Thought Bubble: Work, Burnout & More

An excerpt from the second edition of *The #SundayScroll ☕*.

04.08.2022 - By: Anastasia Barbuzzi

The following ‘thought bubble’ is from my weekly newsletter, The #SundayScroll ☕. Subscribe to receive this thoughtfully curated newsletter that’s full of personal musings every Sunday!

This work sh*t is hard, right? Day in and day out, WFH (and working in general) can feel like a drag or a constant uphill battle. It can be exhausting, straight up. All that said, I believe that working on/towards something you’re passionate about makes the noisiness of your morning alarm feel like less of a threat.

On that note… How (un)exciting would work be if we were always feeling comfy-cozy about our jobs? What would happen to our sense of motivation, our capacity to be creative? Would we have no ambition? Would there be any room left in our imagination to think and dream about something bigger than ourselves? Something driven by purpose and fuelled by our own?

OK! Lots to unpack there, BUT, I have a short answer to all of those questions:

Sometimes, you’re feeling more motivated than others and this depends heavily on whether or not you’re taking care of yourself in all aspects of life. When you get too comfortable, it’s easy to have the rug pulled out from under you or fall into performing monotonous routines that are hard to switch up. And if you’re truly impassioned by something that’s got your mind constantly reeling, got you putting in extra hours, or got you thinking about how much you’d regret not putting it out into the world or moving it to the back burner, it’s worth the risk. It’s worth stepping out of your comfort zone.

That thing? That thing that makes you want to keep going? Sometimes, it’s worth that extra cup of coffee. $HMONEY is a testament to that statement, just like Cool to Connect is an example of how burnin’ the candle at both ends can sometimes have stunning results (other than bed head). Talk about burnin’ love.

[ As an aside, its normal to feel tired, bogged down, and overwhelmed. By no means am I saying that working yourself into the ground is a good or healthy idea — only in certain cases, like I described above, when you feel compelled to chase after something that energizes and excites you, that intuitive “pull” may justify an extra hour or two of your time. I want to be clear that I am not advocating burnout. ]

On last week’s episode of the podcast, I chat with Cool to Connect founder Dana Clark about normalizing trial and error for entrepreneurs, bootstrapping a biz, de-stigmatizing working multiple jobs to fund a venture, creating meaningful connections with customers and building a community, and conceptualizing products that are organic extensions of your brand mission.

Some days, entrepreneurship is hard. As Dana says in this episode, “There is nothing glamorous about being a business owner. I think the reality outweighs the glamour, an insane amount. It is really frickin’ hard at times and especially when you’re doing it alone. Running a business by yourself has a lot of perks but it also has a lot of difficulty.”

Before you boot up your podcast player, pour yourself another ‘cuppa, and get into what’s new on the blog, I’d love to know what you want to read more about. Shoot me a message with your requests and you’ll hear back from me.

Lastly, happy Sunday scrollin’.

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Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Leave ‘em in the comments below 💚