In today’s episode, I want to share with you a tool that I have used to help me avoid burning out. I haven’t burned out since 2019 and this tool has been a massive help. Not only does it support you to stop burning out, but it also helps you create the habits you want to have in your personal life and your business.
If you’re afraid of burning out (and that fear is stopping you from showing up for your business fully), this episode is for you. Press play to hear more about it, as well as the key to ultimately overcoming burnout.
Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode500.
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project, a podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown. I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.
Sam Laura Brown – (Start of episode)
[00:00:29] I want to share with you a tool that I have used for so many years now to help me avoid burning out. I haven’t burned out since I want to say 2019 at least a solid five six years that I haven’t burned out and this tool has been a massive help. I was also coaching a PGSDer this morning And I was coaching her on her fear of burning out and this fear that she was having That was stopping her from showing up fully because she’s scared of overloading herself and burning herself out again.
[00:00:59] And so as I was coaching her, one of the things that we looked at was how to get her better quality rest because she was working only a few hours on her business per week. She has a job and other things on her plate, but she was constantly thinking about the business constantly. Very common for perfectionists, constantly wanting to be productive, feeling very anxious when resting and so not getting much of it because it feels so uncomfortable.
[00:01:24] And so what we were looking at was what are the simple things we can do to increase the quality of your rest so you’re actually feeling rested and you’re actually able to recharge during that rest. Even if you’re busy during that rest, um, even if you’re up to things, you don’t have to be at this bar.
[00:01:44] But if you are able to actually get better quality rest, you’ll be able to find it so much easier to focus and get work done. Because what she was finding is when she’d get to her work block on a Sunday, that she just didn’t have the energy to get shit done. That she was finding it so hard after spending the whole week thinking about the business and how it wasn’t where she wanted it to be and all of that.
[00:02:08] That it just meant it was so hard to actually master up the energy to follow through with her plans. And so we’re looking at cleaning up her clean rest, being able to actually have her get proper rest for her brain, especially during her non business time. And so when it comes to this kind of thing, what can happen is that we end up creating this laundry list of things to do.
[00:02:31] Okay, I need to exercise every day. I need to drink more water. I need to get more sleep and all those different things that we can look at. And so we did look at different areas of her life. I asked her a whole series of different questions, including what energizes you, what drains you. And we had a good look at that.
[00:02:50] But then what I brought it back to is personal rules and choosing just a few things that are going to make a big impact because we don’t want to try and create 10 habits at once. That is just, it’s not a good way to go about it. And we perfectionists because we’re like, I’m not good enough and I need to make myself perfect today.
[00:03:09] We often take that all or nothing approach, especially to creating habits and whether it’s habits in your business, I’m wanting to create content and have a certain habit around doing that, whether it’s your personal life with fitness and health and all those different things that we tend to be in this all or nothing approach.
[00:03:26] And I really want to make sure, especially if you’re a perfectionist, that you’re not taking that approach because it doesn’t work. So what we want to do is just focus on the needle movers, a few key things, and to make that actually tangible and practical and realistic that you can do it. We then formulate that into a personal rule.
[00:03:46] So a personal rule, and I’m just going to share some examples with you of personal rules, but a personal rule is what it pretty much sounds like. It’s a rule that you have with yourself. It’s not like, hey, husband, can you keep me accountable to this? Like, it’s none of that. It’s, this is a rule I have with myself.
[00:04:04] This is how I operate. You already have a lot of personal rules. You already have a lot of personal rules in your life, but now wanting to create some intentionally so that you are clear and decided on exactly what you’re doing. And it just makes habit creation so much easier. And so I want to share a few examples.
[00:04:22] So a personal rule that I had in my personal life was around the laundry because I used to have always like washing baskets full of clothes that didn’t get put away because I didn’t feel like it. And then I’d have to like, shuffle through it all to get the clothes I wanted. And it just was overwhelming to have these clothes everywhere.
[00:04:40] And then I have to put it away in this big effort and just that whole thing. And I just made a personal rule with myself. One day I was like, I’m sick of this. I’m just sick of this. So I’m going to actually make a personal rule with myself that I put the laundry away on the day it’s done on the day it’s dry, the laundry gets put away.
[00:05:00] And I’ve had that personal rule now for years. And it means that even with three little ones, there are never piles of laundry around the house. I just have a no drama personal rule. I put the laundry away on the day that it’s dry. Or if the kids are asleep, I fold it all up like I did this last night. I was watching the Simone Biles documentary, which was amazing, but I folded up the laundry, put it in the basket, and then when they woke up this morning, I put it away.
[00:05:26] So that’s a personal rule. That really supports me. Another personal rule I used to have when I was working as an accountant in the city at one of the big firms. So they had lots of snacks and things out in the kitchen. I had a personal rule. I don’t eat the biscuits in the kitchen. Not because I wasn’t allowed to, but because I hated the mental drama of, am I going to eat one?
[00:05:45] Do I want one right now? Will I have one later? How many can I have? Like all of that. I was like, I just, I don’t want to have to even think about it. So I’m going to create a personal rule so that I don’t have to, I’ve already pre decided it. I can update the rule if I want to, but I actually at least have pre decided something that supports me and that I want to default to.
[00:06:06] And so it’s really important when you’re creating personal rules, because you might think, well, I’ve done that and I didn’t stick to it. That when it’s a personal rule, we want to look at creating something that is clear, simple, and easy for you to stick to. It’s easy for you to stick to. So we’re not trying to create a personal rule, for example, like if you have no habits around working out and then you’re like, I want to have a personal rule that I work out every day, That’s probably going to be too big a leap.
[00:06:34] Maybe your personal rule is I move my body for 10 minutes every day or something that would actually feel easy to you. We don’t want to have it be this big leap. So what I did with this PGSDer and what I’ve done a lot in my personal life is looking at how can I create personal rules around things that support me.
[00:06:53] To not burn out, to have the work life balance that I want. And so I’m going to share a few of them. Some of them that I came up with with this PGSDer on this call, and that fit for her. And other ones that I have just in my life in general. So one thing that came up on the call was double screening. You might be familiar with this.
[00:07:13] You are watching a show or something on the TV. Maybe it’s a movie. And you were also on your phone at the same time. Maybe that wasn’t your intention, or maybe you just are in the habit of every time you sit down on the couch, you turn the TV on and then you get your phone out. For most people, this is very draining and we’re doing it to try and like conserve energy and recharge ourselves or just like switch off.
[00:07:37] But actually it’s very draining to be double screening. It’s very overstimulating and it makes it really hard to feel recharged. I’d say most people don’t feel recharged. After that experience. So a personal rule that I have and that I shared with her is I don’t double screen. I just have that rule with myself.
[00:07:57] I’ve had it for many years now. I don’t double screen. I’m either watching something or I’m on my phone and I’m allowed to be on my phone and I’m allowed to watch something, but I just need to choose which one I’m going to do and actually do that. Also with my husband, Steve, we have a rule together where if we’re watching something together.
[00:08:16] Neither of us are on our phones. So for example, if Steve wants to scroll Marketplace on Facebook for a bit, like, okay, I will wait until you’re finished to start our show because we don’t have phones. Like we will literally watch each other if we’re like on our phones. And then we’re like, okay, what do you want to watch tonight?
[00:08:31] And we turn it on. If the other person’s on the phone, we will wait until the other person is off to hit play. And that is a habit that we’ve developed together, but it has really, really, really helped. And I highly recommend this as a rule that you can invite your partner into is that it means we’re actually watching it together.
[00:08:49] And even if we’re not talking together, We are actually engaged in the same activity together. It makes such a difference. So having that personal rule instead of like, well, I need to look at my phone less. So vague. Oh my God. You’re never going to be able to stick to that. What does that even mean? You don’t even know if you’re succeeding at that.
[00:09:07] But I don’t double screen so I can be on my phone or I can be on my Like watching TV, but I’m not going to do both. It’s very clear. Oh, I’m double screening right now. Okay. Which one do I want to watch? It’s very clear. Very, very clear. So we want to make sure again, I need to work out more. I want to eat healthier.
[00:09:27] I want to post consistently. What does any of that mean? What does any of that mean for the podcast? For example, just to give a different one personal rule, so to speak, is that every Monday, a new episode goes out on the podcast, whether it’s a new episode, whether it’s the best of the podcast episode, whether it’s a coaching call replay, there is an episode that goes out.
[00:09:49] And that is how, 500 episodes in, I have been able to show up so consistently because it’s a rule. Whereas with Instagram, where I haven’t been as consistent, I don’t have the same rules around that. Those rules need to be created. When it comes to email, I’m very consistent with that. Every Monday to Friday at 9pm Australian time, we will send a Perfectionist Power Up.
[00:10:10] Email. It’s a few sentences long. Again, another rule. I have a little structure. It’s only a few sentences long. It’s the same format every time, the same subject line every time. It makes it so easy to be consistent when it’s so clear what I’m doing and when that’s pre decided and it’s something that’s easy to do.
[00:10:27] We have a system on the backend. There’s a big document with all the perfectionist power ups. If I haven’t written new ones, we share favorites. So those rules that clarity versus like, I want to send more emails or I want to get better at my newsletter, just actually having a personal rule. And one that you can either easily stick to, or it’s easy to support yourself to stick to it, or you have the support, whether it’s from power planning or PGSD, you have that support to stick to it.
[00:10:54] So, so, so, so powerful. So another one that we talked about as well was scrolling. Just in general, scrolling, TikTok, Instagram, especially if you have a business where you are signing clients through DMs like this PGSDer was, that you have business reasons to be on the app. And also it is taking away your rest.
[00:11:20] You’re constantly checking if you are waiting in the line at the doctor’s. Like waiting to go to your appointment or you’re like in the queue for something, you just go and have a scroll. And I found this recently that I had, I had a long period where I didn’t have Instagram on my phone, loved it. Then I had it back on so I could post more easily.
[00:11:38] I have a separate business phone and I was just finding having that extra friction to go onto the other phone and like transfer things across was getting annoying. So I needed a better system with that, but I added it back on my normal phone. And I just found that back in that habit of just like, checking and scrolling and doing all of that and then after our most recent PGSD launch finishes like i’m just like not going on at all i’m not having on my phone life is so much better life is so much better for my brain because i don’t want to have those little bits of information all the time i know some people really love that and like love an intentional scroll For me, I’d rather watch a YouTube video, listen to a podcast, go into that long form content.
[00:12:20] So it’s nothing wrong with scrolling. You can have intentional time to scroll, but when we’re scrolling as an escape, it doesn’t help us to actually recharge. And often when you are doing that. Instead of processing your feelings, you’re just burned out from all the avoidance. You’re burned out from the procrastination, from the mindlessness, from not doing what you want to do and not showing up how you want to show up.
[00:12:48] So it’s becoming intentional with, and I did a whole episode a couple of years ago now on how to scroll less, like how to stop scrolling social media. So I share a lot of things in that that are really helpful, but What is really helpful with the personal rule around this is instead of saying like, I just need to not go on at all.
[00:13:05] And for this PGSDer, it wasn’t a fit to say like, don’t have it on your phone at all. And that wasn’t something that she wanted to have. So for me, like, I love not having it on my phone. I feel like no sense of loss whatsoever when I don’t have Instagram on my phone. My life is better when I don’t have it on my phone.
[00:13:22] But for some people, you might want to have it on your phone or you might have practical reasons for that. And so when it comes to this, so for this PDSER, we set the personal rule that she will check Instagram on her computer when she’s checking her email, she will lump it into something she’s already doing and just check to see if there’s any DMs and she doesn’t have the desire to scroll on the computer version of the app.
[00:13:43] And when it came to TikTok and also Instagram, if she needed to check it, that she would have. a time of day where she would check that. So what I used to do, this is a personal rule I used to have is I would check at 8am and 8pm. And so throughout the day, if I was like, I really want to check, I’m like, okay, well I know that time is coming.
[00:14:02] It’s not like I’m never allowed to do it. But at eight o’clock I’ll have a check if I think there’s, and like I’m not getting any urgent DMS, there’s nothing urgent happening in my DMS. So it’s like, okay, it can wait until 8pm or 8am and then I can, I can scroll as long as I want. I can catch up on things.
[00:14:18] And what I found is that there was barely anything to catch up on. I would be all caught up on the things I actually intentionally wanted to consume within five to 10 minutes, max, usually about two to three minutes when I was constantly checking. And then the apps constantly feeding you. What about this?
[00:14:33] What about this? What about this? Versus when I was actually intentionally checking in, there was so much less to check in on. And so having a personal rule like that, I’ll check it this specific time versus I’ll check less. What does that mean? Or I should stop scrolling. vague, either don’t have it on your phone at all, or decide when you will.
[00:15:00] So for example, with this as well, something to think about is with your personal rules. It’s if you’re already in the habit, for example, scrolling social media, if you’re already in the habit of doing that in certain circumstances that kind of like trigger that habit, so to speak. So for example, if you are in the doctor’s office and you’re waiting for an appointment, that your habit might be currently, You pull out your phone and you scroll.
[00:15:23] So it’s thinking ahead of time. Okay. When I’m in that situation, what will I do instead? For example, and this is where other personal rules can be created. When I’m going to an appointment, I take a book with me, or I have the Kindle app and I have a book that I really love reading. And I read that whenever I’m in the queue, waiting for something.
[00:15:41] Like if I had that idle time and I do want to be consuming something or engaged in something instead of not having any good options. So I go to social media to scroll. I’m going to have something ready for myself and have that decided ahead of time. So that if I do find myself scrolling, I actually know what to redirect myself to.
[00:16:00] A lot of times when we’re trying to break bad habits, so to speak, we don’t even know what we’re trying to direct ourselves to. An example of this is with the laundry and putting it away that it’s just like this vague, like, well, I want to not have these piles of laundry. It’s like, but I didn’t even know what to direct myself to versus once it was just very clear of like, well, I put it away on the day it’s done.
[00:16:21] I could notice and there was so many nights that I’m like, I’m way too tired. Then I’m like, But it only takes a couple of minutes and I know that because I’ve done it so often that I put it away the day It’s done and it feels so good to do that. It feels so good So i’m like I can do it even if i’m tired i’m doing this for future me i’m doing this for present day me I want to do it now I’m, just going to get it done But it’s because I had the clarity instead of like, oh I need to get better at putting washing away So vague no, I put it away on the day.
[00:16:53] It’s done by the time I go to sleep on that day The washing will be away or it will be folded And ready to go away when the kids wake up. So when it comes back to having these personal rules, it’s so helpful to have it be simple, clear, and something that you can tangibly stick to. It’s not completely unrealistic.
[00:17:14] And I recommend just creating one at a time. If they’re really easy ones that are going to be super easy to adopt. So for this PGSDer, when we’re going through it, just like double screening and not doing that and having a rule, I don’t do that. Feels really easy. I’ve done that before. The Instagram and social media one would be a bit more challenging.
[00:17:30] So paying attention to that. It’s like not having too many personal rules that are then like these whole new habits and identities that you need to build. With each new habit you want to build there’s also an identity that comes with that to make that habit sustainable a self image Believing you’re that kind of person believing for example, i’m the kind of person that never has piles of laundry around That’s just not me.
[00:17:53] That’s an identity i’ve developed to support me With that personal rule. So when it comes to The third thing that we talked about i’m just showing this to give you lots of different examples I hope it’s getting you thinking about what personal rules you can create. These are specific to Things that happen in your personal life that will support you to get higher quality rest and therefore avoid burnout But you can do so many of these in your business too And you’ve already like i’m sure as you’re listening to this you’re starting to notice like oh, yeah I do have a personal rule around this or that And where can you then intentionally create just one more personal rule?
[00:18:27] To support you and then another one just one at a time ideally if it’s more than that They need to be really easy So the other one that we talked about Was and because we’ve gone through like so many different areas of her life And looked at like what are the needle moving ones to focus on because we don’t want to have 10 different personal rules Even though that’s better than just 10 vague habits to try and create, still too much.
[00:18:48] Our brain doesn’t like changing. It wants to keep doing the familiar things, even if they create painful results. So when it comes to um, another needle move for her was physical exercise, movement. That came up constantly that that was something that really helps her. I think for most human beings that’s the case.
[00:19:07] So when we looked at for her it was doing physical therapy exercises that she needs to do to support her recovery physically. And that ideally she wants to be doing intense exercise but she needs to do this physical therapy. regularly to be able to get to the place to do that. So I know I mentioned that because a lot of people with physical therapy exercise or any kind of rehab or recovery, um, it tends to go into like, I should do it and I don’t want to, and then we feel bad that we don’t do it and we’re not doing it.
[00:19:35] All of that whole thing. But what we looked at is how could we create a personal rule around it to make it really easy to actually get that done, especially because it’s aligned with something she wants to do. She’s already doing that a few times a week, but she wanted to do it a bit more and to have that be part of her every day.
[00:19:54] And so what we looked at is how can you have, for example, a personal rule that really encourages you to do it. So an example of this is. If there’s a TV series, especially if it’s a new series, and you really want to watch it, and it’s the rule of, I’m only going to watch this when I’m doing my personal, my physical therapy exercises.
[00:20:19] Or if it’s, for example, you want to do a podcast you love listening to, I’m only allowed to listen to that podcast when I do this other thing or when I’m cleaning up or like tying something you like with something you don’t like doing, or you want to do it, but you don’t have the desire to do it. Tying those things together is a form of personal rule that will really support you to create that habit.
[00:20:45] So we looked at either Initially, could you just do the physical therapy while watching TV? You’re not going to be double screening anymore. There’s a soap opera you love watching. Could we have you just do the physical therapy with that? And then it evolved to, okay, what if there was a show that you only do, you’re only allowed to watch, so to speak, when you do your physical therapy?
[00:21:08] That that’s like your reward for doing it is you get to watch that show and encourages you to do the physical therapy and it creates this positive association. So you can have a personal rule like that as well. I’ve used that technique so many times in my life. And a key one I’m thinking of is when I had a YouTube channel and I was doing a daily video and it was, Something that I wanted to do just to be able to, I was documenting my, it was called 365 days of personal growth.
[00:21:37] I think it got up to like 140 something days. And then I converted to doing the podcast because I was essentially just filming myself doing podcast things. It was easy to not film. But what I did to be able to get to that point of consistency, Was that I tied it to something I did every day. So I was already doing my makeup every day.
[00:21:57] And so what I did was I just had my phone out or my camera and I would record myself talking while I did my makeup. Definitely not a beauty guru. Definitely like no one would be following me to be able to see how I do my makeup, but it meant it was tied to something I was already doing. So that, and that was my personal rule that if I’m doing my makeup, then I’m going to record myself for the video.
[00:22:21] For that day, I’m just going to talk about what is top of mind, essentially same strategy that I have today. Just going to share something that’s top of mind that I think will be helpful, interesting, or like I was documenting what I was up to, what I was doing that day, what I was thinking about, what I was learning.
[00:22:35] So you want to be able to create and just start looking for those opportunities to have personal rules. that support you in your personal life with things like exercise, sleep, drinking water, but looking at not how can I have a personal role for all of it, but what are those top key things that make a difference?
[00:22:56] Another example of a personal rule Is I work out at one o’clock. I work out at one o’clock. That’s my personal rule. And that was after Having a period where I found it so hard to work out I had so many stories about I’m too tired and it’s too hard with the kids and like all of this and then when I actually just was like I’m just going to make a rule.
[00:23:20] I just work out at one o’clock. Like when I work out the hour has to be one, it can be one 30, it can be one 55, but I have to start it at one. It just removes so much drama. And that’s the beauty of the personal rule. It removes the mental drama, the indecision fatigue. That comes with being like, well, I might do it in the morning.
[00:23:40] I might do it at lunch. I might do it in the evening. I’m not sure what workout i’m going to be doing anyway And I don’t even know what ultimate big picture plan it’s working towards if it’ll make it different Like there’s all of that that goes with it versus i’m working out at one Um, I’m either going for a run or doing a Peloton bike ride, or I’m doing, um, her name’s Carolyn Gervon, I think is how you say her name.
[00:24:04] She has a YouTube channel with weights, tutorials, and videos, and I love her. She does great ones. Like, or I’m doing one of those weights things. I’m just searching 30 minute legs, 45 minute arms, whatever it is. And I’m doing that. And we have a gym set up under the house. That’s it. I don’t have to decide all the different things.
[00:24:23] It’s just like, which of these three do I want to do? And I’m doing it. And that got me from not doing workouts or doing like one or two a week. And this was something that was as well. I just want to mention I work out at 1 PM. I either go for a run, bike ride or do the weights. That was an easy personal rule for me because I’d already had many years of being in the habit of working out.
[00:24:44] I already was familiar with and I had an identity around being a runner. Also with the bike riding, um, as well and also with weights. So it was like just a personal rule. And this is, I love using it for something where it’s like you’re on the cusp, like you’re very close to being able to have it be a habit.
[00:25:02] but you just haven’t quite got the clarity or made the decisions. So we want to just have you have a personal rule, create those decisions, make those decisions, have it be simple. All of the personal rules, honestly, when I think about creating them, they’ve just been like, I haven’t thought deeply about it.
[00:25:23] It’s just been like, this is just what I’m doing now. It’s been the obvious thing, the easy thing, not complicated, not perfect. Just obvious and easy. So for example, with the veggie garden that I’ve just reinvigorated and a problem I was having was I wasn’t watering the plants enough. We have it, Steve set it all up with like irrigation.
[00:25:46] So I just need to turn a tap on and off, but I was just feeling uncommitted to the veggies and the fruit that we had in there. And because I wasn’t watering them and that’s that cycle of they’re not growing well. So it was like less inspiring to keep looking after them anyway. So I was like, Hey, well, So what I need to do is water them more regularly, especially in Australia here, we’re going into summer.
[00:26:06] They definitely need to get watered a lot. So what I’m doing now is every morning I have a cup of tea. So when I have my cup of tea, I go down with my tea and I go and turn the water on and I check how it’s going. I’ve also been going out at lunchtime as well. Just like after I have my lunch, I wandered down, we planted it.
[00:26:25] Right next to the house so that it’s easy to get to because ages ago We had an avocado tree that we wanted to get avocados from obviously and we put it on like we live on acreage We put it on the other side of the yard and it was just out of sight out of mind And so with this it’s close. I also have a little herb garden on the deck and I just go And I have a look And it’s just nice to get out in the fresh air.
[00:26:49] And it’s like just those simple rules of like after lunch, I go have a look, see how they’re going. They might not need water. They might, but in the morning when I have my cup of tea, my Earl Grey, I go down with it and I have a look and I water it and I check on like how everything’s going. And then I think about like, okay, if there’s one thing I wanted to learn about the garden, what would I want to learn?
[00:27:11] Instead of like, oh my God, because there’s so many things to learn. So many. I’m such a beginner with it, but looking at like, okay, some of these seeds have sprouted and some of them haven’t, I need to wait another week and then see what’s happening. But like, I wonder what, why these ones didn’t and why these ones did.
[00:27:26] And like things like that, that it’s just having a really clear personal rule really supports. So, so, so much and is such a, a weapon when it comes to actually creating those habits that you want to have in your personal life and also in your business so that you can support yourself to do the things you want to do so that you can take out the mental drama that comes from being undecided.
[00:27:54] Burnout doesn’t come from not having the perfect routine or not sleeping well enough or all those things. It comes from the thinking that is exhausting you. And there can definitely, I’m not saying there’s not such a thing as physical burnout. There definitely is. You need sleep. Like there’s very basic needs that definitely need to get met.
[00:28:13] But for most of the people that I work with, The thing that creates a burnout is the perfectionism, is the thought, is the trying to do everything perfect and then not getting it done at all and the guilt and the shame of that. That’s the draining thing, the indecision. Because you want to get it right and you don’t want to get it wrong.
[00:28:33] So again, you don’t do anything or you do something and you go all in on it and then you burn out or then you just fall off the wagon completely. And forget about it. But looking at in terms of supporting yourself physically and mentally, we definitely want to do that. But also like having rest for your brain, having clean rest, I call it, I said that kind of funny, clean rest, a bit of saliva going on, clean rest.
[00:28:59] When you have clean rest and you can clean up your clean rest and get that restful rest, you might still feel a bit anxious when you’re resting. You might still feel restless when you’re wrestling, wrestling, resting. But if you can have time for your brain, where you can mentally switch off, it’s so much easier to show up fully to get shit done and to be all in without burning yourself out.
[00:29:25] It is the secret. It is the key thing. And especially if you’re a perfectionist and you hate resting, it is such a good place to do your work. We really look at clean rest in PGSD and support you with it in so many different ways. And it’s a very simple process and simple concept, but. Most perfectionists need support to actually make it a reality and to keep their clean rest clean, so to speak, especially if you’ve got lots going on in your personal life, but having personal rules and just looking at easy, what’s an easy and obvious personal rule that I can create to support me with this.
[00:30:01] So good. So good. It’s not this like idealistic, like, well, if I was perfect, then I would do this. Just like one simple thing. That feels like yeah, I could actually do that and then you can bring yourself back to that So again going back to the laundry example because that for me Was the key one for me that really clicked all of this together And has been so powerful and enduring for me, is that when I don’t feel like doing it, which is 99 percent of the time, I bring it back to you.
[00:30:29] But my rule is, this is literally what I say to myself, but my rule is I put the laundry away on the day it’s dry and then I support myself to do it. I just encourage myself along, even if I don’t feel like it, because I do feel like not having piles of laundry. So I do the little thing I don’t feel like doing.
[00:30:47] So I have the bigger thing I do feel like having. So with that said, I hope it’s been helpful to hear more about personal rules and you might have a go at creating one. Inside PGSD, there are so many things like this that we teach you and support you with so that you can not burn out. Never burn out again, actually be showing up fully without having to constantly hold yourself back due to this fear of burnout.
[00:31:14] We want to have you being able to actually give all the energy you have, knowing that you’ve got clean rest coming. It’s so much easier when you know there’s rest. Like if you think about running, it’s easier to sprint. When you know where the finish line is and that you can rest. If you’re constantly running and imagine like someone has their arms around you and they’re holding you back as you run, which is what you’re trying to do when you’re conserving energy is like, no, no, no, don’t run that fast.
[00:31:38] And there’s no finish line. You’re just constantly going. If you’re awake, you should be running. That mentality that perfectionists often have with their business. If I’m awake. I should be working, or I should at least be productive. Instead, we run and we rest. So that’s how we do it in PGSD. And by the way, we’re going to be opening for enrollment again in January.
[00:32:00] So if you’re not on the PGSD wait list, get yourself on there. samlaurabrown.com/PGSD is where to go to sign up to find out more about the program. If you have any questions about it, reply and ask so you can get prepared to join us inside. Love the new year enrollment that we do. It’s always such a fun one.
[00:32:17] Just that new year energy and being able to start showing up, getting shit done and doing that without burning out. But with that said, I hope you’re having a beautiful day and I will talk to you in the next episode.
Outro
[00:32:27] If you enjoyed this podcast, I invite you to sign up to receive a short daily perfectionist power up from me. These are little notes and reminders sent to you via email that will help you plan properly as a perfectionist and get you out of your own way. So you can go to samlaurabrown.com/power to sign up today and you’ll start receiving motivating perfectionist power ups this week.