Rich But Unfulfilled - Avoiding Burnout
An award-winning entrepreneur, who built her own energy company at the age of 29, Abigail Horne has always been a grafter and high achiever, but after hitting life-changing burnout and realising her need for more flexibility to work around her son she really took ownership of her own development.
Having been told 8 years ago by her old boss that she couldn’t succeed with a baby, she’s delighting in proving him wrong with her multiple 6 figure business that’s booming. She has created a life that has enabled her to this year (2019) treble the size of her business, alongside bringing up her newborn baby.
After experiencing both depression and mental health challenges, Abi feels passionately that it is her duty to share her story and now help others grow and succeed.
She said: “8 years ago, I just felt trapped in my reality. I suddenly had a baby and the hours I was working no longer worked for me as a mother, but the company that employed me basically told me that I had to choose my career or time with my son. I made it my mission to not only leave my job but help any other woman facing similar dilemmas. I wanted to prove to my old employer, that you can be a mum and have it all."
Within 2 years, Abi had created multiple six figures and decided to invest in her own energy company, at the age of 29. She successfully built these businesses from the ground up. However, following this she suffered complete burnt out and spent 12 months hiding from the world losing every ounce of her confidence in a downward spiral of self-sabotage which had a huge impact on her business and family life. She describes herself at this point as “rich but unfulfilled” and said: “The pressure was too much - "I wanted to put unstoppable Abi in a draw and shut her away whilst I disappeared into a shadow. It was a dark, dark time and it lasted a lot longer than I would ever allow myself to suffer now.”
Abigail has now shared with The Capsule what she learnt from hitting life-changing burnout...
"It’s true that success is never a straight road, we all have our own trials and tribulations, lessons and blessings, successes and failures that all lead to who we are today.
"With the need to be on the go 24/7 and constantly online, burnout can start with feelings of exhaustion, loss of motivation or anxiety about your life, home, family, friends, career, business can cause you to lose sleep or find decision making impossible.
"Burnout is on the rise in the general workforce population, the factors for this range from increased screen time, long hours of work, little personal interaction and loss of meaning in professional life."
Take Ownership - For me, I often have to stop, reflect and take responsibility and ownership for how I am feeling. When we are feeling overwhelmed, or uninspired it is easy to shut down, and feel paralysed to take any kind of action. This leads us to being hard on ourselves. So my top tip is when you feel this start to happen, you need to take a step back and ask; Are the factors that are causing these feelings avoidable? Can you cut down the seemingly endless list of tasks for today, and do them tomorrow, or next week? Are you putting too much pressure on yourself?
Identify your Stress Triggers - Identifying the daily and weekly triggers can help you avoid full-blown burnout. To identify these stress triggers, note down when stress arises and the tasks you're doing at that specific moment.
Take a Break - The reality is that there is often no one to tell you it’s okay to take a break, so YOU need to be the one to take responsibility for your health and take your break. It’s easier said than done, but to help avoid burnout, you need to make time for yourself. With technological developments, it can sometimes feel like you’re switched on all the time. To help, schedule designated time for you to relax, read a book, or spend time with your family. Even if it’s an hour a day, it will help put perspective into your life.
We don't have to be Perfect - It's pretty hard to be a perfect specimen of physical health, but then who needs to be perfect? Just like our physical health, our mental health is a work in progress and always will be.
Come Back to Why? - To help avoid burnout, it is important to keep your big vision/dream in the front of your mind. I often come back to why I do what I do. It's important that we rekindle and reignite the spark inside that burnout is trying to put out. Connecting my business to my passion of being a book worm and supporting women globally has really helped me elevate my business - I am so proud of what I have achieved. This year alone, I have helped over 100 people globally to become best selling authors and this is why I do what I do - I'm passionate about it - I am purpose-led.
Abigail has bridged the gap of self-publishing and traditional publishing, shaking up the industry to help more people get the books that are in them, out via her latest purpose-led business venture Authors & Co https://authorsandco.com/