Starting to Run Out of Steam?

Do you sometimes feel like you are balancing more responsibilities or rarely have to time to catch your breath? If you are not intentional about giving yourself a break, an overloaded schedule and an overdrive mode of operation can leave you feeling burned out. Have you begun to feel that way in some area of your life? Perhaps at work or in a relationship. Even extended periods of financial stress can leave you feeling burned out.

This week, I'd like to challenge you to take a break, lighten your load and ask for help if you need it. Here are a few of the signs that it's time to do something different:

• Exhaustion and fatigue

• Loss of motivation - You don't feel like doing things you usually love to do

• Feeling that too much is expected of you

• Irritability and mood swings

• Inability to concentrate on work

• Feeling resentful of your work

• You haven't had a vacation in over a year

If any of these signs look familiar, consider these strategies this week to regain your strength, passion, and motivation.

1. Take a break
It is important for your health and well-being to take regular vacations. That means twice or more per year, you should take a stretch of time (one week or more) to simply relax and rejuvenate. A long weekend away can boost your energy as well, but be sure to take a week or more off to slow down, clear your thoughts and enjoy time to focus exclusively on what brings you joy. When you step away from the routine of life, you gain perspective.

2. Evaluate your life
Your vacation should not be the only time you focus on joy in your life. Often, we become burned out when we forget to enjoy the journey. By focusing exclusively on the goals we seek for the future, we can forget to appreciate our present moments. Ask yourself, "What brings me joy?" Then add more of it to your daily work and personal life.

3. Celebrate your milestones
If you are driven and focused, you likely accomplish a great deal on a regular basis. This is terrific. However, if you do not take time to celebrate the milestones on your journey, your spirit can become worn out by the constant drive with no reward. Celebrate your progress often. You may not have reached the big goal, but taking consistent steps forward is something worth celebrating!

4. Focus on slowing down
In our fast-paced, high-tech world, it seems we move at a faster and faster pace. Keeping up can leave you burned out. It's like taking your car to 100 miles per hour indefinitely. It wouldn't be good for your car - and it isn't good for you. Everything in life is not an emergency. So don't treat the things that can wait as though they are just as important as the things that really can't.

5. Change your routine
Sometimes, you can get burned out from simply doing the same thing day in and day out. From time to time, change up your routine. Go out instead of eating in, or stay in instead of going out. Try a new way of accomplishing a project at work or tackle the project you've been procrastinating about. If your life calls for it, make a major change. Severe burnout may be life's way of telling you that it's time for a new job, new career, a new city or a new way of living. Follow your intuition and be open to change.

Journaling assignment:
In what way are you feeling overloaded or burned out right now? What could alleviate that feeling and leave you feeling refreshed?

My challenge to you this week:
Take a measurable step to refresh your energy, lighten your load or ask for help.