And What Else?

Reigniting Passion and Overcoming Burnout Through Clarity and Self-Care

• Wendy O'Beirne (The Completion Coach)

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What happens when clarity and passion slip through your fingers? Join me as I recount my battle with burnout and feeling suffering both personally and professionally. Discover how paralyzing it can be to lose sight of what you want and need, and how seeking the right kind of help can reignite your passion. 

In this episode of "And What Else," I delve into the intricate dance between passion, clarity, and action. Learn how gaining clarity can rekindle your passion and drive, transforming uncertainty into renewed DRIVE and passion. I'll walk you through my journey of questioning my career choices and how finding clarity brought me back to podcasting with a fresh perspective. If you've ever felt stuck this episode offers might be just what you need!  Especially if you have somehow tied suffering with part of who you are and what success costs!

If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and subscribe! And if you want to learn more from me, come and say hello on Instagram @thecompletioncoach or via email at wendy@thecompletioncoach.co.uk or find out more about working with me on my website, thecompletioncoach.co.uk.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to, and what Else, the podcast with me, wendy O'Byrne, also known as the Completion Coach, coming back in your ears after a little unintended extended break from podcasting. And today I'm going to talk about a subject I think is applicable to so many people that I work with and that transpired in the last few months. Massively applicable to myself, and, as I've just come back from a dog walk, it struck me that this is a conversation I wanted to bring back into the podcast as to really why I got stuck and what got me unstuck, and so let's dive in. Let's dive in. I wrote down yesterday with clarity comes action and passion, and the reality of the situation with me is that there was just a lack of clarity around so many things that were going on a lack of clarity around the podcast, a lack of clarity around a big project which was giving me a lack of clarity on Instagram, and it was giving me a lack of direction and clarity on other part of the business. That's been on my to do, my to implement my to get going list for well over a year now, in reality one part of it, maybe 18 months for the other part of it. So they were these two working parts behind the scenes, and because they were so clouded and there was no clarity, despite the fact I made it sound like there was, so bear with that, despite the fact that I made it sound like I was, because I had the overarching sentences of what I was doing, of what was coming through, of what was going to happen, but there was no detail. There was no detail and that lack of clarity meant that suddenly I lost my voice entirely on Instagram and it would transpire on this podcast Because, fundamentally, I was using the term I'm burnt out.

Speaker 1:

I was saying I'm burnt out from creating content, I'm burnt out from producing the podcast, I'm burnt out trying to do these two projects on top of everything else that's going on in the business the one-to-one, the groups, the events, the retreats, the things on that side. And in reality, part of that is true I was burnt out. I haven't had a proper break this year because I've been trying to force these other parts to be ready, to come to life, to be out there, and so there's been no time off whilst I've been trying to get these things to work, trying to put some Instagram clarity together, some parts of the business together, clarity together and take the action that I've been saying I want to take. Yesterday I booked a call with somebody to go through how to implement was a call on how to implement something that I've been struggling with. And after that call I had so much clarity so much clarity on so many things that suddenly my mojo had returned. I had passion for what I wanted to do again, I felt like I was thriving and I instantly banged out something that for the last 18 months I haven't been able to do Just took the action, created it, then created something off the back of it, and then here we are sitting down to record a podcast again. There has been so much action from me asking for help dramatic pause from me asking for help. Not help with could you cook, so I've got a little bit more time not help with you know that little chores externally around the thing, but help with the actual thing that I was suffering a problem with. And in reaching out, taking that action, booking it, in turning up for that call, doing what was required, being really vulnerable on the call and then taking the action straight afterwards, has given me so much momentum. And that momentum, that action, that stuff that I'm doing is coming from desire. It's coming from a really fulfilled place. It's coming from the overflow, as we like to talk about it. It's coming from me being really switched on and excited because I've got clarity and the help that I asked for was exactly the help that I needed.

Speaker 1:

Now, in a completely different part of my life, I've been suffering suffering is the word I'm going to use. So the business I was suffering in that part of the business and the business by result was suffering in that element because of my refusal to get that help, my stubbornness to try to overcome it by myself, my refusal to believe in myself enough to take that action. I'm saying that with one eye shut and a bit cringing, but, yeah, believing in myself enough to take that action, to get over my embarrassment, to move beyond all of the thoughts I may have had about myself being able to figure it out on my own. Lots of, lots of moving parts to that. The suffering that I inflicted on myself for most of this year is crazy when I look back at it.

Speaker 1:

In another part of my life which I was getting to, I have suffered the word suffered is going to come into this quite a lot, because it's a big part of it with problems with my eyes. For the last 12 weeks I have suffered with being unable to see properly, with constant inflamed, itchy eyes, with problems with my lenses, with the inability to just pop my lenses in and drive, get on, do things, and not being able to see properly. Having consistently blurred vision created quite a lot of suffering. It also gave me lots of reasons why things weren't happening and it was deflating my mood massively emotionally. All of it was draining massively emotionally. All of it was draining in my stubbornness, in my ability to put what I need to do at the bottom of the list when it's for myself.

Speaker 1:

The appointments I needed to book, the things I needed to do to resolve this situation, kept rolling over to the next day and the next day, on Thursday, I took action. I booked an appointment as an emergency, got seen in one end to prove it wasn't vision, took action that, yes, I can't get into a GP. It was very true, I couldn't, but I paid for a GP appointment and saw somebody and paid for a prescription and got something resolved in 24 hours. My lenses are in, I can see. I am so joy-filled that I no longer have pain or itchiness or problems in these eyes Fixed, fixed in 24 hours.

Speaker 1:

And on this walk, I said to my partner why didn't I book these appointments and take this action 12 weeks ago?

Speaker 1:

Why have I suffered for 12 weeks before I would do it? And in my head I thought, oh, oh, you did that on Thursday, and on Friday you had the call and ended the suffering that you had been experiencing in the business as well, and so this podcast, albeit a meandering story about where I've been, is also to serve you in the way of where do you allow yourself to suffer and how long do you enable that suffering before you will ask for help or take action that would ease things for you, and how much do you associate the suffering with part of your journey? The suffering is part of something great. How much of you would allow yourself to ask for more help, very targeted help, very vulnerable help, help that's very specific and invest in that help? I had to invest in those appointments. I invested in a call with somebody that could help me enormously, and the value of my vision and my health and the value of this call are more than you know I would spend in other areas of my life that I do so freely, without thought.

Speaker 1:

But when it comes to getting help, when it comes to paying for something very specifically to ease my suffering and pain, there is notable resistance and pain. There is notable resistance and that's a common theme for many people. I know that's a common theme for people that I've worked with in groups, in programs and one-to-one is the point of taking action is often at the point of such suffering that they are forced to take some action because they really can't bear this part of their lives problems, stuckness, area any longer. And having just been through it myself this year, I am so curious as to the part of me that has hung on to suffering, that has used suffering as a normal sense of being. I'm thinking that suffering was just the price I was paying and the suffering was a result of the burnout. When I think the burnout was a result of the suffering, because I instantly do not feel burnt out, I have not had a break, I have not had this, you know, medicine of something else. I have received the help that I needed on an issue which has prevented and stopped the suffering and I instantly feel better. I instantly feel vibrant, I'm instantly lit up, I'm back in thriving mode, I am excitable, and it came from ending the suffering.

Speaker 1:

And so I am going to ask you in what areas of your life do you realise that you suffer in silence, or suffer in what you believe is your strength, and what could you do to change that that? Where could you ask for help and open up vulnerably? Where could you invest your time, your energy or your money to get very targeted assistance to stop the suffering? In an area where you are allowing that as a normality? Because I see suffering happening regularly, and often in silence and often as a refusal of just asking for help, of believing maybe you're not worthy of the help or that you should be able to figure it out yourself, or you know the suffering's bearable. So I won't put that at the top of my agenda to get sorted, to get fixed, to get on with. And I just want to remind you that thriving, coming back to an energetic, thriving space where you do not suffer, that's the place. That's the place where far more magic, magnetism, desire-led actions, fulfilling work happens.

Speaker 1:

And so, interestingly, part of me was just like maybe I've lost interest in this part, maybe I've lost my passion for this, maybe that's not what I want to do anymore. None of that was true, but it was a story that was beginning to take over and, in reality, messy, unknown, unclear can lose its passion and so many people are looking for new careers, new jobs, new relationships, new homes, new things, new whatever, and quite often it's because there's a lack of clarity where they are, a lack of desire, which actually comes through. Passion and passion and desire and action come really easily with clarity and they really struggle in suffering, really struggle in suffering. I'm glad to be back. I'm going to be recording some more podcasts over the next couple of weeks and thank you for listening. As always, you can drop me a DM or send me an email, wendy at the completion coachcouk and there's going to be, there's going to be more stuff around this and so many other topics coming, and I'm really excited, really excited for what the