As a Health Expert, I never thought this could happen to me!
Michelle Cederberg, CSP
Hall of Fame Speaker, Coach & Author | Energizing Teams For the Future of Work: Using science-based strategies to eliminate burnout, increase engagement, and ignite high performance
“Life is full of surprises, but the biggest one of all is learning what it takes to handle them.” ~ Deborah Wiles
I promised I'd tell you why I took the extended break from my weekly messages. I actually didn't see it coming, and I surprised myself when I realized what had actually happened.
When life is busy, most of us are really good at just putting our heads down and getting the work done, but that often means we don't listen closely enough to what our mind and body need in the moment. The thing is, even the most resilient people are fallible when it comes to self-care, and at the end of 2022 that was me. Watch the short video below to learn where I landed, or read the transcript that follows, and let me know if you can relate.
OH, and I'm very excited to share with you my new QUIZ to help you identify YOUR motivation type, and how to use it to set and GET those high-performance goals. Click the link to answer 5 quick questions, and the results will land in your inbox!
Let's do this!
Hey, Michelle Cederberg here. I feel like it has been a long time since I have sent you a new video. Well, let me explain why. I think it's been almost a year now since I've created anything new for you all in my weekly videos. And oftentimes I will take a break, and I'm usually okay with that because I know it's not going to last more than few weeks before I jump back in.
Well, this time I just found myself putting off, and putting off, and putting off, and I couldn't exactly figure out why. But then I thought, all right, well, I'll just wait a while and see what happens.
Fast forward about a year. It's very interesting because I've been very busy in my business, and I have been doing some board work that has been demanding of my time, and it's only in the last few weeks that I realized that I have for the first time in my life, experienced burnout … which is very hard for this health and productivity expert to admit.
At the end of 2022, I had one of my busiest years of speaking ever. But I also was the National President for my speaking association, and I think I underestimated just how much of a draw on my energy all of that had.
When the New Year hit, I was rebranding in my business and doing all sorts of things to take it to the next level. And I really hadn't had much of a chance to just decompress. I don't know if you can relate, but the very interesting thing about the experience that I've had is that burnout crept in and I didn't realize that that is what I was feeling.
I thought I was just fatigued because I'd been working too hard. But then I started to do some research as I was planning for some of these videos, and I realized, wow, burnout;
This was me. For somebody who loves what they do, this was a really hard pill to swallow!
(Though I might blame part of that on menopause), but for the most part I realized, oh man, all of the work that I've been doing to drive things to the next higher level put me in a place where I overdid it.
Humbling, to say the least.
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Now, I do want to highlight the fact that stress and burnout are very different. Take a look at one that I've done previously, highlighting the difference between stress and burnout.
So, here I am now on the flip side of it. I am going to be reacquainting myself with all the stress and burnout information that I've been researching, and I'm going to be sharing with you because I think that we're all in this strange state in the world where work is different, where our work situations have changed, where life is piling a lot onto us.
And through all of that, we've also got to process news and weather and all these crazy things that are happening in the world. It can sometimes feel like a lot.
For today, I want to say thank you for being patient with me and for hearing my admission of yes, burnout.
In the weeks to come, we’ll be talking about it and what I really think about resilience.
I don't think that resilience is what we need more of, huh? It could actually be part of the problem. I'm going to tell you why next week. And in the meantime, I've got a great, interesting new quiz.
Click the link above and answer 5 quick questions to identify your Motivation Type. I'm super excited about this because it's going to give you daily doses of inspiration based on your category, to help you drive to the next level.
And it has certainly helped me get my mojo back. So until next time, I'm Michelle Cederberg, helping you Ignite High Performance, even when you might not feel like you have it in yet. Let's do this.
Resources Galore!
Does your workplace or conference need a good dose of re-energizing this fall? Ask me about my half and full day Success-Energy Reset sessions (or any of my other topics, which you can download here: MichelleSPEAKS) to help you reignite your drive, recommit to growth, and ignite high performance in all you do. Contact me to chat.
→ Buy my new book via my website and I'll send you a signed copy!
→ Don’t forget to sign up for my new 'What's Your Motivation Type?' QUIZ! Click the link. It's free, it's fun, and it's full of motivation and inspiration to drive your next steps!
→ Sign up for my socials below, because there’s all sorts of interesting stuff coming down the pipe.
Michelle Cederberg, High Performance Optimizer, Speaker, Coach & Author CSP, CEP, CPCC, MKin, BA Psyc
Energizing people and organizations to ignite their best performance and productivity www.michellecederberg.com 403-850-5589
As my life becomes calmer, more joyful, and healthier I encourage you to join with me to explore what you want in life and how to achieve what you want. I'd love to chat, explore, & guide you to a healthy, happy life.
1yThank you for sharing this important message, Michelle. You describe how burnout can sneak up on us as we tell ourselves, "I am just overdoing for a bit, I will slow down." I do want to insert one caution, if you experience prolonged fatigue not relieved by sleep, see your #physician or #nursepractitioner. I experienced fatigue for 2 years & was told I was depressed or suffering burnout. I knew that was not the case & needed an answer. Eventually, I was diagnosed with an #autoimmunedisease. Remember, listen to your body. I had experienced burnout and depression in the past, so I knew it wasn't those things (though depression was starting as my health was deteriorating). To be truthful, I probably had been doing too much, but as the fatigue took over I had been forced to rest & did not recover. I completely wore out my body. My health suffered for several years - 2 cancers, 2 surgeries, a second autoimmune disease, all slowed me down. I now have a different outlook on life and my health is returning. It has been a long 12 years, but I am feeling the best I have in 10 years. Catch #burnout before it takes you down. Seek help to live the life you deserve, a beautiful life of joy, calm, & happiness.