The Art Of Accomplishment Without Burnout YT
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Shawn Buttner: [00:00:00] Accomplishment often comes at the cost of our health and relationships, especially in our society today, we're told to grind, to work hard, to sacrifice everything for what we do for work, and as a creator, grinding could be robbing you of your inspiration, your connection with other people, or even your health.
if we do not figure out the art of accomplishment without burning out, we may Achieve success without anyone to celebrate it with, or not have the health to enjoy the fruits of our labor,
And what's the point of going through life, working so hard on so many different things, if you can't enjoy it at the end. That's what we're going to talk about in this video. We're going to talk about a couple of ideas that can help you master the art of accomplishment. hi, I'm Shawn Buttner.
I'm a certified high performance coach, host of the Meaningful Revolution podcast. I want to start off with a story. The first time I met [00:01:00] a millionaire was when I was in an entrepreneurship class at Purdue. he was a business major and fascinated with entrepreneurship. part of the class would have people come in and this gentleman came in I'm not sure if you've ever met someone that looked like they hated their life.
this gentleman was probably in his mid fifties when he came into class he dressed very nice, he looked like he had a lot of wealth rings, very nice clothes, and he was grumpy. He was super grumpy the whole, 30 minutes he presented to the class.
And he had, his time for questions the things that struck me most about it, one was the kind of dislike he had for people. during his presentation, he had a picture of him on a yacht, and he was very proud of showing off, he had a lot of these, show off your wealth slides, which is fine, But, there's a woman in one of the [00:02:00] photos, and he's that's my ex wife, and she took half of my, millions of dollars that I generated in this, plumbing, piping business, and, stopped and he was going to say something and then he didn't follow through with it.
And it struck me as a 18 year old studying business, wanting to start a business and have a positive impact that this was not the way to succeed, the question of how do you define success? this gentleman, had generated millions of dollars in manufacturing.
by all, financial standards, was successful. But, was alone, didn't have people he could trust. And, wasn't really fun to be around, I'm sure it was tough for him to make friends I don't know what happened after this, but, that first impression of success isn't, working so hard on the business [00:03:00] that your wife leaves you.
It's not working so hard on your business that the kids don't know who you are. It's not working so hard in your business or on your business that you don't have any friends. Fifteen years when you let things settle down, you're like, Okay, it's time to go sailing, buy a yacht, go on a fancy vacation to the Caribbean or whatever that is for you.
I made a point that if I ever get wealthy, it'll be in a way where I don't alienate people along the way. I think that's really important to think about As a creator, as you're going out there trying to build your business, in any professional career, if you're a knowledge worker, what are you doing to get really good at your craft and really become excellent at the thing that you do, but how are making sure you're also not skipping lunch or spending 15 hours in the office.[00:04:00]
every day, focusing on your work. people are made for these types of cycles where maybe there's a project deadline and you really hone in and make sure that you take care of the project. maybe you're putting in long hours for a week or a short period of time. And then there's a time for rest.
think about it in terms of the cycle of how we used to be an agrarian society where, it was really busy in the spring when you're planting stuff's growing in the summer, you're tending animals in the fall, it's really busy for harvest, and then winter you're just waiting for everything to warm up to then plant and start the cycle all over again,
So there's periods of, challenging and tough physical labor, then there are times of rest, people have been built around this type of cadence. in any career, any profession, there are going to be phases where you have to put your head down and do the [00:05:00] work,
doing hard work is not what this video is about, but it is saying that you can't go at 200 percent consistently and sustainably over the long term. that's how you burn out. injure your health and hurt the relationships that are important to you. So what can we do about it?
so here's five ideas. to help you master the art of accomplishment without burnout. the first thing is to stop doing busy work. Now, what does that mean? some people, are really great at creating a huge to do list and checking things off
And that's amazing, and you're productive, and you're getting stuff done, But the disconnect comes if you're going to truly accomplish things, The thing I want you to be thinking about is how can I do it in a way that's impactful and sustainable,
And if you're thinking about impactful and sustainable, if you [00:06:00] do a hundred things on a to do list every day, And 90 of those 100 things are things that don't matter to your projects. They don't matter to your ideas that you're trying to put out. They're not, they don't matter to the things that you want out in the world.
That's called busy work. There are tons of unimportant tasks. If you run a business, if you are a creator, if you are a knowledge worker that aren't directly tied to making an impact and turning the dial in your job. as a business owner, I run a coaching business and a podcast, what are the things that help bring value to my audience, to my clients, and drive the business forward, Is it, Reaching out to potential clients and potential guests. Is it recording episodes like this? Absolutely. Is the accounting side of tracking expenses and revenue and [00:07:00] getting it all ready for the tax person? Is that something that absolutely needs to get done? Yes. Is it something that absolutely needs to get done by me?
Probably not, right? Or,creating a episode like this and posting it on YouTube and Apple and all that kind of stuff is important for the business. It's important for people to listen and, become aware of the meaningful revolution and, the idea of building a great purposeful life that's fulfilling.
but it's another thing that I don't have to do. on my to do list every week, I have tasks doing the creative work. doing sales and marketing and things that are bringing people into the business But again, not necessarily all those things, one, am I good at, or two, do I need to do.
hiring team or delegating or having or using tools that can help me, eliminate work, make me more efficient. [00:08:00] or have someone or a tool take that place is freeing up time to do the things that matter. nobody is going to, in 30 years, when you're listening to this particular episode, perhaps, be like, Shawn nailed his accounting.
He did a great job recording this video. It's still relevant to me right now. Hopefully, people will say, Hey, this episode was great and that's part of the legacy of Shawn, the coach.
there's a lot of work that goes into running a show, running a business that people don't see, Building a team, learning where you can delegate or where you can be efficient with tools will help you turn the dial and help you accomplish more and more of the things that matter, which is what we're talking about here.
and hopefully it's freeing up time to where you can increase the amount that you are getting done, or the amount of things you're accomplishing in less time so you have more time [00:09:00] to work out. family et cetera. okay. First thing, stop doing busy work, identify the tasks that you're doing every day, find the things that are important, that are helping you accomplish the things you want and then figure out what you have to do with the things like either delegate it, do it, or, eliminate it.
Quick, easy framework for that. Second, idea to help you master the art of accomplishing things without burning out is to actually plan for socialization. the next point will be to plan for health, right? Because the way that I define burnout, it's damaging or hurting your health and relationships,
So any definition I have for success, and I hope you have a definition of success for yourself, includes being healthy in your body, mind, spirit, and emotions. I hope it is having [00:10:00] healthy, fruitful, exciting relationships, because most people, at the end of their lives, they never think of, Man, I wish I would have done 30 more YouTube videos, or I wish I would have written 50 more books,
They're like, oh, I wish I would have spent more time with my son. I wish I would have had more time with my friends and family. I really wish I was there for that person when they were struggling. it's these types of things, that people regret at the end of their lives. And these are the things that should be equally as important that you should want to accomplish, right?
You want to have Great relationships, and you can do that by planning on, Spending time with friends and family during your week, right? When you come up with your weekly schedule. it's also important for a creator because these social interactions can help you find your inspiration, right? If you're a business [00:11:00] owner, it's with talking with people that you find out who your best clients are, or the people you want to serve or what people are actually struggling with so you can help them solve that particular problem.
Or, it's a funny story when you're hanging out with your friends and you start an inside joke that then becomes a meme that everyone's using online now, it could be so many different things, but your relationships and the quality of your relationships will help you with mental health, but also provide that inspiration, of finding new ideas, or you can use it for content in your business, as a creator.
if you ever are feeling like you are, have creator's block, like you're like, I don't know what to create. A simple thing one of my mentors, advised me to do was to buy tickets, right? It's find out what's going in your [00:12:00] town. maybe there's an art festival, gallery, live music or something cultural or whatever.
Buy two tickets and then invite one of your friends to go with you. And it's great for Getting you to take a break, you get socialization, you get some new ideas, you get a novel experience and a hundred percent of the time you'll come back with more ideas and energy to do your creative thing or your business.
So this is the power of planning for social interaction and social inspiration buy tickets and make time for your friends and family. Create a standing date night, and it will serve you in what you accomplish and prevent you from burning out while you're doing it.
again, so the next point then, if we have stop doing busy work, number one thing, but then to plan for social inspiration, the third point is to plan for [00:13:00] your health. That means putting on your calendar, and I'm a huge proponent as a coach of making sure people put things on their calendar, because if you've ever worked in a corporation, you're trained to do that.
the things that get put on your schedule get done, and the things in your head, you will very conveniently find distraction can steal that from you. Meaning that you won't follow through, your workouts, or your lunches. eating food that is healthy for you, not just convenient. this is really important because in my time working for huge corporations like Walmart and the Information Systems Division and at Apple as a software engineer, many of my peers would work through their lunch break, either sit and eat lunch at their desk, which at least they're eating something, but they would grab something, some pre processed thing that was super quick and easy for them to manage at their desk while they were continuing to work or they would skip lunch altogether and [00:14:00] you know would work late hours which is again fine in for project deadlines or when you're trying to capitalize on a new opportunity there are reasons for short term heads down pushing through things but sustainably If over the whole year you skip your workouts and you skip eating healthy food to accomplish work, you're going to burn out over the long run.
And the last thing you want to have happen at the end of a, 30 year career at the company that you love, working in the business that you do, doing the thing that you love as your career, is to then be in the hospital because you're overweight and have heart problems and your joints don't work because you've been sitting so much and have carpal tunnel the things people tend to regret at the end of their lives are I wish I would have climbed Machu Picchu when I was young and I had the lungs and the legs for it versus now I [00:15:00] have this lung condition Cause I didn't take care of my body, or something happened, God forbid.
And, now, you've had this dream and you can't accomplish it cause your health isn't there.and so many people, this is an overlooked thing, so many people don't think of their health as part of their success, you think if you feel healthy now you'll be healthy forever, and if you're not doing the right habits, To sleep well, to eat nutritiously, to move your body, to get enough sleep.
That all does catch up with you after a while, as much as you might or might not, believe that. it's really important to make sure you're getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise, eating nutritious foods. and staying hydrated This is something I talk a lot about with my clients.
if you are struggling in that arena, I do offer a free strategy session linked down in the show notes. Let's continue [00:16:00] on with these points. stop busy work, plan for socialization and for social inspiration, plan for health, the art of accomplishing stuff without burning out too is sometimes you need to seek advice from more successful people, right?
this particular episode is a pure example of that. I had been. Struggling on my YouTube channel and with the podcast having the reach and the impact putting a lot of time and effort into this, but not getting the results. I was accomplishing putting out episodes of the podcast, which is cool.
I've been very consistent with that, which I'm very proud of. But it wasn't really getting the traction that other people had, I've done 700 episodes. I have about 120 episodes of the podcast out now. I have friends that are part of this mastermind group with Evan Carmichael, who is somebody that helped [00:17:00] advise me to create this episode.
I have 10 videos and have double the views, double the results, their businesses are growing, all that kind of stuff. How to get effective, right? That was the question. I was like, how can I be more effective with this? And he's hey, go and research episode titles in this particular way.
And you'll see a shift if you're showing up consistently, but you're not getting a bunch of views or a lot of people are dropping off in the YouTube videos really quick. Here's three quick things you can do to improve that. And so that's what I did For this episode, I did some research that was different, and here we go.
It's another experiment, and so we'll get another episode up, but hopefully we'll get more listeners from this episode if I accomplish that, then I'll know what to do so I don't have to have so many episodes to get the metrics and targets I need [00:18:00] for my business. that's the connection there.
and if I can do that with less effort, then I have more time for my wife. hobbies. friends and things that help me stay happy and healthy not just wondering why I'm doing all this work and not getting the results that I want. maybe you can relate with that too.
seek advice from more successful people. Point number four. And the fifth question, it's something I followed in tech and in my career as a coach running my own business, have fun while you're doing this, we spend a significant amount of our lives working. if you do eight hours a day, that's one third?
Assuming you work Monday through Friday, eight hours a day. So roughly a third of your adult life at the very least is spent at work. if you had a choice to do it in a way that was fun or a way that made you miserable what would you [00:19:00] choose?
the question that, prompted this point is Tim Ferriss has a question that he asks what would it look like if this was easy? I find simplification super fun, like process improvement So my modified question is if this was 10 percent or 10x more fun, what would this look like?
And this has led to changes on how I approach podcast guests, on how I approach reaching out to people for, generating business for the coaching side of the business. ultimately it's why I chose to leave tech to start a business coaching people in high performance, which is not tied to.
writing code. Because working with people is way more fun if I can have an impact, create the financial abundance I need for my family then why not do the more fun thing that might have a little bit more risk and a lot more struggle but it's that fun challenge we [00:20:00] all seek.
as we build our careers. what would it take if you had 10 times more fun? what would this look like to you, right? In your career, in your life, in your health, in your wellness? It's a super good question. So to bring it all home, Five ideas to help you master the art of accomplishment without burning out stop the busy work.
create a list of everything you're doing and find out the things that are moving your life goals, forward, and are not just busy work for the busy work can you eliminate it? Can you delegate it to a team member or a tool or can't you? Figure out a more efficient, a more effective way to go about it, right?
Point number two, plan for relationships and for social inspiration. what are the times are you having date [00:21:00] nights? When are you meeting your friends and family each week? Point number four. Build and sustain those relationships so that when you reach your ultimate success goal, when you accomplish the big goal that you have people that'll celebrate with you, that'll high five you, that, you can fully enjoy your success.
So plan those times. Master your energy and plan for health. So when are you working out? How much sleep are you going to get? How are you going to make sure you're eating nutritious foods? seek your health professionals and plan for your health, put it on the calendar.
Seek advice for more successful people. Like I said, this episode that I'm creating now is an experiment from my mentor Evan Carmichael. who helped me figure out how to research a better title so that hopefully I'll get some more traction on the YouTube side of the podcast. and then have fun, right?
What would it look like if this was [00:22:00] easier? What would it look like this is 10 times more fun? Because we spend so much time working we do have a choice on how we approach the work that we do. I'm cheering you on. with a little bit of awareness of this question, it might change how you approach your job and how you can enjoy the things you do and the things you're building towards
With that said, you guys can do this. I full heartedly know that if you can eliminate busy work, plan for health and socialization, relationships, get in contact with people that can help you become more efficient at what you do, and find fun in it, you will build incredible success and be happy while you do it.
get out there, go through those things. If you need some extra help you can apply for a free strategy session. We'll personalize a performance plan for you since that's what I do as a coach. people absolutely love this. [00:23:00] check that link in the show notes if you're interested.
we'll see you guys next time on the meaningful revolution podcast.
