Surviving Burnout
Learning to Float, Your Mind Is a Battlefield
Hi friends!
My new book, Learning to Float, comes out in two weeks and I thought I’d share another excerpt from it.
At the center of the book is my experience of burnout. I’d been running so long on empty, not giving any attention to the depleted state of my inner life when I finally couldn’t keep going. This book explores what led to this moment of burnout and how I slowly began to piece my life back together after. I knew I had to establish new rhythms, boundaries, and intentional ways of living. It wasn’t a quick or easy process, but leaving behind old habits and forming new ones has helped ensure that I don’t travel down that road of burnout again.
2018 became a year of recovery. A year of relearning how to live.
I took a full inventory of how I was spending my time. Learning to say no was something I slowly became better at. As a young pastor, I’d been given the advice to always say yes to others’ requests. Following this advice often left me angry for not having the grit to say no when I knew it wasn’t right for me.
Other times, I would spend hours trying to find a good excuse for saying no. Steph and I would go back and forth debating if the excuse would be “good enough.” You know you’re in trouble when it’s gotten to that level! I’ve now learned you don’t need a “good excuse” for why you can’t be somewhere. Sometimes it’s just a no.
I began discarding the earlier wisdom offered to me and became more selective about what I said yes to. This meant no more evening interviews about my beliefs. No more hosting a meal for twenty people every other week. I had a young family at home and that dynamic alone changed how I organized my time. It was a new season. As with any new season, scheduling, boundaries, and expectations have to be adjusted. It’s been a continuous journey of learning what works for us.
My burnout also helped me come to terms with the truth of limitations. I am finite. I can’t do everything. Nor should I try. I am here to offer the best of myself to this world. Living with no limitations, trying to be everything, was leaving me with little energy to give to this pursuit. I wasn’t taking care of myself and my body knew it. For months, it had been communicating this truth, but I’d stubbornly refused to listen. I kept trying to be more than who I was as I attempted to live up to the expectations of who I thought others wanted me to be.
All that began to break during this season. I started seeing the importance of protecting myself. Guarding my life and the gifts I had to offer the world. As I learned to do so, I became free to pursue the truest version of me. No longer did I have to be pulled in different directions. I could shape my life in a way that cultivated the best of what I had to offer.
I hope my journey will inspire you to inspect the ways you’re living and leave behind anything that isn’t serving you well.
You have a gift to offer the world.
It’s a gift unique to you.
You must protect that gift.
The Worlds We Create
The second sermon in The Worlds We Create series in now online. It’s called, “Your Mind Is a Battlefield.”
In your mind, there’s a battle over which narratives you will allow to shape your life. Harmful narratives distort how we view ourselves, others, and God. Healthy narratives are what we need to see ourselves as we truly are. This week, I explore how to trade the distorting stories for ones that are true.
Until next week,
Dave