Dealing with Burnout as a Female Christian Leader and THRIVING AGAIN!
Want help dealing with burnout? This video will teach you how to deal with burnout as a female Christian leader. If you’re looking for how to deal with burnout in ministry and at work, this video will teach you the three signs and symptoms of burnout and how to deal with burnout as a female Christian leader. You were created to thrive!
In less than 11 minutes learn the three signs of burnout and my five-step framework for dealing with burnout as a female Christian leader so that you can thrive again.
Click the link below and watch this video to start dealing with your burnout today (or read the transcript below)!
Not sure how to deal with burnout? By reading this article, you will not only learn the three signs and symptoms of burnout but you will also have my five-step framework for how to deal with burnout as a female Christian leader so that you can start thriving in your leadership and life again.
I've used the same framework with my coaching clients and now it's your turn.
So how do you know if you're dealing with burnout right now? Well the World Health Organization describes burnout as “work-related stress that has not been successfully dealt with” and it shows up in three signs and symptoms:
exhaustion
lack of interest in your work or job, even being a little bit cynical or very cynical about your work right now, and
reduced effectiveness at your job.
So how do you deal with this burnout?
Well there are five steps that you can take starting today to effectively deal with your burnout so that you can get back to thriving in leadership and life.
Step 1: Make time for God
Here's the reality you're never going to find extra time it's not possible we actually have to make time. So that means that you need to stop right now look at your calendar figure out what you can delegate to others. Share your responsibilities. Decide what you can delay for now what is not essential for this week to get done or even what you can delete from your calendar and make time for God.
Step 2: Get alone with God
This is so important because we have to be in a place in our life and our leadership where we are regularly, even constantly hearing the truth from God about who we are. Because at the end of the day, our worth is only found in God. And when we are so overwhelmed and so stressed by our work that we're exhausted, even disinterested in our job and even becoming less and less effective at what we do, then we have to make time to get alone with God and to sit in God's presence to be in God's presence and to exhale so deeply so that we can start to listen. Which brings us to step three.
Step 3: Start praying
And I'm sure you are, but when you make time for God, get alone with God, and start to pray specifically about this burnout and really start to bring it to God and talk with God about what's working, what isn't working, what needs to change, the likelihood is that this isn't a conversation that you've regularly been having with the Lord.
And so when we are dealing with burnout, something has to change, right? The way that we are doing things cannot continue or we're going to continue to face burnout in our leadership and in our life and then everyone is suffering around us as well. And that's simply not who God created us to be.
And so yes, seasons change, right? Babies are born, close loved ones pass away, illness sets in, pandemics happen, things change at work. There are so many things that are changing around us that we may or may not have control over. But the way that we've done things before, if we're facing burnout right now are, not the things that we need to do moving forward so that we can be thriving in leadership and in life.
So we really need to be intentional in our prayers when we're alone with God to start having honest conversations about what is working right now, Lord? Where are you in the midst of this God? What isn't working? And ask God to reveal that to you to help you see what isn't working right now, why did things get to where they are right now ,why are you so exhausted, so stressed, so disinterested in your work, less effective at how you do your job. What isn't really working and what needs to change? Pray about it. Have a very honest conversation with God and it might take more than one conversation let's be real am I, right?
Step 4: Listen
Now step four may seem simplistic but I promise you it's not. When you make time for God, get alone with God, start praying about what's working, what's not working, and what might need to change. Then step four is to listen, right? God wants us to live thriving lives within whatever circumstance we are in right now whether that's a global pandemic, whether that's the news of a loved one getting cancer or being terminally ill, whether that's having a newborn and living in the reality of sleepless nights, or teething toddlers. Whatever our circumstances are Jesus still came that we might have life and life to the full today this side of heaven in our now circumstances. And so what has to change? What needs to be different as you move forward? And the only way you can really know that deep in your core deep in your soul is to really pause and listen. What is God saying to you right now? What is God saying to you right now about your leadership? About your job about your ministry? About your life who you are?
Because you are a beloved child of God even if you don't feel like it right now, even if you feel like a failure right now because you've gotten to the place of exhaustion, you hate your job (let's be real sometimes we kind of feel that way) and we are really lacking in effectiveness right now. That's okay. Burnout is a real thing and the best thing is to recognize when we're in it and then to be intentional about dealing with it.
So, step four is to pause and really listen. Again you might need to do this over more than just one day. You might need to take days or weeks and just sit and listen. And trust me that God is going to speak and let you know what it looks like for you to thrive in this season. And maybe it's just a small thing that you need to tweak and change like incorporating more rest time throughout your week or throughout your months or maybe it's something bigger like putting something that has felt like a big rock in your life right now and on your schedule right now and delaying it for a season because it's just too much right now. Or maybe it looks like changing up how you do your leadership changing up, how you delegate, how you equip and empower those around you, so that you're thriving as a team and all the responsibility is not on your shoulders any more. So really take time to listen, it's so important.
Step 5: Get Strategic
And then step five to the framework of how to deal with burnout as a female christian leader so that you can thrive in your leadership and life is to get strategic. After you make time with God, after you get alone with God, after you start praying, and start listening to God, it's time to get strategic because what you've been doing and how you've been living and how you've been leading up to this point cannot be how you continue to lead and live moving forward. Right? Because that is just setting you up for perpetual burnout. We don't want that. You don't want that. God doesn't want that for you and so you really need to get strategic about what needs to change because something's got to change.
Maybe there's more shared responsibilities with your family? Maybe you need to invite more people into your life to help you with grocery shopping, with laundry, with taking care of your home, with helping out with your kids if you have kids, with helping out with your responsibilities at work or ministry. Whatever it looks like, you really need to get strategic about what needs to change so you can start thriving in leadership and life again because what you do moving forward cannot be what you've been doing as you look back over the last weeks or months or whatever has led to your current burnout.
So now that you know the three signs and symptoms of burnout and the five steps in my framework for how to deal with burnout so that you can get back to thriving in your leadership in your life!
