Sustainable living is an important goal, but it also takes effort. Today's contributing author shares all about shared experiences, the drive for an ethical future, and how to avoid and recover from burnout!
Can You Escape Burnout?
There has been a blossoming of eco-choices on the market, ethical brands and small businesses run by people who care about the world. The shadow behind this green-boom is burnout. In the face of burnout, I had two options, minimise myself or transform my life. I chose the latter.
From cottage-industry roots, ethical green businesses tackling environmental and humanitarian issues are in demand.
But what about the people behind these start-ups, businesses and local producers? I often hear about the hustle of selling high quality, well produced products to customers who aren’t willing to pay the difference between this product and a knock-off from the supermarket. Competing with ever-faster online alternatives mean local producers have to work hard to attract attention. Social media attention can take hours as people dance around making reels, that may not make sales.
Customers are hustling too, the hippy stereotype has been replaced by conscious caring people looking for a way to tread lightly on the world. They have expectations, on price and time and quality. Consumers live in a speeded up, connection-light world, and often hope to ‘buy into’ something that attaches them to a more ethical path, to counteract stressful lives. Buying meaning, connection and transformation through a bamboo toothbrush.
The hustle is a game I recognise well. My name is Kerry and I grew 'Brilliant Thing' to escape from burnout.
Symptoms of Burnout
After 12 months of organising vital support for communities through the pandemic and ten years of charity management and helping others, I was on the cusp of burnout. Many in caring or community-based professions, people trying to have a positive impact on the world, will recognise compassion fatigue, apathy and the simple exhaustion of relentless giving. Ethical businesses and producers, whose income depends on other people caring as much as them, describe similar burnout symptoms.
Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout include:
Sense of failure and self-doubt.
Loss of motivation.
Increasingly cynical and negative outlook.
Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
For ethical businesses and purpose led people, whose life and work is based on positively impacting on the world, these symptoms feel like heartbreak and can take the heart out and put the breaks on your vital work. For conscious customers who find their purchases are not cancelling out the stress and disconnect in their lives, burnout can stop them buying, stop them caring.
Sustainable Living and Burnout
Whether buyer or seller, burnout is a threat to ethical living. For me, Chronic Fatigue, Endometriosis, and daily pain gave me two options, minimise myself or transform my life. I chose the latter. I wasn’t willing to stop caring, make myself smaller, do less or stop contributing to the world.
But I did need to escape from the grasp of burnout or that was exactly where I was headed. I knew lying on the floor in pain while typing a critical document was wrong, however my doctor-recommended alternative of only doing the minimum, reducing activity that wasn’t solely about me felt like quitting caring. I was angry that that the ‘cure’ seemed to be coming to terms with the idea I would never be the same, I would always need to be careful. My energy reserves were gone and I was just going to have to learn to live with that. I had ideas, ambitions, purpose. This new smaller version of me wasn’t allowed to dream big or push hard and I grieved for the energetic passionate person I had been.
Slowly I decided I had to get her back.
A combination of self-coaching with support from a brilliant coach, re-defining my personal purpose and finding daily creative practices gave me back my drive and energy.
I replaced the hustle, the endless seeking (through work, things I bought, what I consumed) with quality experiences. Creating quality experiences like a team picnic rather than a zoom meeting improved my work. I realigned activities around my core purpose and personal energy levels, I started a Facebook group to encourage others to share their eco, creative and development projects, events and products. When consuming, buying things, listening to things, watching social media, I replaced transactions and voyeurism with connections and curiosity. I built connections with the people I bought from and learnt more about the products and media I used. I read a lot of books, turning chapters as I turned pages.
Speaking about my experiences started to inspire others to nurture sustainability within their projects and lives and my business bloomed. I have learnt first-hand, that a radical refresh of how we organise our time and energy and a focus on creative practice, can help us make brilliant things that matter in the world and my business is all about sharing that learning.
Recovering from Burnout
Now I work with entrepreneurs, ethical and eco businesses. I start every conversation, with people who care and want to feel good while contributing to the world, with a commitment to discovering a creative way of working that aligns their purpose with modern business practices to achieve ethical success.
If you recognise some of the burnout symptoms or feel you need to focus on yourself this season, I have a self-paced course available, How to organise your time and energy, to fulfil your purpose which will help you reflect and replenish, avoid burnout and begin the practice of living and working with purpose.
We can all dream big and make things that matter, for ourselves and for the world.
About the Author
Kerry runs Brilliant Thing which is the UK’s only coaching consultancy specifically for ethical and eco businesses. Through coaching, courses and content she helps people who care, cultivate plans, practices and cultures that grow brilliant things, that make a difference. Kerry is based in Bury, Greater Manchester and is always up for a brew and a brilliant conversation.
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