By Liz Bradford, @LBradfordwrites
Have you ever overcommitted yourself but had no way out of anything? Just me? Oh, then you can stop reading.
The beginning of a new school year seems like a strange time to talk about burnout. After all, with the scent of freshly sharpened pencils and new notebooks in the air, I feel inspired to get cracking at a new story. But I’m still recovering from overextending myself with writing commitments last winter and spring. As a homeschool mom, the beginning of the school year is crazy. So, what better time to consider how we can guard against burnout.
First, we need to recognize the signs of burnout. It may look different for others, but for me it equaled total exhaustion and feeling like I couldn’t make traction in anything. The biggest clue that I was headed into burnout was that I stopped dreaming. I was totally exhausted, but I woke up from a full night’s sleep just as tired. I checked my trusty Fitbit sleep report. My sleep consisted of less than 5% REM. My brain was so tired of being creative that I couldn’t even dream. My dad joked that I was doing all my dreaming while I was awake. He wasn’t wrong.
What do we do when we find ourselves in a time where we’re overwhelmed? What about when the only way out is through?
- Give yourself grace and don’t give up.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
But we need to remember the verses before this talk about how we reap what we sow. If we sow busyness, we’ll reap exhaustion. However, if we’re sowing what God called us to, no matter how weary we become, He’ll reward it with rest and a fruitful harvest. He’ll give us rest in due time, so if you feel burned out but are confident that you’re walking in what God has called you to, don’t give up.
- Take a Sabbath.
When you reach the deadlines and things are turned in, take a break. I ended up taking over a month off once everything was done. I was going to write a prequel novella, but it’ll have to wait. Rest was more important (sorry, readers).
But in the meantime, take your weekly Sabbath—after all it is a commandment not a suggestion. I can’t imagine how bad my burnout would have been if I hadn’t already had the habit of taking Sundays off from writing and work-related tasks.
- Spend plenty of time in prayer, scripture, and worship.
Be sure that you spend time with the Lord every day. As cliché as it is: you can’t pour from an empty cup. Let the Lord fill you by meeting with Him daily.
But how do we keep ourselves from getting to that point of needing to take an entire year off? Second verse, same as the first.
- Make prayer, scripture, and worship a daily priority.
When you’re presented with a new opportunity, take it straight to the Lord and ask Him if it’s what He has for you. I’m convinced God gave me the green light on all my commitments last winter/spring – but it was more than I could do on my own. But what a perfect moment for God to remind me I can’t do this without Him. I need Him working through me every step of every day. The Bible commands us to pray without ceasing. We need to live in a state of surrender to the Master Author all the time.
And don’t forget to ask for prayer from those who are close to you. You can also always ask your readers for prayer too (especially if you write Christian fiction).
- Keep the Sabbath and make it holy.
Take a day off every week. It must be a priority. It’s easy as writers to just work every minute we have a chance, but we can’t do that and not drown in overwhelm. Put boundaries around your work and around your free time. Give your brain space to figure out plot problems on its own. Let the “boys in the basement” do their work in your subconscious. That can’t happen if you aren’t taking time off. And again, “Keep the Sabbath” is a command not a suggestion.
- Grace, Grace, Grace
Give yourself grace. Don’t beat yourself up for not hitting your daily word count goal. Some days we just can’t. Instead, thank the Lord for the words you wrote or the page you edited, then go to bed. Wake up the next day, start again, and keep running with the Lord.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
Have you ever struggled with burnout? What helped you overcome it? And what helps you prevent it?
Smoky Escape – Knoxville FBI – Book Three
He can rescue her, but will she ever be free?
Gio Crespi has been an FBI agent for years and has always had a heart for rescuing those who have become enslaved to the world of human trafficking. Over the years he has had multiple dreams of the same woman, and now he has finally found her and rescued her from the life, but can he show her what true love–God’s love looks like?
However, Morgan is haunted by her own demons. The trafficking life is all she has known for the last thirteen years, and out of fear for the other girls in her house, she goes back.
Along with his fellow agents Jacq and Dylan, Gio searches for Morgan for weeks without any success. When Gio gets a call that the battered body of a woman matching Morgan’s description has washed up on the shore of a mountain river, he fears the worst. Could it be Morgan? What happened to God’s promise of a hope and a future? Will Gio be able to bring Morgan’s trafficker to justice for all the evil he has committed? Or is there no hope for an escape?
Liz Bradford didn’t always know she was a writer, but story ideas have always been a part of her life. When she finally took an idea seriously, she started writing and hasn’t been able to stop. She is the author of The Detectives of Hazel Hill series, Knoxville FBI series, and the Tracking Danger search and rescue series. She is a member of ACFW and ACFW-Louisville Chapter. Even though Liz’s heart yearns to live in the mountains of North Carolina, she and her husband live in southern Indiana where she homeschools their three daughters.