43. Stop Burnout: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Wellbeing

Burnout is real; chronic distress over long periods has detrimental effects on the body and the mind that can leave even the most passionate entrepreneur totally drained. No matter how much you love what you do, if you’re not aware that long hours and single focus will eventually make you hit a wall, it will manifest in other ways—exhaustion, apathy, and even illness. So how do you course correct when you've been barreling 120 miles per hour down the burnout highway?

In this episode, Tanya Tarr, behavioral scientist and recovered-former burnout, joins host Toa Green to provide science-backed advice and practical strategies to pull yourself from the clutches of burnout. Tanya explains that healing from burnout looks different for everyone but requires reframing your mindset and making small, yet consistent changes. She provides insights into managing energy, establishing micro-moments of rest, and shifting from self-care to "group care."

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The warning signs that signal you're headed towards burnout so you can catch it early.

• Why community and belonging help create emotional resilience against burnout.

• Actionable ways to create small "triage pockets" in your day to recharge.

• Why wellbeing is not a fluffy idea - it's a management issue that impacts yourself and your team.

The steps to prevent and address burnout won't happen overnight. But implementing Tanya's wisdom will set you up to sustainably run your business without sacrificing your health and sanity along the way.

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Resources and Research Mentioned in Episode

• Take a free quiz made by Cultivated Insights and find out where you are on the Burnout Index

• Watch Tanya’s video on “Busy to Burnout” to learn where you are on the stress scale 

• Sign up for Tanya's Free Burnout class and get actionable triage tactics

• Read Tanya’s article on Forbes specifically about tips to close the burnout gap

• Check out the research on Asian Americans and their much higher risk for Type II Diabetes 

• Read the NPR article on Asian Americans and their much higher risk for Type II Diabetes 

• Listen to APA’s podcast with Dr. Christina Maslach — the primary and recent expert on workplace burnout

• Learn about the Roseto Effect (a 50-year longitudinal study) - How belonging might strengthen our heart health

• Go deeper into habit formation and read Dr. Phillipa Lally's research — Spoiler Alert: it actually takes on average about 66 days to adopt a new habit (likely closer to 90 days). 

• Get to know the differences between Stress and Eustress

 

Quotable Moments From the Episode 

“Burnout is not exhaustion. Burnout is not boredom, and burnout is not something that happens on a short timeline. It's a set of conditions and a sort of chronic set of conditions that is actually the byproduct of living a life out of balance. It's what's called an oblique, complex problem. So burnout is the result of unmanaged or mismanaged chronic distress.” - Tanya Tarr

 

“Avoiding things that help you feel happy or give you pleasure is a clear red flag that you're probably headed into burnout. Don't wait until you're burnt out. Don't wait until it takes over that far. If you are exhausted and you wake up and you don't feel rested or if you haven't given yourself a day off in longer than two weeks, as a business owner, you have an obligation to pay attention to that.” - Tanya Tarr

 

“When you're dealing with a chronic issue, a pill or a shot or a trip is not going to save you because the dysfunction has occurred over probably decades. You change it by making very small, consistent changes.” - Tanya Tarr

 

“So I actually believe negotiations are very much connected to burnout. I'm fond of saying that burnout is the negotiation that you lost with yourself.”  - Tanya Tarr

 

Connect with Tanya!
Tanya's Cultivated Insights website

Tanya's Instagram

Tanya's LinkedIn

Tanya’s Writer Archive on Forbes

 

Tanya’s Bio

Tanya Tarr is a behavioral scientist and integrative coach. She runs her own business - Cultivated Insights - where she delivers learning and development training for a wide variety of global corporations, Small to Medium Size Businesses, and organizations, as well as teaches wellbeing for helpers. Tanya is also a columnist and senior contributor with Forbes, where she covers workplace wellbeing, burnout recovery, negotiation technique and equal pay. 

 

She's not just an observer of burnout - she recovered from severe workplace burnout that resulted in Type II prediabetes, which she managed to reverse without drugs over the last 10 years. With Forbes, Tanya has interviewed more than 200 CEOs, executives and women leaders making a positive impact in their industries.  Previous to corporate work, Tanya studied burnout in the field with families of deployed soldiers and Texas public school educators. And in her free time, she's a Muay Thai referee

 

Connect with Toa!
C&B Podcast website

C&B Ice Cream website

C&B Podcast's Instagram

C&B Substack

*Production by Four Eyes Media*