In The Rest Revolution, I explore the premise that burnout stems from a series of misalignments—frictions that go against our natural inclinations and ultimately lead to energy leaks that contribute to our exhaustion.
Through the practice of PURPOSESCAPING, a restorative philosophy inspired by nature, we can restore what has been depleted by chronic overworking.
Once these misalignments are addressed, it’s much easier to move beyond burnout and start realigning with a healthier, more sustainable way of working and living. Here are a few strategies I recommend for high achievers looking to break free from the misaligned burnout behaviors that exhaust them.
One – Become a student of yourself
When you think about how misaligned ambition, connection, time, nervous system, and self-knowledge are robbing us daily of our energy, it’s important to start realigning the self by getting to know yourself deeply.
What is true for you? Who are you? What are your skills? What do you believe? What are your values? What do you care about? What matters to you?
Then really get honest with yourself about whether or not you are living in alignment with the things that truly matter to you. Does your life match your values?
Questions for Realignment: What activities have historically energized you? What people and kinds of people have historically energized you? Are you making room for these in your life? What are you hungry for?
Two – Reclaim Your Time
Second, you want to realign your time by slowing down to question how are you currently using your time and again interrogate whether your current use of time is how you must use it. Perhaps there areas where you could cut back on doing things that drain you, take a sabbatical, and make more time for the passions, purposeful work, hobbies and relationships that give you energy.
Often we accept schedules that are handed to us by other people and we don’t stand up for ourselves to say what matters to us.
Questions for Realignment: Where do you need to set boundaries in your personal life? Where do you need to set boundaries in your work? How are you making regular time for rest and renewal?
Three – Right-Size Your Ambition
Third, it’s important to ‘right-size your ambition’, which means getting honest about whether or not the goals you are pursuing are still in alignment with your true self and current season. You may be operating from an outdated playbook – a holdover from a previous period in your life and you just haven’t taken the time to update your ambition and your goals to reflect how you’ve evolved.
Perhaps it’s time to pivot your career after burnout.
Questions for Realignment: Are you pursuing goals that energize you, or just the ones that look good on paper? Does your current definition of success include your health and well-being?
Four – Make Space for Stillness
The fourth alignment is space — your sensory experience of the world. When people find themselves in burnout, their nervous systems are typically fried. How often are you making time for stillness to sit with yourself to and calm your nervous system to observe your thoughts, your emotions, and your breath?
Questions for Realignment: How are you making time daily to calm yourself? What practices – meditation, journaling, running, breathwork – can you incorporate into your routine each day?
Five – Prioritize Energy-Generating Relationships
The last alignment is connection. Many people in burnout are so focused on showing up for the work that pays the bills or leads to achievement that they back burner essentially everything else that doesn’t lead to an accolade or paycheck. But your relationships are critical. Community is healing and energizing. Connection is necessary to restore the depleted self.
Questions for Realignment: How are you making time for your most important relationships? How can you set better boundaries around people who drain you?
So much of this is mindset work, because if you’re in burnout, you need to make fundamental changes about how you run your life. You are likely swimming against the current of inherited social and family programming that encourages you to remain misaligned.
But to truly realign to a sustainable pace, you will eventually have to stop taking your life at face value. Instead, start to interrogate why you are doing the things you do and why you believe the things you believe. Then ask yourself if you are operating from your authentic values and beliefs — or are you simply blindly accepting a prevailing social norm?