Do you feel that your life is moving at a faster and faster rate? Do you feel out of balance and at the mercy of stress?

While stress is not an option, how you deal with and bounce back from it is.

A commitment to balance, which includes self-renewal, is crucial in order to be outrageously successful in all areas of your life. Prioritizing self-renewal allows for you to become physically and mentally refreshed while having the energy to stay focused on your vision and goals.

 “If the snooze button on your alarm is getting as worn out as you are, wake up.
You may be burning out.” ~Patti Bond

Preventing Burnout Through Self-Renewal:

1) Slow it Down!

Our culture gives very little help with slowing down our life. In fact, it seems as if everyday we are encouraged to do things quicker or are offered ways to speed things along. Fast food, faster internet, shorter deadlines, shopping from home in order to get things as soon as possible are not much help with slowing down our lives.

Ask Yourself: Am I feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Do I need to slow down and take some purposeful time alone or in personal refreshment and renewal?

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Keys to slowing down and discovering time alone:

– Look for small moments of quiet time to slow down (before your family awakens, short walks where you enjoy the air, smells and sunshine around you)
– Find ‘quiet places’ for silence and solitude (turn off the music, TV, and email and spend time in silence, alone with your thoughts and your self)
– Minimize your words (Speak less and ‘listen’ more when alone, meditate/listen to the inner voice of God, listen to and become aware of that part of yourself that you have been ignoring through all of the ‘noise’ and your busyness)

If you start me up … I’ll never stop, never stop.”

~ The Rolling Stones

There are so many things I desire to accomplish yet, somehow, they don’t get done.

I wait for inspiration. I wait for more time or the ‘perfect’ time. I wait for a voice to give me the ok to go for it. Yet, I wait and wait and wait.

I don’t start.

I think too much. I wait to feel ready. I look around for the starting flag to drop. Yet, if I don’t start, I cannot finish. And, if I don’t finish, I will beat myself up and say, “I knew I couldn’t do that. I was right. Who do I think I am?”

By not starting, I reinforce lies. I conclude that the negative, judgmental story I have made up about myself is true.

Yet, if I just start, I can begin to quiet that internal, critical voice that lies to me, that truly believes that it is keeping me safe, keeping me from failure. I can quiet that voice just by starting. Only then do I have the opportunity to succeed … to change my story.

Most of us carry pictures of those who matter to us in our wallet, purse or on our cellphone. I carry pictures of my wife and kids on my phone and iPad to look at and remind myself of how important they are to me.

As meaningful as these pictures are to us, we all carry another picture, one far more powerful than those in our wallet, etc. It is the mental picture that we carry that represents the opinion that we have of ourself.

This picture is our self-image, a perception that has, from early on in life, influenced us in terms of our self-confidence, and in what we accomplish in our life, relationships and business.

Here are 10 words that we tell ourselves that ‘kill’ our dreams, aspirations and potential. Each day, as you say any of these words to yourself, you get closer and closer to killing off who you are and might become.