The Road to Burnout is Paved with Chocolate Bunnies

That's the thing about chocolate bunnies. We look forward to them every year around Easter. We know that they are sweet and yummy and just can't wait to sink our teeth into them and then when we finally do, it's as if we forgot what we already knew from all the times before: they're hollow. They're perennial, they look great from the outside, they taste good when they first touch our lips, but have no substance at all. For some reason, every time Easter comes around, we just can't wait to get a hold of them.

We quickly forget that these chocolate bunnies are not only lacking substance, but they melt quickly and make a mess of our hands and clothes. The chocolate is hard to wash out and leaves its mark for us to have to scrub out.

Ok, you get the picture. As it is with chocolate bunnies, so it goes with the bunnies that we chase down rabbit holes just to distract us from the real substantive opportunities right under our noses.

When we chase after fleeting "opportunities" (you know what those are for you), we miss out on the ones that are really made for us or that we are really made for.

For example, when I was building my coaching practice, I chased a lot of rabbits. There were people coming to me for coaching and I was hearing of needs all from common industries: church/clergy, hospice, nonprofits. The theme was quite constant as well: burnout. So, of course I jumped right on these opportunities, right? Of course not! I chased every rabbit there was to every industry I could for affirmation and for money. I thought others would approve of me more if I was in these other sectors and I thought I would make more money.

All of the people who were coming to me and the recurring theme resounded with who I really am - my True Self. These were people that I encountered regularly because they had a real and present need and they were in circles that I operated in on a daily basis. They were my ideal market: the market I knew, the ones that were present, the ones who had an immediate need that I could address, and one that was directly related to my True Self. But instead, I wanted to prove something to myself.

If your soul doesn't sing selling ice to Eskimos, don't do so just to prove that you can. It's not worth it. You'll just be left with frostbite and a bruised ego.

The mythologist Joseph Campbell said, "Our life experiences will have resonances within our innermost being, so that we will feel the rapture of being alive."

Take a moment to process that. What life experiences keep showing up for you? What things keep coming to mind and proving applicable in multiple situations? What are you doing when you feel the most alive? I can think of some that I will share in a later post that have become core to my being, my work, my life. If you can practice the awareness to see those, you can see your vocational path.

If you keep eating chocolate bunnies and making a mess over and over and over again while completely ignoring who you really are and the genuine opportunities that are all around you, what happens? Yep, you already knew it. Burnout! So let's do ourselves a favor and avoid it together.