Disrupting Burnout
Disrupting Burnout with Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson is dedicated to overworked, undervalued high-achieving servant leaders who give all to serve others and leave very little for yourself. You are an accomplished woman with many responsibilities and you often find yourself overwhelmed, exhausted, and burned out. I’ve been there. As a matter of fact, burnout almost cost me everything. Compassionate work can carry a high price tag: your mind, body, spirit and relationships may be in distress as you serve the needs of others. I am here to equip your hands and refresh your heart so you can serve in purpose and fulfillment and permanently break cycles of burnout.
Disrupting Burnout
131. Protecting Your Brilliance: Balancing Passion and Self-Care
Hey Friend,
Ever found yourself with a full calendar, caught between the exhilaration of passionate work and the challenge of maintaining your inner equilibrium? This week, I, Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson, dive into that very experience, sharing personal anecdotes, including a heartwarming reunion with a former student that reminded me of the joy found in genuine connections.
In this episode titled "Protecting Your Brilliance: Balancing Passion and Self-Care," I explore not just the dynamic of pouring through passion, but also the critical importance of safeguarding your unique brilliance. It's vital to ensure it stays vibrant, even under the pressures of a hectic schedule. We'll discuss how separating passion from identity is essential for maintaining balance and avoiding burnout, especially for introverts who require quiet emotional and social rejuvenation.
Join me as I reveal strategies for integrating self-care into your life as a non-negotiable element of sustaining your brilliance. Reflect on the power of surrounding yourself with a supportive community to help fill your own cup and continue sharing your gifts without depleting your reserves. Through intentional choices, like choosing rest over social obligations, we'll uncover how to protect our inherent power and significance.
Let’s embark on this journey of self-reflection together and rediscover the love and support that truly surround us. Remember, our brilliance isn’t just a byproduct of our passions—it’s a core part of who we are.
Love Always,
PBJ
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Hey friend, I got a question for you what are you doing to protect your brilliance? Doing the hard work is not just about getting out of burning out or out of the cycles of burnout, but it's also about staying out of burnout. Come on, friend, let's talk about it. Welcome back, friend. I am Dr Patrice Buckner-Jackson, but you can call me PBJ. Welcome to another episode of Disrupting Burnout, where we are giving you the strategies for pouring out purpose without living through the consequences of burnout. And I'm here just to share a quick little, shorty episode, friend, we are no longer in our displaced place, we are back in our home, we have power, we have water so thankful I know so many people are still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene and, as we are watching, the threat of Hurricane Milton. So all the things are happening. But we are safe, we are good. But I am coming to you on the road.
Speaker 1:I am on the road all week this week and honestly, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for this little piece of normal. I'm grateful to be able to continue my work and my purpose and my brilliance and all the things. But I had a thought that I wanted to share with you, just to make sure that you are protecting your brilliance. How are you protecting your brilliance? So, this particular week, I had a keynote yesterday, I have a keynote and a fireside chat tomorrow, and then I have another keynote on Thursday, and on Friday I have my final keynote of the week in a different location. So it's unusual for me to have this many deliveries in one week, but I have one, two, three, four, five, five workshops, slash keynotes, slash deliveries this week, and I'm so excited about it. I've been leaning forward, looking forward to this week ever since I knew what it was going to be, because this is just where I thrive. This is the work that fuels my heart and I absolutely love it. I love even the travel. I love interacting with new folks.
Speaker 1:Yesterday, I had the opportunity to be in a room where a person identified themselves as one of my past students when I served as dean of students. So I went and I gave my speech on disrupting burnout and during the Q&A session, this person stood and said you were my Dean in 2013. And, the cherry on top, y'all this person came up to me afterwards and showed me a picture of us back in 2013. So when I was Dean of Students, I did this thing called Talk with the Dean and I would set up all over campus just different spots where students were just to be accessible to them, to say hello to them, to get to know them. And this particular day I was riding our transit system on campus. So I was riding the buses, just riding from one stop to the next, talking to students, and I met this particular student on one of our buses, took a picture with them and yesterday we got the opportunity over 10 years later, we got the opportunity to recreate that picture. So y'all work is just it's amazing.
Speaker 1:It's amazing that I get to do this and I am fully aware and have learned that I have to work hard to protect my brilliance. So if you've heard me teach about brilliance, you understand that speaking is not specifically my brilliance, that's a passion. That is how I express my brilliance in the world. Right, it's one of the ways that I express my brilliance in the world. I love speaking. I absolutely love doing it. People respond well when I speak, but if I were, for any reason, not able to speak anymore, although it would be painful, I would not struggle with my identity because I know my brilliance is intact even if a passion changes and I recognize that, as I am assigned to pour out so much brilliance this week, I have to be very intentional about protecting that brilliance. So, for example, after my keynote yesterday, the kind folks that invited me here and the folks that I've been working with this week there was a social event in the evening that many or several of the folks were attending to spend some time together, kind of as a closure of the conference, and they invited me and said hey, you're welcome to come, and I appreciate that so much and I know how much pouring I'm going to do this week. I know that Not only do I have to speak, not only do I have to prepare my slides and all the things, but when I speak it's not just the speaking, it is the pouring out, the vulnerability, the listening, the receiving of others' stories and experiences and continuing to encourage them and pour into them Even after the speech is over.
Speaker 1:I know what this week is going to cost me and I am 100%, fully, all in head first, ready for it, and I know I need to be very wise and very careful with myself to make sure that I have what I need in order to pour out this week. So, although I appreciated the invitation, I did not take them up on that invitation. Not that I did not want to spend time with them, not that I did not appreciate them, but I know what the rest of the week is going to cost me. So this week it is important for me to not just physically rest, but emotionally rest, rest socially. Being an introvert, a person who gathers my energy from being alone, I know that being in a social space cost me. So I have to make decisions this week to protect my brilliance.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I did or am deciding this week is today is sort of my transition day, so I had no speaking today. Today's the only day of this week that I have no speaking. And you know, sometimes when I'm in a new place, especially if I'm going to be there a few days, I like a day to get to know the town, to get out a little bit. But today I decided I'm going to be in today. I have walked down the hall, I've gone downstairs just to get some fresh air, to move my body, but I am not leaving this hotel today because I know that this is my replenished day. I know that this is the time and space that I have this week to myself. So I'm going to give myself that gift of solitude today.
Speaker 1:I also thought about so many folks that I owe a phone call or could call and check on or haven't spoken to in a long time. I got a list, y'all. I got a list of people that I need to catch up with and I thought, well, gosh, this would be a good day to catch up with some people. But again, I know what that costs me and I know what the rest of my week looks like. My people may not know, and they don't know my folks who invited me to the social last night. They don't know my people in my family, my friend group. They don't know right. They don't know what I'm being called to this week. So I, as the person who knows I am responsible for protecting my own brilliance this week. I am responsible for making sure that I can serve every person and every group and every event. I want to give the same amount of energy that I gave yesterday. I want to be able to give that on Friday to those folks that I'm going to be speaking to. I want to be able to give it on Wednesday and on Thursday and on Friday. So in order to do that, I have to take steps to protect my brilliance.
Speaker 1:Friend. How are you protecting your brilliance? What are you doing to ensure that you can continue to do the work that you've been called to do? What are you doing to ensure that your cup is full, so that you are sharing from your overflow and not from your deficit? What are you doing to protect your heart, your mind, your will, your emotions, your body? What are you doing to ensure that the pace of your life is at the pace of grace and that you are not running so fast and so hard that you're going to find yourself spent in a moment, in an opportunity where you should be full and giving. Moment and an opportunity where you should be full and giving.
Speaker 1:It is our responsibility to protect our brilliance. You are your first advocate. No one else is responsible for knowing what you need before you, not even a spouse or a partner or a family member. Nobody else should know before you and nobody else should take the initiative to take care of you before you. I know I get it. I know I grew up with this conditioning and this idea that you serve and you give until you give out. And what I've experienced and what I've witnessed over and over and over, is that giving out serves no one, that giving out doesn't honor God, it doesn't honor your people, it doesn't honor you, that giving out is not the place that we want to be. And in order to do that, you must protect your brilliance. Yes, it is important, in order to disrupt the cycle of burnout, to know your brilliance and discover your brilliance.
Speaker 1:And once you've discovered your brilliance, you got to take care of it. Friend, you got to know what you need. So some of that may be you may need some quiet time. You may need some solitude. You may need a physical therapist to help you stretch, or a chiropractor or a massage therapist. You may need to move your body. You may need a coach, a mentor, a counselor, a pastor, someone to disciple you. What do you need in order to show up fully in your brilliance, sustainably?
Speaker 1:Pause and ask yourself some questions. Pause and consider how you fill your cup and what works for you, and then take action to surround yourself with the care community that you need so that you can continue to pour out the brilliance that you were created to give. It's time for you to protect your brilliance friend. And with that, I am going to close this episode and go continue protecting my brilliance. I thought about not even doing an episode this week. I thought about not even doing an episode this week. However, this came to my mind and you all know that as I learn and as God gives me revelation, I'd love to come and share it with you all. So here we are Protect your brilliance friend. All right, until next time. You know, as always, you are powerful, you are significant and you are brilliant and you are loved. Love always, pbj, thank you.
