JOY is THE new, sustainable strategy for preventing small business owner burnout

When you hear the word burnout, you may immediately think of teachers, healthcare workers, or other public servants in challenging high-stress jobs. Indeed, they do burnout. I should know; I was a teacher for many years and had my own experience with burnout, which caused me to leave the profession in 2012.

Burnout sneaks up on you. It’s a slow burn until… suddenly your hair’s on fire. Because I was raised to honor commitments, suck it up, and deal with what life hands you, I really didn’t know that this stress I was experiencing was more than the usual.

I honestly thought I was just an ungrateful, unhappy bitch who was dissatisfied with her choices and needed to lie in the bed I had made. I do remember feeling stuck and overwhelmed most of the time, but I didn’t know what to do about it because this was just part of “adulting” right?

Wrong.

When the day came that I wished I would trip on the top step, fall down a couple of flights, and have to spend a few weeks rehabbing from my serious, but not life-threatening injuries, I knew it was bad. I knew that changing my diet, adding more exercise, drinking less wine, or taking more walks wasn’t the solution. I knew this was not normal and it scared me. I didn’t feel suicidal nor did I try to hurt myself, but I couldn’t see any other way to get a break. I was completely baffled at why I now hated the very career I had loved so much before.

Stress y’all. Stress from hours & hours of teaching and talking and coaching and counseling and cooking and cleaning and driving and cheering and watching and volunteering and smiling and secretly crying had caught up with me. All the constant giving without replenishing had worn me down. I was EXHAUSTED. Bone Tired.

So, I quit. To become an entrepreneur. To start a business. To be part of another group of people who very frequently suffer from chronic workplace stress that leads to burnout.

Burnout is so real that in 2019, the World Health Organization classified burnout as a syndrome caused by “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

How are you managing the level of stress in your workplace — not the one you left, but the one you created? As the CEO, Founder, Head of…, YOU set the tone. Whether it’s just you or you have an entire team, your work style impacts your workplace.

That’s why this entrepreneur has embraced JOY as her business strategy for the last two years. No more hustle and grind. No more fake it till you make it or grin and bear it. If it’s not JOYFul, I’m not doing it.

But someone is.

Not doing what isn’t JOYFull doesn’t mean it’s not getting done at all, It means that I, me, Janifer, am not doing it. So I delegate. I redesign. I digitize or dump the idea/task or project all together.

I love this strategy because it reminds me daily of why I started my business. It keeps me motivated and focused. I don’t procrastinate as much and I have real time to spend with my family, my friends, my hobbies, and my self-care. My life is fairly peaceful and I no longer feel frantic or overwhelmed. Honestly, I’ve never been more JOYFull.

Even when a pandemic hits and I lose all my in-person clients and events. Even when it took me a year to figure out HOW I wanted to digitize my business and create an online e-learning academy that didn’t include ZOOM and wasn’t like every other online learning model out there.

It’s JOY. JOY is THE most sustainable strategy for life and business that I have discovered thus far. Don’t fake it till you make it.

Choose JOY.

To learn more about how Janifer can help you burnout proof your biz using JOY, check out these links: https://linktr.ee/JaniferWheeler

Wondering if you are on the road to burnout? Take our QUIZ.