Meet the Burnout Brothers

Burnout is the villain of every entrepreneur’s story, but location-independent and digital nomad entrepreneurs are even more susceptible than many others because we voluntarily live outside our comfort zone on a daily basis.

Yes, there’s the joy and glamour of travel which we choose to experience, and without question it enriches our lives. However, it also creates an additional pressure and X-factor because there are very few things that we can consistently rely on… finding food we enjoy eating (or our bodies can tolerate), wifi to ensure we can get work done, even where we’re going to be sleeping some days.

Having travelled to over 34 countries and now 41 US States, I’ve experienced a huge range of ups and downs throughout my travels. Similarly, now half-way through my 17th year as an entrepreneur, I’ve ridden the ups and downs of being a “business owner” too. Throughout these dual adventures I’ve learned something important…

Burnout doesn’t just take one form. In fact, I’ve started calling them “The Burnout Brothers” because sometimes just one shows up and rocks your world for a while, but at other times all three of them wrestle their way into your world and take you completely OUT.

I’m familiar with the Burnout Brothers because they’ve come calling in my life in the past occasionally. However, I’ve also learned strategies that keep them from coming back, and that’s what I want to explore and share today to help you show them the door out of your life too.

Mental burnout is likely the brother you’ve met most often. He’s the front man that shows up when you’ve had a series of intense days that drive you to spend hours binging Netflix on the couch. It’s when you recognize that your brain simply cannot figure out anything else complicated right now, so you just play solitaire or video games … persistently.

If he’s showing up occasionally… once a week or less, then you’re likely navigating those visits fairly well. However, if he’s a visitor every night, and by the time your work day ends each day you’re feeling like toast. That’s a warning.

Mental burnout is like the brother who cases your place, and if he’s making frequent visits, then pretty soon he figures out where there’s an unlocked door or window, and he heads back to tell his brothers that there’s an easy target here.

Mental burnout can be the slip that just puts you a bit off balance, or that slip can land you on your ass with a broken ankle and a concussion if the other brothers also decide to show up.

But, here’s the great news… while mental burnout is likely your most frequent visitor, he’s also really easy to get rid of.

1. SLEEP! – Even just a nap can help refresh your mind and give you some needed mental energy to get to through each day. But, ensuring that you get to sleep at a reasonable time most nights and get 7-9 hours will be your best solid approach to fueling your mental energy and holding off burnout.
2. Rest – If you’re getting enough sleep and still getting frequent visits from mental burnout, then your body is likely demanding more downtime. (That’s what inspires the binge-watching and crashing on the couch.) It’s the restorative time that your body and mind are craving… so plan more restorative breaks throughout your day. 5-minute rest breaks when you get up, stretch, and grab a cup of tea can help a ton. Also a solid 30-90 minute lunch break in the middle of your day, and I mean a TRUE break away from your computer might mean you’re not fried by the end of it.
3. Food is Fuel – Find low-glycemic snacks that you can carry with you and keep near by while you work. Don’t just wait for three big meals a day. A small dose of a low-glycemic snack several times a day will keep your physical (and by extension your mental) energy up … your brain is part of your body after all.
4. Switch Task Types – Virtually no one can do highly mentally challenging tasks for 6-8 hours every day. Personally, about 3-4 hours is my max, and many others have experienced the same. So, don’t expect or demand that of yourself. Plan your day with a variety of task types. Maybe 1-2 creative, highly-mental tasks and another 1-2 easier low-mental tasks.

Burnout Brother #2: Emotional Burnout

1. Sleep – It’s the great healer. Seriously, it will help more than anything – 7-9 hrs/night.
2. Rest – For emotional burnout you’ll need more than just 5-minute brain breaks. If Emotional Burnout has been showing up, then now is a good time for a retreat, break, “me-day,” or any time you can get “away” to recharge. You won’t be able to think logically about how to solve your struggles until you rebuild some of your energy stores.
3. Blood-sugar boosts – If you’ve ever experienced being “hangry” (and EVERYONE who know me well knows that I certainly have), then now is definitely the time to make sure that you always have a snack with you. When Emotional Burnout has already stripped away most of your reserve energy, then avoiding unexpected blood-sugar drops can short-circuit some of those hair-triggered moments.
4. Planned Releases – When emotions are running on high, they need to come out. Trying to pretend that they aren’t there is personally destructive and non-functional for your long-term mental and emotional health. However, randomly losing our sh*t over and over again will create its own consequences. So, give yourself planned windows when you can let it ALL out. Maybe you schedule calls with a virtual therapist or a close friend or family member with whom you’re comfortable sharing the whole, rough story. Maybe you take daily swims, and no one needs to know that some of that water came from inside. Or even just crying in the shower can be great… yep, definitely done that myself a few times. Letting it out can feel draining, but often afterwards it’s as if you released all the nasty stuff from a wound so that it can start to heal again.

If Emotional Burnout has showed up for you now or in the past, then here’s the best thing you can do… ask for help. Seriously, there’s no shame in needing help from others sometimes. In fact, helping others through hard stuff is a great joy for some people. You may be giving them a gift, a sense of purpose and meaning to allow them to be there for you… even if you feel like a mushy, puddle of tears or a volatile powder keg.

Similarly, remember, emotional burnout won’t last forever. Particularly, if you take him seriously and give yourself space and permission to address him directly (rather than ignore him and hope he goes away.) Emotional Burnout usually shows up for a season and then moves on looking for others to mess with.

Travel Burnout is the final brother who’s like the conman that you invited in, and then he left you laid out flat. Why do I say that? Because generally travel burnout starts with your choices. Travel burnout can include everything from simple physical exhaustion to major illness or injury because you’ve been pushing yourself too hard.

Personally, I experienced it for the first time when I spent 4 months fast-traveling through Western Europe. It starts with just feeling in your heart and bones that you need a break, or you need to simply “hold still” for a while. But, if you ignore those warnings and keep going at the same pace, then I’ve heard everything from stories of weakened immune systems causing minor or major illnesses to serious injuries because you simply pushed your body too far while climbing that mountain or while riding that scooter in Thailand.

Physical burnout caused by exhausting levels of travel isn’t something we expect because, after all, we’re location-independent for a reason! We LOVE to explore. That’s what we find exhilarating and fun! But, our bodies are necessary vehicles for our travel, and sometimes they need something different than what our mind or spirit thought sounded like such an awesome adventure.

As I’ve said before, if you ignore your body’s gentle clues that it needs to slow down, then those clues might start showing up as mental or emotional breakdowns. (Enter the first two brothers.) If you don’t take care of it when they start appearing, then the Burnout Brothers may WHACK you with a “clue-by-four” and force you to slow down by simply breaking down… leaving you physically ill, injured, or simply all done.

There’s really just one key strategy for Travel/Physical Burnout:

SLOW DOWN! – Seriously, this isn’t a race. Slow down your travel speed and focus on resting and savoring one place for several months. You don’t have to “go home,” although you can if you think that would be restorative. Simply allowing yourself to have days where you do nothing, watch a sunset, take a walk, and skip all the adventurous stuff can be hugely beneficial.

Yes, all the other strategies above for mental and emotional burnout can help here too, but the biggest change you want to make if you’ve experienced this one is to make different choices about your travel plans now and in the future. If you want location-independence to be a sustainable lifestyle for an extended time, then you need to approach it more like an explorer than a sprinter. Your body, that awesome vehicle that’s bringing you everywhere, needs this from you. So, take good care of it.

In my signature course, The Freedom Evolution, I teach my fellow location-independent entrepreneurs how to create specific personal energy rituals that can put all of the Burnout Brothers on notice that it’s time for them to get lost.

We also cover how to set realistic boundaries on our work every day and on our travel to ensure that the Burnout Brothers can’t find an entry into our world. But, if you want to start with a good first step, then you’ll definitely want to join me TOMORROW (Wednesday, February 19, 2020) for the last date of my LIVE FREE Masterclass: 

• The BIGGEST mistake that Location-Independent and Digital Nomad Entrepreneurs make in trying to run their businesses while they travel
• Why “finding the best productivity app” hasn’t actually made you more productive
• The ONE backbone system that every business needs AND the basics of how to build it for your business
• The two simple shifts you can make to overcome Entrepreneurial Guilt quickly and easily