makes it more difficult because you can't retreat from all of that information. You're being assaulted with it. And so you really have to do you find those pockets and find these ways to find your own happy place and kind of stay there. And it's difficult because we have to live in the world with other people, unfortunately.

Michelle Kane [04:01.706]-[04:50.447]: And I think also, you know, one of the results of the pandemic is that we all started to do work differently. And many of us started to question, okay, this work I do, and I don't want to solely blame the pandemic. I mean, as life goes on, you get older, you know, you enter different phases of life and you start to question. Huh, do I really want to hop back on that train of the relentlessness of the pace and get back to doing things that way? Which, let's face it, many of us were and still are to a degree. I think our culture has been a bit more forgiving about that. But still, it remains that. And I see it in event planning. Why don't people want to come out to events anymore? And there really isn't any clear reason except

Karen Swim, APR [04:51.119]-[05:26.753]: They just don't, you know, it's retired. We don't even want to do our own events. You know, the new trend these days is you feel like it in the moment and, but you don't know what person you're going to be when that thing actually happens. And you have to pay for something, a large chunk of money. I think that people, a lot of people, not everyone, of course, but a lot of people are just not sure who they're going to be in three months. Like, do I want to spend $1,500 on a conference ticket because I want to go now? But how will I feel when that time actually comes?

Michelle Kane [05:27.654]-[06:16.457]: I agree. I agree. And, and, and that's challenging all around. I mean, I think there's a bright side that we are being more forgiving of ourselves and we are becoming more in tune with, okay, what do I really need to be the best, most productive, most whole person I can be, not just for myself, but for those around me who might depend on me. and really what is the best move forward. So I don't know, what do we call it? We're in a bit of a state of flux where people are finding their lanes, they're finding new lanes. I think it's all of those things converging while still to some degree, I think we're slowly coming around to the fact that normal is a moving target. Normal isn't that safe space that you can just revert back to.

Karen Swim, APR [06:17.512]-[08:45.748]: Well, and let's really talk about we have all of these huge forces that are at play right now, too. So you have post-pandemic and the reality of the things that can really dramatically shift our lives. We have the economy and the economic tumult. Inflation is real. It's impacting everyone. We cannot escape that. we just continue to see prices remain high. And so that financial stress all by itself will be enough to send us over the edge.

We have this tension between what the future of work really is going to be, but that struggle to pull us out of the past. And so you've got people that were doing remote work that are now returning to office. you know, a tension between workers and organizations that impacts us.

We have the political and global crises that are impacting us. We cannot escape those things. They are happening. And even that, I believe that, you know, tensions are rising. And there's a lot of people who are not willing to accept the status quo anymore in any facet of life. And, and so, you know, you just have these, these big things that are happening. And I feel like there's a lot of change at once, not to mention things like the technological revolution that continues to happen that while it's great, it can also be exhausting to constantly adapt. I mean, when I think about how exhausting it is to use technology, but to also have to constantly protect yourself from bad actors. I mean, we've seen a huge spike in data breaches and cybersecurity and scams and dealing with all of these things at once.

The generations that are living longer, we talk about this in the workplace, but what about all of the people who are now becoming caregivers? That is one more thing in your life that's huge. So there's just so many things to unpack and so many things at once. And any one of those things on their own could be exhausting, but I don't blame us for being tired.

Michelle Kane [08:47.590]-[09:57.488]: We have many, many, many, many reasons for being tired, that's for sure. And it's so true. I mean, any one of those things on its own is enough. And you put it all together, and I think the fact that it's just unrelenting And it can be frustrating as well, you know, especially when you see these corporations that have raised prices, but then they boast record profits at the same time. And, you know, it's all these little things, right? It's death by a thousand paper cuts where you're like, oh, so your price doesn't have to be that high. Thanks.

And then, you know, you have the companies that say, oh, come back to work. We think you should come back to work at least a few days in the office to be a team player like our, And when this hits, this will be several weeks old news, but our Philadelphia Inquirer, the same week they encouraged their journalists, please come in at least three days a week for collegiality. And they cut their workforce. Yeah. It's just like, oh, okay. We played your game and this is what happens when they are financially sound. It's just, there's a lot of frustration around and that can really be exhausting. So how can we help combat that, right? How can we help combat it? Oof.

Karen Swim, APR [09:59.268]-[12:02.981]: I mean, I think first, it's, you know, that old adage of filling your own cup first, or putting on your own oxygen mask first, I think that we have to make sure that we're doing the things that allow us to be okay.

You know, all of the things that we know to do the practical things like eating well, Another reason that, you know, I can't speak to every country, but I can speak to Americans in our diet of overly processed foods. That doesn't lend itself to good health. It doesn't lead itself to energy. We're hearing more about how food is medicine. I am a huge believer in that. And I'm, you know, I'm not this, please, whoever's hearing this, don't hear this as diet culture, which I hate. But just the practical steps that we can take, you know, how you nourish yourself really does impact your energy level. It affects your sleep, which, you know, many of us are not getting enough of and sleep impacts your mood. So there's all these things that cascade. I

t's learning techniques to manage those stressors. I think that's huge. Yeah, I agree. You know, there's so many places to turn to learn these things, like how to breathe through things. Sometimes just learning those deep breathing techniques to calm you in a moment and to drop your blood pressure. learning what, what gives you that sense of peace? Is it stretching? Is it yoga? Is it taking a walk? It doesn't have to be full-on, you know, weightlifting sessions, although, you know, those are great for you.

But I think that, you know, those practical things, we can't ignore those of how we take care of ourselves and how we, how we prime ourselves to really live in the world and how to be on a balanced footing. Because when we're, when we're well rested, well nourished, and we have these coping mechanisms to deal with stress, we get to show up in a more peaceful fashion. And when that happens, as these things come at you, you are less sensitive to them.

Michelle Kane [12:02.981]-[13:42.240]: That is so true. And I love how you framed that really because when you think of preparing for your day, it might just be, get some caffeine in me, maybe a bite to eat, I don't know. Shower, get dressed, boom. Okay, well no, let's factor in a little bit of that breathing. Just a little bit of, okay, you know what?

Today has its challenges. And decide ahead of time, and I'm giggling at myself as I say this. Decide ahead of time what's really important in the day. And the other things that may happen, you know, what can you be a duck about? What can you just let it roll? Roll off the back until, you know, not that it's not important, but really think about triaging the day. And let's face it, reactions are energy.

So it's really about managing your energy yet again. How am I going to react to this? What kind of reaction is it going to deserve? Take a minute, because you do have the minutes, even though you feel like you don't, especially in the work we do. We feel like, nope, got to do that. Write that, finish that, approve that, review that. Because guess what? We've all been on this wild ride these past few years that we're probably all feeling it. I mean, case in point, I thought I was a little behind on something, which I kind of was, but it wasn't earth-shattering. And I checked on the status of it, and the person I checked with referred me to the wrong internal person. And the wrong internal person mentioned the wrong client. And I just thought, I took comfort in all of this, because not only did we have grace with each other, but I thought, oh, OK, I'm not the only one.

Karen Swim, APR [13:42.980]-[16:04.397]: I love that. It's all okay. And I love the word grace as extended to others and also to yourself. Because you're right, things are just going to happen, but it's how we react to it. I learned.

So my dog has so many as my vet, he doesn't like to call them allergies. He calls them sensitivities. And we've learned from our holistic vet. things that have really made me stop and think about my own life. His focus is, I mean, she's allergic to everything, grass and beef and chicken and pork, and just a whole range of things, grains and eggs and dairy. And so he says he doesn't like to use the word allergies because he believes they're sensitivities. And that the more that we strengthen her body, her immune system and her gut, she won't react to those things. And it makes me stop to think, how we can do the same thing with our own infrastructure, meaning our own environment, our own body, our own mind, is that if we fix those things, if we tend to ourselves and we tend to our own environment, we tend to our mindset, we tend to our bodies, those things are still going to exist in the world. Like I can't remove grass from the world for my fur baby. I can't do it. It exists, but we're trying to get to the point where that grass exists, but she is no longer sensitive to it. Her body's not reacting to it.

So I think that we have to train ourselves in that same way. We have to give ourselves what we need. We have to fix that underlying structure so that while we can't remove all the stressors in life, we can not be sensitive to them anymore. And that, you know, that takes some work, it means saying no to things, it means looking at, you know, what's in your environment that's taking energy away, or that's sapping joy, and removing those things.

And I know that sometimes we look at the work, because It becomes a greater sensitivity sometimes like, oh, my God, I just I can't get rid of my clients because I need the money. Well, maybe it's not your client. Maybe it's other things that have now pushed you so far over the edge that you're reacting to things that you wouldn't react to because you have this heightened sensitivity.

Michelle Kane [16:05.038]-[17:03.375]: So true. Oh my goodness, that is so spot on. And I think as long as we're conscious of that, that's a great first step. Yes. And no is a complete sentence. I've said no to things lately that normally I would make it work somehow. And I'm just at the point where I'm like, no, I don't feel like Being that, you know, we'll stay on the dog theme, the dog chasing that car. I just, this project will live without me. And, you know, if it doesn't really serve your business or you're just really what you want to do with your life, it's kind of funny, especially, you know, I love to work hard, but when I, you know, I work hard during the day and when I need to work so that when I'm not working, I'm not working. I know there are some solos who just love to always be at it and just know that whichever way you roll, that's okay. For those of us that like to have a little more structure, it's like, no. Well, in case you want to look at this tonight, I'm like, no.

Karen Swim, APR [17:05.093]-[18:08.883]: Yeah. And I think that that is so individual, right? It's finding your own balance. It's tapping into your own circadian rhythms. When are you at your peak? What can you really handle? What do you want to handle? What's important to you? Because there are seasons in life.

For the past couple of weeks, I've put in extra hours, not because I had to, but because I was excited about the work and because it was healing me, it was giving me joy, it was giving me energy. But I also, you know, there are times that I have to back off because I have to protect myself. And so I do think that, you know, when you become more sensitive to yourself, and you're doing the things to take care of yourself, and you know finding that lane for you and understanding that it's not gonna be the same from day to day or from season to season in your life, and that's okay.
But as long as you're aware of it and you're making yourself a priority All of the other things in life, you know, we can mute that noise just a bit yeah, definitely and

Michelle Kane [18:09.812]-[18:58.098]: You know, bottom line is you expect others to act that way for themselves, to take care of themselves. And yet we seem to make ourselves the exception. So we challenge you, dear listener, to not do that. And we're probably challenging ourselves at this time as well, because I'm, you know, my own worst enemy. I think we're all our own worst enemies. We hope that you can take one of these nuggets of inspiration with you throughout the week. If you found this of worth, please do share it around. We would love that. That would help us a great deal. If you have any comments or anything, hit us up at soloprpro.com. I'll do a shameless plug. There's some great content up on the blog right now at soloprpro.com to help you Build your business. Until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.