3 Secret Limiting Beliefs We Hold that Lead To Burnout

Do you feel like you can’t “relax” knowing how much work that needs to be done?

Does exhaustion plague you after work? Leaving you with no “me time” afterwards?

Do you have this nagging feeling that you’re never doing enough?

You’re not alone my friend, we’ve all been there.

I distinctly remember when the doomsday in my business had hit. After staring at a screen for 10+ hours a day for 4 weeks straight my mental health took a toll. I had trouble falling asleep and my brain couldn’t shut off from all the tasks and responsibilities I had to do for work.

How did we get here? Where did things start going to shit?

Limiting belief #1: It’s a requirement to work hard for money

No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder — Elon Musk

After watching my parents have many sleepless nights, miss family and school events, and shoo me away when I seeked affection from them, you start to realize that something else holds more of a priority to them than their own daughter. Not to say that they don’t love you, but when you’re a growing child you don’t fully comprehend their purpose behind their lack of attention.

As you become an adult into society, you realize that your parents put in so many hours so they can put food on the table, have a roof over your head, and have a bed for you to sleep on at night.

The silent programming that begins to happen while you endure this lack of attention teaches you that money holds a higher priority than pretty much “you”. That is why you have this deep feeling that you have to work hard for money, because maybe you were taught that “money doesn’t come easy” and you have to “earn your share”.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the mentality of you get what you put in.

But there comes a point where you ask yourself at what cost is this really worth it?

Let’s take it from the perspective of working in a job. Majority of people earn a salary based compensation. It would logically make sense that you would do your due diligence to work less hours if you’re going to get the same amount of pay; Yet, we live in a society where we are overworked, over exhausted, and quite frankly just “over it”.

We are still defining what work/life balance really means, but until we realize that our self care is more important than money, very little will change.

So how does this secret limiting belief contribute to burnout? Well, when we live in a “can do” society where we say almost yes to everything, take a step back to ask yourself who you’re saying no to in the process? More than likely, we are saying yes to other people’s obligations and no to our personal responsibilities.

Limiting belief #2: Not feeling worthy to relax until “X” task is done

Burnout is what happens when you try to avoid being human for too long — Michael Gungor

You’re finally making headway in your “to do list”, you’ve ticked a few boxes off but still have many more bullet points left to go. Your momentary high of productivity starts to wear off and now you’re left feeling like you’re not worthy of a break until XYZ is completed.

Here’s the thing, when we write these long never ending to do lists we don’t take the time to consider and build in rest time. I mean GOD quite literally had a day of rest when he was building the world and so can you. If the God analogy doesn’t help, also know that a hamster usually gets off of the hamster wheel when it feels tired.

Read this as the silent permission you needed to take a break. No one is given a badge of honor for being overworked and exhausted.

Limiting belief #3: Feeling like you’re never doing enough

Just because you take breaks doesn’t mean you’re broken — Curtis Tyrone Jones

I’ve started to notice that this feeling of “proving yourself” has often occurred with an elder child or only child in a family. Not to make this an exclusive trait, but let’s take a step back to understand why that is. From an early age your parents more than likely pampered you to the max. Signing you up for Saturday swim classes, afternoon woodshop, after school soccer practice, and blah blah blah — anything that fills up your calendar.

Well, in that case you’re not a stranger to “busyness” you were literally taught that a sign of busyness is a sign that you’re doing something right. Getting praise from your parents was almost like the fuel to your self worth. The only problem is that once you get older you start to realize that you continue to not have any more white space in your Google Calendar, because let’s be honest you live and die off of your Google Calendar.

You get that promotion,

You start that business,

You hustle day in and day out,

But now, you’ve hustled your energy away, the adrenaline has faded and you’ve hit rock bottom.

Being busy is no longer your badge of honor, it’s your downfall.

If you’re that overworked individual you are doing enough, you wouldn’t be stumbling on this article if you weren’t.

So in summary

Limiting belief #1: It’s a requirement to work hard for money

Limiting belief #2: Not feeling worthy to relax until “X” task is done

Limiting belief #3: Feeling like you’re never doing enough

Which one most resonated with you?