20: The Ultimate Guide to Beating Burnout: Identify, Prevent, Overcome

In this episode of Group X Appeal, hosts Terry Shorter and Kimberly Spreen-Glick tackle a critical issue affecting so many today: burnout. Together, they unpack what burnout really is, its root causes, and the key symptoms you need to recognize before it takes over your life.

From the importance of self-care and mindfulness practices to the power of community support, Terry and Kimberly share actionable strategies to help you prevent burnout, regain your energy, and reignite your passion for life and work.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or exhausted, this episode is for you! Tune in to learn how to reclaim your balance and thrive.

What You’ll Learn:
✅ What burnout is and how to identify it
✅ The common triggers and root causes of burnout
✅ Practical tips for managing stress and preventing burnout

🌟 Keep tuning in for more conversations on fitness, wellness, mindset, and personal growth!

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube - @groupxappeal.

Questions or topic ideas? Email us @ groupxappeal@gmail.com

Get your FREE Guide To Holistic Well-Being here: https://gxaguide.com/

Stay Connected with Kimberly:
- @kimberlyspreenglick on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
- email: kimberly@theinspiredlifeuniversity.com
- website: www.theinspiredlifeuniversity.com

Stay Connected with Terry:
- @terryshorter on Instagram & Facebook
- email: terry@rippedplanet.com
- website: www.rippedplanet.com

Transcript

Welcome to Group X Appeal. Terry Shorter here with. Kimberly Spreen Glick Yes, we're so excited to be here because we're going to be talking about burnout. What the heck is burnout? But not just that, we're to be talking about the root causes and some strategies that you can implement to overcome burnout. But first, let's go ahead and start by kind of defining exactly what burnout is. really simply, it's simply put as just emotional, physical.

and mental exhaustion. That's all it is. And have you ever experienced any burnout at any level? I have absolutely ever, ever, ever. I have absolutely experienced burnout. It's no fun. How about you? Absolutely. For sure. And for you, what were some of the common signs that kind of indicated that you were experiencing burnout? You know, I think some of the most

common signs and symptoms to look for when you're experiencing burnout or to help you tap into the fact that you may be experiencing burnout from a physical standpoint could be things like issues with sleep. know when I have experienced burnout historically, it has really made it difficult for me to go to sleep. It was really hard to get to sleep. Headaches, which sometimes can be from the lack of sleep or just the higher levels of stress.

lowered immune system if you find yourself getting sick more often. And that can be a sign of burnout. How about a loss of appetite? If you just find yourself not as hungry anymore, that can definitely be a sign of burnout as well. So those are some of the physical symptoms that I know I'm aware of. Not an all-inclusive list, but some common signs and certainly ones I personally experienced. But it can go far beyond the physical. What are some of the beyond the physical signs that you might be experiencing burnout?

Great question. think the one of the top ones you just finished with loss of appetite for some people, including myself, increased amount of. I was going to say, have you lost appetite ever? No, it's an increased amount of appetite. So, and again, that's more on the health side. That's more on the physical side, but on the non-physical side, I'd have to say increased amount of procrastination. When there's things that I need to get done and I'm.

Kimberly/terry (02:15.192)
feeling overwhelmed, I'm feeling stressed out, like, ugh, I dread having to step Feels like one little thing could take forever. Absolutely. Absolutely. So increase procrastination is one of them. And then one of the biggest ones for me, which really is unproductive, unfortunately, is just a lowered amount of enthusiasm and motivation. And I think that leads to procrastination. Yeah.

Absolutely. Right, which leads to a bunch of the physical challenges that Kimberly, that you mentioned earlier. Yeah, no doubt. So those are just some of the common signs and symptoms to look out for. If you experience anything in addition to those, please let us know. We'd love to know what those things are. But we don't want to leave you in the funk. We want to kind of share some of the root causes of those challenges or those, I guess, can you call them ailments?

They're not necessarily ailments, right? No, they're just signs that you could be in a higher functioning place in your life and thriving more. Sure. And I think we should help them out of the funk. Yeah, let's help them out of the funk. So if you're experiencing some of the root causes, what would be some of the root causes, first of all, that? Well, I mean, the umbrella cause for burnout, of course, is stress. S word. the S word. that can come to life in a lot of different ways. It could be.

overloading yourself with work. It could be taking on too much. It could be saying yes to too many things because you don't have proper boundaries set, so a lack of boundaries. And then there's just this overall societal pressure to just do it all, to feel like we have to get it all done and to feel like we have to get it all done by ourselves. those can be some huge causes that will lead us right down the path of burnout.

there was a couple of other things that I thinking that are stress related that I've experienced that contribute to earlier in my life when I had to commute. Yeah. yeah. You know, I'm Commuting being on the bring being on the road for hours on hours on a regular basis throughout the entire week. that's draining. Yes. Right. And then, you know, a lot of people suspected that technology was going to make life easier, but you know, when do you have your cell phone and your

Kimberly/terry (04:32.212)
Your social media alerts or notifications are connected to it. Your email notifications are connected to it. Of course, the phone, phone calls and text messages. Just an influx of any of those messages coming through can be a little overwhelming and stressful too, right? Absolutely. It's so true. So true. So, but like we said earlier, we don't want to leave you in the funk. We don't want to leave you in the mess. And here's five simple steps to help you overcome some burnout. And they really do all fall under self care.

yeah. Right. I mean, what's the greatest antidote for stress? care. Yeah. Absolutely. So I think, do you want to talk about, or am I talking about this? This, the first one, why don't you kick us off? I'll kick us off. So, you know, I think the first thing is identifying your energy drainers first kind of, evaluate what those things are first. And you know, knowing is half the battle. It's like one of my favorite quotes from GI Joe.

my, this just took a turn. Knowing is half the battle. So yeah, so identifying knowing what those energy drainers are so you can set the necessary boundaries to avoid those, either avoid them or have a different approach with those energy drainers. And those energy drainers can be anything from people. Why did you just look at me when you said that?

He was just like, all right, if you're not watching the video, you might want to head over to YouTube because I swear he was looking straight ahead and then he cocked his head toward me and said,

You are not an energy drainer that I would never think that in a million years. I would never say that out loud.

Kimberly/terry (06:19.266)
Here, I'm setting my boundary right now, Kimberly. Don't go past this line. So I'm coming past the line. Watch out now. yeah, identify what those things are. And that way you can approach them in a much more mindful, much more intentional way. So you kind of keep that good positive energy going and flowing. And no is not a bad word. No.

It is not so, so, so necessary. So another tip I'll throw into the mix that I think, can be really helpful. It's been helpful for me is just developing mindfulness. What is mindfulness? It is, is that connection between your mind and your body. It's all about creating better awareness of how you are feeling in your body, which can evolve from one day to the next, because you know, we are ever evolving and we can feel differently from one day to the next for, you know, wide host of factors. could be based on

You how we slept last night, how we ate yesterday, what kind of workout we did yesterday, how hydrated we are, if we're dealing with any kind of tweaks in our body, old injuries, recent injuries, did you sleep funny on a pillow? So many things lead into how we're feeling in our body. So it can be really beneficial in just day to day life, whether you're experiencing burnout or not to start to really tune in, tune into your own body. Because when you start to do that, when you develop

better mindfulness practices, just being present in the moment and noticing, just closing your eyes, looking inward and noticing how you're feeling in your body. You're going to start to see those signs because your body is always sending you signals to let you know how you're doing. And it's when you have that level of awareness through mindfulness, you can tap into those signals and start to recognize, I'm either leading into, or I am in burnout. So, yeah, I love it. So,

And then the third one would be prioritizing your time and energy based on your values. So what does that mean exactly? So, you know, some people will classify their values in different different areas. If you took a pie, a picture of a pie and you slice the pie and one of the slices was your family, that's your greatest value. Maybe your spirituality, whether it's religious or not, whatever the case is, that may be another one of your values.

Kimberly/terry (08:33.474)
Maybe work or your professional part of your life is another one of your values and finances and so on and so forth. Your physical and your physical well-being. Maybe you have an imbalance in your energy where you're placing your energy in some of those areas of your value system and that could cause stress as well if you have imbalance. So for example, if I'm spending way too much time on my work and energy and focus on my work,

Something is going to suffer without balance. So maybe it's my physical well-being. Maybe I'm not exercising as much. Or perhaps I'm not spending enough time with my family and my friends and my loved ones, which is super valuable and important to me. And that could cause stress. so prioritize what's important to you and where you're placing your energy and your time. And that will make you feel better immediately, even if you have to draw out that.

and what's important to you so you can physically see it and help identify where your energy and time and focus is being spent. That could be one of the best steps, most valuable first steps that you can take. I was just thinking, I think that's probably one of the best tips you could probably share overall because as we know from Mr. Rohn, where your focus goes, energy flows in that direction. don't just think it, ink it, write it down. no. You said that as well. I haven't heard that one.

Don't just think it, it, but not like a tattoo. No, you can do that too if that's important to you. Put your values down, your core values. I love that. I love that. Okay. Very cool. live your life based on that. Cause the worst feeling is going to bed at the end of the day, looking back and realizing you neglected what was most important. no good. That said, can I just throw in one thing? So often people are so focused on balance.

Well, the definition of balance is all equal parts at all times. Or if you're on kind of a teeter totter that it's fully balanced. Well, from one day to the next, that can change. Yeah, so there might be one day, Terry, that it's more about work because you have a season to wrap up. But then the next day, it's all about family and friends. And so the idea is don't drive yourself crazy and create more stress by looking at every day thinking of the pieces of pie and everything has to be perfectly balanced.

Kimberly/terry (10:53.782)
It's not about that. It's about overall and over the course of time, living your life in alignment with your values. So I started kind of replacing the word a couple of years ago in my mind, the word balance with like alignment and harmony, because I just want alignment and harmony in my life with what my values are. but I think it's such an important tip. so another important thing to think about is just what you can incorporate that you know for you is restorative that, that helps you.

kind of come back to a place of ease. Now is that focusing on making sure you get a good night's sleep or Terry's favorite thing, getting it like a power nap in, the of the day? That's your favorite thing. it's my favorite Yeah, you share that. Now it's my favorite thing. Yeah, it's becoming your favorite thing. I love a good power nap. So thanks for sharing. Meditation or some kind of presence practice. Maybe it's writing in a journal or listening to music, things that help bring you back to kind of homeostasis because when we are

Feeling burnout. We're in that hyper stressed overwhelmed state We want to be able to bring ourselves back to a place of recovery a breathing, know focusing on your breath If you don't want to get into full meditation Just a breathing practice where you tap into your parasympathetic nervous system by slowing down your exhale That can tap in your body's natural relaxation response find ways to bring yourself back to ease and then connected to that Which I think is equally as restorative is find time to play. Yeah, that's my favorite. my goodness

I think we should do an episode in the very near future about how important fun and play is. What you think? Let's do that. Okay. What a plan. yeah. think you should tune in to upcoming episodes in case we decide to do that. Cause we do love to play. you, if you can't figure that out. Absolutely. So those practices all work and they don't take long at all to do either. So, and then, you know, lastly, our fifth tip would be

seeking support from friends, from family, perhaps from a professional. We can't be too, you know, we have to be willing to stay open and receptive to the help from others because the people who are closest to us, that's what they're there for. They want to be able to help us in any way possible to make our, you know, to bring our lives in, to kind of bring more ease into our lives and to make things better. And so,

Kimberly/terry (13:18.51)
Put the pride aside. Yeah, I definitely learned over the years that allowing people who care about you to support you is a gift, not only to you, but to them. Sure. And that was a hard lesson learned because I was hyper independent and needed to figure it all out alone, needed to do it all alone. And now she's calling me all the time. I'm like, help me, Terry, help. But it is so, damsel in distress. Terry.

But it is, think that support, you so often we think that we're, you know, infringing on other people's time and energy, but think about how you feel when you're able to be there for someone you care about and how good that makes you feel. Like how dare we take that feeling away from the people they care about us. And so that was a hard lesson to learn for me, but one that I finally learned over time. Good for you. Thank you. Wasn't a lot of time though, cause you're still a little spring chicken. That's right. You know, I was just thinking that as well.

I'm still pretty independent too, but when I need the support I go for it. Good for you. And that's, you know, that's a lesson that I think a lot of us can, it's one of the greatest takeaways for me as well. I'm still, I'm in that process. I'm learning, you know, that I think as a, as a male, as a man, it's, we have to really, for some reasons, it takes a lot more to put the ego aside. Society has put that on you. So, so I'm still a student. Aren't we always a student.

Let us all continue to be students and continue to learn. For sure. So just curious, do you feel like this episode kind of hit close to home maybe? Because if so, we encourage you to not let burnout win. OK, go ahead and subscribe now for more episodes because we're all about supporting your well-being. Definitely share this with someone who might need some encouragement to kind of slow down and hit the reset button when it comes to stress and burnout in their lives. Yes. And if you're overcoming burnout or if you have a story to share,

Please, please, please leave a comment or review. We'd love to hear this victory of yours. at the end of the day, we are all in this together. And your voice could literally inspire someone who needs it the most and help them take that first step toward feeling much, much better. So that is it for today. That's it. How do you feel? I feel fantastic. How do you feel? I don't feel burnt down anymore. I definitely don't feel only took like 15 minutes.

Kimberly/terry (15:45.132)
Voila! So that is it for Group X Appeal today. Episode number 20. Boom! Boom! I am Terry Shorter. And I'm Kimberly Spreen Glick And we truly appreciate you joining us today. It means the world to us. And as always, we encourage you to make it a great day today. And why? Because it is a great day to have. Yes, it is. Peace out.