EFR 498: Signs You Are Experiencing Burnout and May Not Realize It and How to Ditch Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms with Wendy McCallum

Wendy McCallum is a burnout and balance coach, author, and speaker. In this conversation, she recounts her own struggles dealing with a high-stress lifestyle in the past, as well as the common signs and symptoms of burnout. She offers practical tools that anyone can use to both recover from burnout and prevent it from happening again in the future.

She talks about unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol, food, and social media and how we can learn to rely less on these crutches and become more present.

Wendy also gives her thoughts on the unique challenges that many of us experienced in 2020 and continue to face in 2021.

One of her observations at the tail-end of the pandemic has been the emergence of a “third shift” in the lives of working professionals. If our “first shift” represents our actual career and our “second shift” refers to the people under our care—whether our children or aging parents—our new “third shift” is helping to orchestrate or manage schooling from home.

This, of course, is on top of the overall anxiety all of us have felt in the past year-and-a-half. The pandemic and the resulting lockdowns have led to a significantly higher stress load on the average human being.

Burnout is one of the symptoms of this stress. Whether one came into 2020 physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy, or already overworked, almost everybody has had to deal with exhaustion. (On the other hand, a very small minority—mainly business owners and employers—have found opportunities to become flexible and even more productive in their work.)

Wendy reflects on her own experience with burnout and how she learned to create a life that she no longer needed to escape from.

 

Follow Wendy @wendymccallumcoach

Follow Chase @chase_chewning

 

Episode resources:

• Save 15% on instant organic coffee from Strong Coffee Company with code CHASE at https://strongcoffeecompany.com/?ref=idvqn2vvx5y
• Save 15% on the cinnamon and honey CBD sticks from Cured Nutrition with code EVERFORWARD at https://bit.ly/3pJAMWr
• For complete show notes and to learn more about Wendy visit https://chasechewning.com/podcasts/episode/498