Burnout: Ways to Create Healthy Boundaries (Sabrina Starling On Small Business)

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As an entrepreneur, you most likely work extremely long hours. You shoulder high responsibility for your clients, customers, team and family. You juggle complexity daily.

The constant pressure of being tied to your business significantly affects your health and well-being.
My research with more than 225 entrepreneurs reveals that nine out of 10 entrepreneurs are experiencing symptoms of burnout, struggling to get through each week, lying awake at night worrying about payroll, employee issues and the endless list of things needing attention.

Entrepreneurs are two times more likely than the general population to suffer depression, 70% more likely to experience addiction, and our divorce rate is five to 10 times higher than the general population.

Grinding it out is grinding us up! The average length in business for the entrepreneurs in our study is 12 years. The most frequently reported number of days entrepreneurs can be fully unplugged from their business is 0 days.

Would you sacrifice your life for your business? It’s a crazy question. Most of us would say no. Yet this is the nonconscious choice we make daily in our businesses.

When we choose to work late, skip lunch, not make time to work out, fail to take time with our loved ones and shortchange our sleep, this is what we choose.

Paradoxically, the less we work, the more effective we become. Removing ourselves from our businesses allows us to clear our heads to make more effective decisions, tap into our creativity and innovate in ways that add value for our top clients.

After all, we’re human beings, not human doings. Without sufficient rest and recovery, the flow, creativity and peak performance remain unattainable.

Hustle culture convinces us we must sacrifice our health, well-being and relationships for the sake of our businesses.

Yet in our research, the 10% of entrepreneurs who are not burning out are taking more days away fully unplugged from their businesses than those who are burning out. They also are achieving three times the revenue of those burning out.

Here are some strategies to set healthy boundaries around your work:

► Leave work at 5 p.m. each day.

► Turn your phone off in the evenings.

► Take weekends off.

► Take regular vacations.

► Empower your team to make decisions in your absence.

► Celebrate your team when they take the initiative and solve problems without involving you.

Sabrina Starling, Ph.D., PCC, BCC, The Business Psychologist, is the international bestselling author of “How to Hire the Best” and “The 4 Week Vacation.” Founder of tapthepotential.com and host of the “Profit by Design” podcast, she and her team coach entrepreneurs to take their lives back from their businesses. They are on a mission to send 10,000 entrepreneurs on a four-week vacation in 10 years.