The Secret to Battling Burnout

The kitchen table is covered in play-doh.  There are rolling pins, crimpers, cutters, slicers, dicers…..and every imaginable Disney princess, lined up in a row.

Clara and I have spent the last hour creating play-doh gowns for each of the princesses.  “This one is just fabulous,” she says, pointing at Cinderella’s squashy pink and purple polka-dotted frock.

I love watching my daughter, in her element, creating with absolute whimsical freedom.  There are no rules.  And mistakes are simply happy accidents.

It’s been a rough week.  My entire family was knocked down with a virus from hell.  But amidst the fevered haze of endless episodes of Peppa Pig, and repeated read-through’s of Richard Scary’s What Do People Do All Day? there were moments of quiet bliss.  

Rarely do we spend that much time together.  Especially outside of the whole rush-rush-rush, come on guys, we need to go.

I was on the verge of exhaustion before I was knocked to my knees with mandatory bedrest.  And what I realized, was that I actually needed that time in order to catch my breath.  I needed to pause, so that I could reignite my go-get-em.

Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, you lose sight of where it is you’re actually going.  You put your head down, and you do the work.  But, every now and then, you’re forced to stop.  

And within those chapter breaks, you realize…..man….here I am, trying so hard to get ‘er done, when really, I should simply be enjoying the journey.

And oddly enough, this is something that Taylor Swift helped remind me of.

2 am coughing attacks occasionally led to some mandatory Netflix-ing.  And one of the documentaries that kept me company this past week, was Miss Americana.

Now, I’m not the biggest Taylor fan in the world.  Blank Space is on my Fuck You Feisty Spotify playlist (cozied up to a whole lotta Rihanna and Dua Lipa).  But something I never realized about her, is that she is a true creator of her own work.  She is a storyteller, which I admire, and she writes every single one of her own songs.

Watching her in action, stringing together beautiful poetry with different beats and rhythms, was like watching pure magic.  It was incredibly inspiring, and it gave me a whole new perspective on her music.

After seriously contemplating getting bangs (Jesus, that girl knows how to rock some serious fringe), I started to think about moments in my own life, when I’m in-the-zone like that.

When am I most alive?  When am I making magic?

The answer?

When I am in pursuit of a goal that lights my soul on fire.

And I think that’s true for all of us.

We become who were are meant to be….when we are in pursuit of something.  When we have a goal or a challenge in front of us….it makes us come alive.

And so, if you are feeling burnt out…..or uninspired…..or stuck in a rut…..I would like to throw this out there.  You are likely feeling that way, because you have lost the fiery, energetic, passionate pursuit of your own goals.  

You have lost the joy of simply creating. 

We are all creators at heart.  And if you are not working towards some kind of dream, you are doing yourself a disservice.  

To feel alive with creation, is at the very core of our beings.  Our souls long to be artists.  And in this day and age, when so much of our day is bogged down with passive consumption of knowledge and information…..it is more important than ever to pause, and reflect about how you are making your own dreams a reality.

Maybe even before pneumonia makes you take that pause.

How are you building, designing, inventing, and composing? And more importantly…..how are you celebrating the experience of it all?

For me, today was the day I started to feel….not so horribly sick.  And so I decided to crank my Badass Women playlist, while driving down the highway, wearing a brand new pair of rose gold aviators.  I tapped into my feminine energy, and just let myself feel pure joy over the many opportunities I have to create, in my life.
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Even if one of those things is the most gorgeous Sleeping Beauty shift dress, you’ve ever seen.

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