Let's talk burnout...

|Everybody feels burnt out sometimes. Me? I felt like I was having a mid-life crisis at the age of 22. Struggling with anxiety and outdated social norms, I went from being a people-pleasing recently graduated young professional that was extremely burnt out to an entrepreneur with big f-ing plans.

The come up is so nice… My whole life I was a girl on a mission to be successful. In my head and what I saw were women who were boss ladies. Working crazy amounts of hours, The Devil Wears Prada meets Opera Winfrey was my ideal life. I grinded, I mean I really worked my ass off. I completed high school and college both in 3 years with great grades and a positive outlook on life. I decided to move abroad to Spain at 18 two weeks after I graduated High School with my best friend at the time. It was the best and the worst thing that could ever do in my life, we will circle back to that later. Professionally I was kicking ass too. I worked for my favorite travel brand at age 20 in Miami, Florida and moved to San Diego California to start my career as a quickly advancing social media guru at a PR and Marketing agency downtown. I felt like I had it all together.

Being a people pleaser means you lose every time… ALRIGHT. Let’s dive into it. I am the youngest of 5 children in my family, a very hard worker and a women on a mission to reach goals – financially and personally. I felt like I was constantly trying to get in and grow my network to get to the next step. I confused my work ethic and determination with being easily manipulated and taken advantage of. Something that I feel a lot of young women professionals struggle with. We want to be taken seriously and respected, so we do anything to please and thrive in our current environments. In relationships romantically and professionally.

Circling back… Studying abroad, or just traveling abroad for an extended time, is an experience everyone should do. I truly believe that to be the case. When I said it was the best and worst thing I could have done in my life I meant it like it was life-changing – so much in ways three years later I’m still writing about it. I saw what it looks like to put life first, and let me explain. One thing Spain taught me was how to value connection and time off. Even corporate Spain takes three months of holiday each year, where I’m lucky if my boss doesn’t make me work a weekend for the 50th time in a row. My point is, I saw people enjoying their lives instead of life passing them by. Sometimes in corporate America, we forget to take a break from work to enjoy what we are working for… a good life. Hence, my hunch to go back to this type of lifestyle.

How to wake the hell up… I am a total sucker for motivational content. I eat that shit up. Books, podcasts, YouTube videos, you name it I have probably either completed it or it’s on my list. I get that from my mom, so big kudos to her for being kickass. So I started researching ways to make money online and how to travel the world while doing so. I realized that people tend to chase money, which is not a bad thing but its not the first thing that should be prioritized. Realistically, happiness, as vague as it sounds, is what we should all be chasing after. Waking up one day at age 105 and realizing I can’t physically do what I dream about anymore is my worst nightmare and I don’t know if a lot of other people feel this way? Maybe it is crazy to think about aging and death at age 22 but I see it as my wake up call to GET SHIT DONE. talking about dreams and taking action on dreams are two very different things. It’s April of 2020 and the whole world is flipping out because there is a strong virus going around. THIS IS OUR WAKE UP CALL. To all the 20-year-olds stuck in a job to please other people and work for other people’s dreams, WAKE UP. All the 40-year-olds unhappy with how their life is turning out, WAKE UP. It’s 2020, life isn’t a promise, LET’S WAKE UP AND TAKE ACTION.