Sit Down, Doris: The Power of Stopping Before You Burn Out
Stop performing energy you don’t have.
I know. I know. I’m getting all a bit shouty. This is me wagging my finger at you.
Before I came on hols, (did I mention I’ve been away) I needed to get some podcast recordings in the bag and do all the things that you need to do when you run a business, when you’re the MD, the ops director, the marketing strategist and the deliverer of all the things.
And I was a lot done.
Not tired. Not “in need of a bit of me time.” Utterly. Bloody. Done.
Hormones raging, sleep-deprived, juggling my dad’s appointments with two different cancer consultants and the renal care specialists and dare I even mention on here; the blinking menopause.
My brain was in full on “crack on” mode. Totally in “always on” with a dose of steroids too. My crackonability had taken on a level that was more cracking up than cracking on.
Lists were growing arms and legs.
I kept telling myself, “Just get through this, then you can rest.” Holiday incoming was the halcyon light at the end of a murk tunnel of everything.
And it took my blinking brilliant podcast producer Kath Lord-Green 🎙️ to voice note me with a little waggy finger of her own and tell me to just stop. Even though by me not recording the episodes that day, it put her up against it for the editing.
I talk about giving ourselves permission all the time. But sometimes you need the right woman in your corner to give it to you. That’s the power of human scaffolding, of community, of leaning in.
So I stopped.
I said no.
I didn’t “push through.”
The world didn’t collapse.
The people around me stepped in. Dinner got cooked - ish. Life carried on. And I gave myself the grace to have a break. It wasn’t a long break because I did have sh1t to do but it gave me a power pause.
I reminded myself that you can’t lead if you’re limping; you can’t create clarity from survival mode, you do NOT need to earn your rest.
We don’t need to head into holiday mode heaping on all the pressure so that when we stagger onto that there plane, we’re a bit broken.
This week’s It’s Got Pockets episode is your permission slip.
If you’ve been holding the sky up for everyone else and you’re running on empty - this one’s is just for you.
Episode 24 – Sit the F*ck Down, Doris: The Power of Stopping Before You Burn Out dropped yesterday on “it’s Got Pockets.” You can listen on all your usual platforms.
Success that feels good doesn’t start with hustle. It starts when you pause, when you process, when you come out of survival mode. And we put hustle in the bin.
I’m back from my delicious holidays today. And ready to go again. But first, I’m going to sit down and have another brew.
