The Podgress Report

07 | Bumps in the Road to Recovery: Navigating Bad Days on the Burnout Journey

• Jen Phillips • Season 1 • Episode 7

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In this #snackable edition of The Podgress Report, host Jen Phillips is bringing real talk from day 146 of her burnout recovery journey. It got bumpy, y'all. Jen's giving her take on what that feels like, how connecting with others ... being helpable ... has been so - well - helpful. And on how to keep momentum even as fear, uncertainty, and doubt rise up.

Recommended Listen:

02 | Five Science-backed Steps for Burnout Recovery
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The Podgress Report does not provide medical or mental health advice. The information including but not limited to: recorded and live episodes, text, graphics, images, and any other material contained on the the podcast are for your informational purposes only.

Nothing on The Podgress Report is intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified provider. Never disregard professional medical or mental wellness advice or delay in seeking it because of something you've heard or content you've read or reviewed on this podcast.

And please, if you're under duress or considering suicide, reach out right this very minute to the Suicide and Crisis lifeline by dialing 988 in the United States.

Outside of the U.S., please reach out to helplines available to you in your country note: this link isn't owned by The Podgress Report and should not be considered exhaustive or wholly accurate.

[00:00:00] 

Caution: It's Gonna Get Bumpy

 Guess what? The road to burnout recovery. May. Be. Bumpy

Jen Phillips: This episode is a real talk episode It's a snackable short episode and it's all about what that can feel like It's also about what the research says can help and some strategies that you can use and I am using To stay on the road to recovery, even when the journey gets rough,

 this podcast is here to engage and educate, inspire and support. The community of people who are not quite sure of their healthy, what's next career move, whether or not you're burned out or you're just ready to take on your next adventure. I'm Jen Phillips. I'm your host and I am on. Day [00:01:00] 145 of my own burnout recovery process.

Jen Phillips: I've been taking time to prioritize my wellness, my health, recovering from burnout, and this weekend, this past weekend, I experienced a little bump. Um, in the burnout recovery road, some fear based teetering. So today we're talking about it, and talking about also how to take action always to continue on the path even when the journey is a bit rough.

4.5 months of hell yes. 4.5 days of what the hell. 

Jen Phillips: So, yeah, I, for the first four and a half months of my own burnout recovery, I was busy. I was focused.

I was learning about burnout. I was researching the ways to recover from burnout, getting help in my recovery from burnout, beginning to have thoughts around my [00:02:00] own what's next for me in my career trajectory. And having lots and lots and lots of killer conversations with people who had gone through burnout and are actively recovering right now from burnout and what they had experienced and had learned along the way.

And more, building a meditation practice on building my physical health and wellness. The more that I learned about Burnout and workplace wellness and the state of health and, happiness in the workplace, which is at all time lows.

I really wanted to aggregate that and bring that into a podcast. So I had to learn how to do a podcast and all of that focus, all of that learning felt out. Absolutely fantastic. It felt great. And yeah, there were pockets of doubt along the way, moments where I found myself wondering if I was doing the rightest work or if I was [00:03:00] spending my time in the most valuable way to speed or to support my own recovery.

Ultimately, you know, overall I could feel, and I still can feel the progress that I'm making and it feels like growth and growth feels great.

My Bad Burnout Recovery Sinkhole

Jen Phillips: Just this past weekend, I experienced what I'm calling a sinkhole in my own recovery. I'm calling it that because it's pretty fitting. It's, it's a pretty fitting way to describe how it felt to wake up, , with the, with the thoughts that I woke up with over the weekend.

 So sinkholes, they're all about water. Water is washing away soil, it's washing away minerals, it's washing away residue that's in these, the rock, maybe as deep as the bedrock of the planet, and these lower groundwater [00:04:00] levels can cause a loss of support from the soft material in the rock spaces, and that can lead to collapse.

It's the whole, the sink hole.

My personal burnout recovery sinkhole was caused by similarly running thoughts, washing away some of the foundational benefits that I'd been building in my wellness practice, in my recovery practice. Once those thoughts started racing and eroding away some of the foundation, it left me with voids, small voids.

It didn't lead to collapse. I'm still here. I'm still talking to you. I'm still feeling, a net positive result from the work I've been doing on building a foundation, but I could feel, an unsteadiness. A lack of clarity.

While I was working in my [00:05:00] corporate executive role, it was really, really clear, even though I was burned out, Who I was, what I was supposed to be doing, what good looked like, and that clarity that I got from that. I'm Jen Phillips. I work for this company. This is my job title. That clarity helped me feel secure.

Even as I was feeling burned out that I understood the constructs of the job at hand. Since leaving corporate, I've been very clear on my initial purpose to get on the path to recovery as my number one priority. And as I'm learning how to do that and putting those things into practice and having successes, I'm sharing that with you.

Sharing with you the research that fuels all of that understanding so you can get the [00:06:00] benefit of it as well. But now, now I have this big next step looming in my recovery and it's one that's unclear. One that's still not fully defined and that lack of clarity. It is scary.

This Sinkhole is a Fear Based Void

Jen Phillips: So it's a fear based void. Caused by thoughts running wild, eroding the bedrock of the foundational changes I've begun to make. It's a bad burnout day. And one thing that's really clear to me is that there are going to be bad burnout days.

As part of the recovery process, I think I've been incredibly lucky to get through almost five months of strong, positive feelings, and to have a wobble. Makes kind of complete sense to me. [00:07:00] It doesn't mean it feels good. It just means it makes sense But what will I do now 

how will I? first continue to make my progress and then second use this as something I can learn from to Help myself and hopefully help you So other people get through these bad burnout days. 

I'm going to share with you just honestly and get a little bit vulnerable and share with you what the fear based thoughts are. Now that I really think I've got a pretty good handle on how to start and stay physically healthier to help fuel my recovery and maintain my health, I am turning my attention in this month toward, and then what will I do for work?

Where will I put my time and my talent to generate income? That is mutually valuable to [00:08:00] myself and the organization, whether it's my own organization or another company. I am now almost five months into a dedicated time of burnout recovery.

That was really not about work. It was about getting better, recovering, getting healthy. Taking care of deferred health maintenance. And now that I am considering what are the changes that I need to make, in my career, that's where I'm finding fear is creeping in and the fear goes something like this.

Will I Keep This Healthy?

Jen Phillips: Whether or not I'm working for myself or for someone else, will I have the To keep the boundaries up, 

will I have the presence to continue with the practice I'm building?[00:09:00] 

The morning walks, the connections with people I care about, the boundaries on my time. Um, 

I believe that I can, I believe that I absolutely have it within my grasp to be a healthier version of myself than I had become in the lead up to me getting into a chronically burned out, situation, but I'm going to tell you it is scary. It is scary. And when I have conversations with other people who are still fairly new in their own career transformation, their own healthier way of working. It's also scary for them. This is something that I'm hearing when I say, how are you dealing with this?

They are dealing with it. This is not something that when I bring it up with people that they haven't also thought through, felt experienced or [00:10:00] navigated. So here I am with you today to talk to you about this void, this gap that I'm standing in. It's a fear based And I'm sharing it with you because no matter where you are in your recovery arc, whether you haven't yet started, but you need to, or you're in the beginnings of taking those first steps toward being better to yourself, it's an active process and it is an evolution.

And I'm here to tell you that sometimes it's messy and I'm in that process right now. And I'm in a bit of the messiness right now. And I wanted to take a moment and just talk to you a little bit openly about what it feels like to be in the mess. So what it feels like to be in the middle, in the midst of a bad burnout day, [00:11:00] after a long string of very good burnout recovery days.

And I'm here to talk to you today about what do you do? What do I do when I'm in the middle of a bad burnout day, especially after a long string of a lot of good, healthy burnout recovery days. 

It all starts with action.

Jen Phillips: And it all starts with action. The reason I am bringing you this topic today is because this podcast was born to share the information I was learning about. Healthy work about recovery from burnout about healthy career development about being the CEO of you. com and I wanted to share with you what I'm learning as I'm learning it.

 I'm bringing to you the [00:12:00] people that have also experienced these transformations and sharing with you what their success looked like, what it looks like, what it feels like, and the lessons they've learned along the way as well. And having this, having this unexpected five months in fear based moment, this bad burnout day happened.

Was something I wanted to bring to you, to share with you, to let you know that recovery may not be linear. It may be messy and how I'm managing and how you might also be able to manage when and if the road to recovery gets bumpy. 

Managing Bad Burnout Recovery Days

Jen Phillips: So how am I managing? Well, one thing that I can share with you is that I am leaning heavily, heavily, heavily [00:13:00] into those science backed steps for burnout recovery. Some that are more immediately helpful than others, and one of them that is the most helpful to me personally is getting outside every day and going for active walks. I've brought this up on a number of episodes. I want to bring it to you again, when it's bumpy, getting outside, getting that morning sun, it is scientifically proven to help with mood cognition and your circadian rhythm, which is exactly this kind of support I need also on active walks on walks where you are really tuned into your surroundings.

Your brain is absolutely lit up physiologically, you are very engaged with your surroundings and being in nature is absolutely restorative. So today, for example, I did four and a half miles [00:14:00] by eight o'clock this morning. I am still leveraging and practicing meditation to help clear and to clean my mind.

The Power of Being "Helpable"

Jen Phillips: Something that is Maybe the most compelling to me, especially as I had this doubt creep in this fear is being incredibly helpable. Many of us that are going through. Workplace anxiety, workplace stress, workplace discomfort, burnout. We are not talking about it with our peers, with our colleagues, with people that we know, even people that we trust.

We are managing through it, pushing through it, trying to handle it on our own alone. I did that. I did that when I was employed. And in, in the midst of this wobble, it's still happening. I'm still, still working through all these feelings of [00:15:00] doubt.

 but I immediately started talking to people about it. I talked to people every day and every day I was asking questions like, have you ever navigated something that feels or looks like this? Tell me about a time where you had a bad burnout day. What did you do to manage it? What were the types of things that would maybe trigger you having a bad burnout day?

And what I found was I am pretty typical in having this bump in the burnout road. It is not something that only I am experiencing. Other people are also experiencing and have experienced things like this. Happenings, feelings. Very similar to the ones that I am having, the doubts I'm having, the fear of the muscle memory kicking in, of the not knowing exactly how to go back to work for fear of [00:16:00] becoming that other person again, that other version of yourself.

This is pretty typical as I talk to people who are six months ahead of me, a year ahead of me. 10 years ahead of me, 17 years ahead of me, this isn't something that I alone I'm experiencing. 

So it's really about reframing, changing your point of view. If you haven't already from, I don't want to bother you with this to tell me about a time or have you ever experienced something like this?

And what I'm learning is there has been literally no one that isn't willing to share what they know. People want to be helpful. People want to be useful. Give them the opportunity to be useful and helpful to you. That's a brand new learning in my own burnout. recovery as [00:17:00] I have this wobble.

It's, I am getting better at making these connections with people and leveraging the connections to be open and vulnerable. And it's, it's really helpful. It's really helpful. And I urge you to do that as well. 

You can get that from podcasts, from research, but having somebody talk directly to you about their own experience It's because you've been open it's really a great way to feel that you're not alone.

What's Good. 

Jen Phillips: Another thing that I've leaned into as I've been experiencing these last few bad burnout days is taking stock in the "what's good". I've done an episode on the fact that I do monthly. reviews with myself to look at my progress against my plan.

But I also journal every single day. And when I journal, in the beginning of the day and when I journal, [00:18:00] what I'm thinking through is toward my plan and my goals. What's the rightest way for me to be spending my time today? There is a matrix that I recommend you, if even if you don't journal, there's a matrix that you can use.

Good: Do The Right Work

Jen Phillips: It's called the Eisenhower matrix, and it's essentially a four square where you think through.

Am I going to do this task? 

Am I going to decide or schedule this task for later? 

Am I going to delegate a task 

or am I going to delete a task? 

There is a link to a Sticky note, Eisenhower Matrix, if it's something that you think would be helpful for you in the episode notes, I highly recommend that even if you don't have a journal practice, before you plan out your day, you think through, for every task on your list, will you do, decide, or not delegate or delete the task. And [00:19:00] this is a great way to make sure you're spending your time in the way that feels rightest for yourself. And that feels good.

What's Good: Your Support

Jen Phillips: I also want to say that on the, on the, along the lines of what's good. I, I walked into my office on a Monday morning, ready to think about the week's episode, which has changed obviously from what I had planned to this episode and there were.

A number of messages for me in, on different channels thanking me for the content in the podcast report, and I cannot tell you how much that meant to me. 

It was a sign that I am meeting my mission, that this podcast is helping at least some of the people that are out there experiencing their own confusion over their own career, what's next. And I want to say thank you to you for being open. This is [00:20:00] another way that having. Vulnerability and openness to telling people how you're feeling can, you don't even know how much you can help someone else. And I, for those of you that have done that for me, I can't even begin to express to you how much, how much it's helped.

What's Good: Fun.

Jen Phillips: And the last thing that I am changing to help me navigate more effectively my bad burnout days and to have less bad burnout days. And again, I've had very few, but they knocked me for a loop in having a bump. In this recovery five ish months in has really felt. Shaky. And when I looked at

what's missing? What I did notice was I haven't had enough fun. I haven't made enough time for actual fun in my life. It's not that it's fully missing. It's that it's not appropriately Prioritized 

I [00:21:00] have been treating my recovery like it's my job and Not like it's my healthy job, but like it's my old way of working job I think I didn't prioritize enough time for rest and rest Relaxation, things that rebuild my resilience, things that are outside of the realm of work or work adjacent.

So for those of you that are still working in a job that maybe, you know, is not the rightest job for you, or for those of you who have been. Potentially displaced from your job and you feel, I need to, as my job one, get another job, or maybe there's people like me out there that said my job one first is getting myself healthy enough so I can effectively pick the right next way to spend my time and talent.

It's still important for us to be playful, for us to enjoy the miracle. [00:22:00] Of this world and the life that we have. And if you had a negative visceral reaction to me saying that this is a miracle, this life we have, then you are the person I am talking to. I am absolutely making sure that I appropriately prioritize fun in my life.

I've shifted my focus as if my whole job was to get well, but I forgot that instead of making my job getting well, 

I should make my healthy life incorporate a healthy work and a healthy amount of fun, relaxation, and diversion. 

The Snack Wrap

Jen Phillips: So that's it. That's our snackable episode. That's what I really wanted to talk to you about in the moment as I'm experiencing it.

If you get nothing else out of today's episode, here is the thing to hold close. [00:23:00] Recovery from burnout may not be linear. It may not all be up and to the right and ascending, but healthy action and continuous action using those science backed steps within the available time and energy that you have to spend is non negotiable.

Don't stop. Don't stop. Continue within your available time and energy. Don't lose the momentum as you're managing bumps along the road.

And recovery is going to take as long as it's going to take. , five months in, I thought I would be done. I'm not done. I'm clearly not done. And that's okay.

That's okay. The steps that are clear, they're there to support us. We can get healthy. I can get healthy. I'm just not going to let inertia take hold. And I'm also not going to feel as if [00:24:00] I'm a failure because I'm not done with this process.

Having the right focus will absolutely help.

It is absolutely helping me. And that Eisenhower matrix. This is a low lift way to everyday scrutinize. Am I spending my time in the way that's rightest and healthiest for me? 

And the last thing, the most important thing that I want you to hold close, close, close to you is that you are not alone. We are here together because there are so many of us that are going through this, whether burnout or just a deep desire for something different in your career.

It's more than most of us that are going through some level of this. Try being a little bit open about it. If you can't be open with someone, you know, feel free to reach out to me. We have each other to lean on and to learn from. Don't forget that you're not alone. 

Here's To Your Progress

[00:25:00] 

Jen Phillips: And with that, I want to just remind you, if this podcast is helpful in any way, please subscribe.

Also, I'd love it if you would share this podcast with the people that you know, that might be benefited from it. It's the reason I'm doing it, it's the reason it exists, and we all need to feel a little bit like we've got each other's backs.

 If you have an episode idea, a guest suggestion, have your own lessons learned or success story that you want to share with me, let me know. There are two different ways to leave feedback below. And you can also connect with me on LinkedIn.

Jen Phillips: Until next time.

Thank you. Thank you for being here with me. Thank you for making time for this and, and space in your mind and in your heart for this topic. I wish you nothing but positive progress. But, if you run into a wobble, all is not lost. Lean on the people around you, use the [00:26:00] tools at your hand, and continue to make little steps every day toward 1 percent better.

Here's to your progress.

 Hi, it's Jen with some very important, fine print. This podcast and its associated properties does not provide medical or mental health advice, Nothing on The Podgress Report is intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. , and please, if you're under duress or considering suicide, please reach out right this very minute to the suicide and cRisis lifeline by dialing 9, 8, 8 in the U S. Or searching for the helplines available to you in your country.