9 Practical Tips That Will Help You Beat Betterment Burnout
This post is about how to avoid or overcome betterment burnout. It contains tips and strategies for developing a balanced approach to personal growth.
Keep reading to discover how to beat betterment burnout and make your self-improvement journey more enjoyable!
Many of us—myself included—embark on self-improvement journeys with the best intentions. Initially, we are inspired and motivated to set goals, create intentional plans, and strive to become our best selves.
However, the continual pursuit of self-improvement can lead to feeling overwhelmed and disheartened and like there is a never-ending to-do list to complete before we can rest and enjoy fun activities.
How can we find a balance between striving for self-improvement and maintaining a positive, sustainable approach without causing betterment burnout?
Below, you’ll find some practical tips to help you start rethinking your self-improvement mindset and goals to find a balanced approach to personal growth that will help you heal from or avoid betterment burnout.
Tips for Beating Betterment Burnout
Before we dive into the tips below, please know that this list is supposed to aid you in healing from or avoiding betterment burnout and is not intended to be seen as an exhaustive list of all the things you must do to have a successful self-improvement journey.
If you’re already feeling overwhelmed, the last thing I want is for you to add more to your plate!
So, with that said, please feel free to bookmark this post so you can experiment with utilizing the different tips in this post to help you create and maintain a healthy approach to pursuing personal growth.
Know The “Why” Behind Your Self-Improvement Pursuits
To heal from betterment burnout or to avoid it altogether, you need first to take some time to develop a clear understanding of your long-term vision for your life and the reasons behind your self-improvement journey.
A journey to better yourself can start with the best intentions; however, without a clear vision of where you are going, it can leave you exhausted and ultimately nowhere closer to becoming the person you want to be.
Luckily, this can be avoided if you pause and reflect on what life improvements you want to make and why they matter. Consider your core beliefs, what you are passionate about, and what your ideal life looks like.
A clear life vision will guide you in making intentional decisions about where to direct your energy so you can pursue self-improvement in a balanced and meaningful way.
Define Your Priorities
When you feel stuck in a rut, behind, or otherwise frustrated with your life, it’s tempting to try to overhaul your entire life all at once, like a montage in an early 2000s rom-com. However, that is a quick way to become overwhelmed! While it may feel like you’re making big progress for a short time, this approach ultimately leads to betterment burnout!
To make good, sustainable progress toward creating a life you love, you need to take some time to define your top priorities right now. Limit your goals to manageable steps aligning with your top priorities and long-term vision. Why? Limiting your focus can set you up for success by dedicating yourself to those objectives without burning out. Making consistent, sustainable progress in your priority areas of life is better (and more motivating) than making very little progress in many different areas.
Knowing your priorities is also valuable because it helps you determine which items on your to-do lists are non-negotiables and which you can postpone for another day or week. Using your priorities to define your intentions will help you better use your time and energy so you aren’t frantically trying to complete too many daily tasks.
Set Realistic Goals
It’s great to dream big, but setting goals far from your current reality without a plan to get there can lead to major disappointment.
Here at Ditching the Daydream, we are all about turning ambitious aspirations into actionable steps that can be pursued and achieved. You can do this by breaking your lofty long-term goals into realistic short-term goals that are manageable steps toward making your long-term vision a reality.
For example, if your long-term vision is being a healthy and energetic person, your short-term goals could be focusing on eating healthy and getting good quality sleep. Once you become consistent with those two things, you can add a goal to exercise three times a week.
Breaking your long-term goals into smaller, realistic steps will make your self-improvement journey less intimidating and give you little victories to celebrate.
Focus on the Systems that Will Help You Achieve Your Goals
Focusing on implementing and progressing with goal systems rather than solely prioritizing outcome-based goals is an important mindset shift while pursuing personal growth!
Why? If you put all your energy into achieving a goal, you delay your happiness until that goal is realized. This can lead to feeling discouraged on your self-improvement journey and may cause you to give up on your goal altogether.
Instead, focus on improving the habits and routines that will help you achieve your goals and ultimately get you closer to the vision of your ideal life.
For example, if your life vision includes being a published author, then your primary outcome-based goal you are chasing would be writing a manuscript of a book that could be published. You can further refine this goal to be a SMART goal with a specific word count that meets the parameters for published books in the genre of your story to be completed by a certain deadline.
That goal is not bad, and it is great for directing your efforts, but it’s important to make your primary focus the systems that will help you become a writer. In this example, the processes you would focus on help you write consistently, like scheduling time each week to focus on drafting your book.
By shifting your focus to process-based goals, you can enjoy the present moment more and reduce the pressure of measuring success in your personal growth journey on achieving outcomes.
Ditch the Comparison Game
Have you ever reached a point where you feel very content with your personal growth progress, only to come across a social media post that makes you question whether you’re doing enough? Or maybe you start comparing your morning routine to that of a co-worker and friend, and suddenly, the routine you thought was balanced and efficient starts to feel lacking. I know I have been there; it’s not a fun place to be.
Comparing yourself to a stranger on the internet or even someone you know in real life is a sure way to rob yourself of contentment in your own life! Following this advice is much easier said than done, but try to avoid comparing your life and progress to someone else’s.
Be mindful to block out the noise influences online or in real life when constructing the habits and routines that fit the needs of your life season!
Regularly Dedicate Time to Resting
Rest isn’t a reward; it’s a necessity. If you don’t take time to rest, then your body will make you. Unfortunately, I’ve learned this lesson the hard way.
Make sure you’re regularly scheduling downtime to rest and recharge! Whether it’s hobbies, time with friends, or just relaxing at home, giving yourself time to unwind will help you maintain your enthusiasm and energy for pursuing personal growth.
Allow Yourself to Have Hobbies That are Just for Fun
Hobbies that do not involve personal or professional growth but are simply fun or are an act of self-care need to be incorporated into your routine to avoid betterment burnout!
You are not a machine built just to be productive! You are a human being who needs time to relax and unwind, and yes, you need to allow yourself to have fun (without feeling guilty about not being productive).
Reflect on your current hobbies and whether they are helping you rest and adding joy to your life. If you decide they aren’t a positive addition, brainstorm what new joyful and restorative hobbies you can explore and add to your schedule!
Get Out of Your Head By Focusing on Others
Self-improvement, as the name indicates, is an individual pursuit. If you find yourself stressing and overthinking about your progress (or lack of) on certain goals, wellness pursuits, or routines, you can benefit from shifting your attention to relationships with loved ones and the needs of others to get out of these negative thought loops.
Take a step back and ensure you see the bigger picture of life beyond the goals and milestones that feel pressing right now.
Whether you decide to do that by scheduling plans with your girlfriends, finding somewhere to volunteer in your community, calling a loved one, or putting down your phone and giving your pet some extra love – do something that allows you to gain some perspective on what matters in life.
Track Your Progress + Celebrate Your Victories
Journaling and habit tracking are powerful tools for personal growth and can serve as great motivators on your self-improvement journey. In addition to being a great way to practice self-care, journaling can be a resource for tracking your progress on goals. Likewise, habit tracking is a way to stay on track with your goals and see your progress from where you started.
Whether you decide to use journaling, habit tracking, or a combination of both, you should implement a system to audit your goal progress – no matter how small.
Remember, self-improvement is a never-ending pursuit, so recognize and celebrate your growth milestones!
Final Thoughts
Betterment burnout is exhausting and can make you want to abandon your personal growth pursuits. However, with the right approach, it can be overcome or avoided altogether.
Implementing the practical tips in this post can help you beat or avoid burnout on your self-improvement journey. By mindfully approaching your goals, getting out of your head, making time for self-care, and celebrating your victories throughout your journey, you can overcome betterment burnout!
