Burnout. It’s not fun. Imagine sitting in front of Google, giving it your symptoms, and learning you either have burnout, or are depressed. In my case, it was burnout.
Sometimes, when you’re working toward certain goals, you can push yourself too far. And that’s exactly what I did.
The Importance of Having Goals
It’s so important to have goals. I truly believe they help us push forward in life. Without goals, what are we working toward? In my case, I have several things I would like to have and experience in this lifetime, and have made it a personal goal to try to reach them as fast as possible.
- A vacation home
- A house on land
- Early retirement
I knew I would never achieve these goals in my lifetime on my base salary, so I had to pursue other options. As I was searching for ways to increase my income, an opportunity came along. Overtime. And there was a lot of it. Before I knew it, I was working double shifts almost every day of the week. I would give myself off one night to try to straighten my house up and cook meals for the week. I was throwing laundry in at 11pm and taking it out at 5am.
Are you surprised by what happened next? Burnout.
The Cost of Aggressive Goal Setting
Because I now had these goals set in mind, and an opportunity to work toward them, I said yes to every shift I was offered. But at what cost?
I was barely seeing my family. And if I took a night off of work for a family celebration or event, I kept thinking about that overtime shift I could have taken and what it was costing me to be there. This was not a healthy mindset, especially with how much I love spending time with my family. It was having a poor effect on me and I couldn’t even tell.
I was seeing my then boyfriend MAYBE weekly. Honestly, he said he was okay with it most of the time (guess I should have been concerned about that), but it still wasn’t fair to him.
I was not taking care of the things around me. Branches from my tree layed in a messy pile for years. My house became covered in dust and grime. There was always stuff laying everywhere. I rarely, if ever, cleaned, because I didn’t have time.
I was not moving as much. With limited time in my day, I rarely exercised. Outside of a walk on my lunch break, I wasn’t moving around much or getting a good workout in.
And what did all this lead to? A very strong fatigue and bouts of anger that I was later able to attribute to burnout. I became extra snappy and annoyed at work. I started to struggle to get out of bed. I no longer wanted to stay over for some of those shifts. I had reached a peak.
How to Shift and Still Pursue Goals
After taking a couple of weeks off of the overtime and feeling the burnout fade away, I knew I needed to be smarter and healthier about my time. I sat down and went back over my entire budget, looking for places I could tweak and reduce. I had to cut back on investments and savings because I knew I wouldn’t be making nearly as much money as I was.
And that’s okay. I would never have been able to sustain the path I was on long term, so I thanked myself for working so hard to pad my retirement and savings, and moved on. My goals did not change, but their time frame did. It also allowed me time to pursue more flexible options, such as really working on my Etsy store. That can be done my way, on my own time.
When you are in a situation like this, it is important to prioritize your goals. Your health NEEDS to come first, and everything else can be figured out from there. My emergency fund is not full yet. I wanted to buy two rental properties last year and only bought one. And that’s okay. Sometimes, we need to slow down.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by your goals, do a reset. Grab your favorite drink, a notepad, and really, truly think about what is most important to you. Put them in order, and chip away at each one a little at a time. I promise, if you keep working at it, you’ll get where you need to go.
I’m working toward so many goals, it feels impossible sometimes. The end goals seem so far off. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way not to push it too far, and I hope you never have to learn the same lesson. I’m still working toward everything I want, but I’m no longer rushing it. I’ll get there when I get there.
