“I think too much”: How to free yourself from the mental load and define your priorities when you’re full of ideas and projects !
5 principles and rules to keep you light, clear and productive without burning-out :
What’s the best way to end up burned out?
How do you organize the perfect day to burn yourself out and destroy your sanity for good ?
Here’s the recipe:
- Start your day with a huge to-do list that makes no sense to you
- Throw yourself into these tasks and move from one to the next
- At the same time, answer calls and emails to interrupt each task
- Look at your performance statistics every 5 minutes
- Focus primarily on results, especially those with a very, very high bar
- Add pressure by integrating new projects with even tighter deadlines
- Take advantage of your breaks to go on Instagram and compare yourself to your competitors or others who have a dream life
- Don’t take the time to eat well, just eat what you have on hand
- At the end of the day, meet up with your friends who are complaining about the current economic situation and are sure to send you a few quips about your illusory ambitions.
It’s cliché, but there are a lot of little ingredients that, when added up, end up making you “crack”. And if you add a job you don’t like, with a hierarchy that devalues you, puts you down, pressures you and never rewards you…
You know how it ends!
It’s not just employees who end up in burn-out; it happens a lot to freelancers and entrepreneurs too.
For years we’ve been extolling the virtues of “escape the rat race”, we’ve ended up with a whole generation of freelancers and entrepreneurs increasingly frustrated by fierce competition, unfair algorithms and increasingly absurd market rules.
As I often say:
The rat is out of the wheel, but not out of the cage…
Here are 5 rules and principles to keep your mind healthy:
1- Preserve creativity and enthusiasm for creation:
Don’t just focus on the pressure of results (numbers, statistics, sales, likes etc.) but on the creative process and its criteria for excellence.
Your desire to create is what’s most precious and important, and it’s what creates the results (which are not entirely your own). In short: focus on the process, fall in love with the process and let go of the result!
2- Choosing is not giving up, it’s giving up for now
Your time is limited, and so is your daily willpower and energy. You can’t do everything at once!
Prioritizing means defining where you want to start and focusing on one thing at a time. You can accomplish several projects, but focus on each “block” one after the other.
3- Keep it light and agile
Keep it simple!
If things get too heavy or complex, lighten up!
It’s important to always make room!
I’ve chosen to have a small, agile team and simple processes because it meets my need for freedom!
4- Don’t accumulate, don’t keep what’s stagnant and cluttered (environment and mind)
Objects, projects, relationships, thoughts, emotions, fears, beliefs… Not everything serves you!
Always leave room for movement. If something goes in, something else must come out.
The same goes for your thoughts and ideas:
Thoughts and ideas come and go: they don’t belong to you. It’s up to you to decide whether to materialize them or leave them in the “clouds”. But don’t keep everything, either physically or mentally.
5- Listen to yourself and respect yourself
Anything that doesn’t flow and nourish the soul (projects, relationships, commitments…) gets out! Respect your values, your rhythms, your needs…
If it resonates to you, I had done this post on the 5 most important decisions I made to preserve my mental health.
And Subscribe to the newsletter if you want more advices to find flow in your life and business…