131. 5 Ways to Prevent Public Health Burnout

Written By Marissa McKool

This week, we're getting straight to the point with practical methods to prevent and recover from burnout. Many of the women I coach do not even realize they're caught in a cycle of burnout. Yikes! Discover five strategies to identify hustle culture and stop burnout today.

Join me as I discuss how hustle culture encourages us to constantly put our needs last, along with five techniques to reclaim our agency. I'll share specific practices to steer clear of overworking, begin delegating, and prioritize your own well-being.

I promise that by implementing these five practices, you'll begin to experience the benefits of increased energy, ease, and REST. Learn how to shift away from perfectionism and towards effective delegation. Take control of your time starting today.

Watching the violence unfold in the Gaza Region has been completely devasting and heartbreaking. I’ve decided to support the victims by donating 100% of the proceeds of the profits of the next round of the Not Your Average Productivity Course (which runs November 13th to December 15th, 2023 and is open now for enrollment) to The Palestine Children's Relief Fund. Click here to sign up.

What You Will Discover:

Hey you all, I’m Marissa McKool, and you’re listening to the Redefining Rest Podcast for Public Health Professionals. Here we believe rest is your right. You don’t have to earn it, you just have to learn how to take it and I’m going to teach you. Ready? Come along.

Hi, everyone. I wanted to jump in real quick and let you know about an important change that is happening. As some of you know I am Arab American. And watching the violence unfold in the Gaza region the past several weeks has been completely devastating and heartbreaking. I know it can feel like there’s nothing you can do to end the violence or support the victims, but that is not true.

And one thing I have decided to do is donate 100% of the proceeds of the profits from the next round of the Not Your Average Productivity course to The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. This organization has a longstanding history supporting Palestinian children. I will leave a link in the show notes to the webpage if you want to learn more about them. They are on the ground right now, providing urgent and immediate medical supports and other services to children in need impacted by the violence and by displacement.

So if you’ve been thinking about joining the Not Your Average Productivity course, now is the time. Your registration fee will be donated to this organization to provide immediate and urgent humanitarian aid to the children in the region. And if for any reason you are unable to join, it’s not the right time, you can’t afford it, you can still support this effort by sharing with your network, posting on LinkedIn, sharing with your colleagues so more people can find out.

My goal is to sell out this course, which would raise about $5,000 to support these efforts. So please help me in achieving this goal and register for the course which we’ll leave a link in the show notes or share out with your network. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me or message me on social media, on LinkedIn, on Instagram and I’m happy to respond and answer them. So with that, let’s get into this week’s episode.

Welcome everyone. How are you doing? Can you believe it’s almost November? If you’re listening to this the day it comes out it’s pretty much November. Crazy. It’s going to be 2024 so soon, where has the time gone? It still feels like 2020 to me. Anyone else? Listen, if you’re new here, I’m so glad you’re here. Maybe you clicked on this episode because you’re struggling with public health burnout or you’re feeling really stressed and worried you’re going to hit burnout.

Or maybe, I’ve heard this from so many women I coach, the fear that you’ll have burnout again. Maybe you’ve worked your way out of it through coaching or therapy or something else and now you have this fear it will happen again. It’s okay. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so proud of you. This episode is going to help. I’m not going to sit here and say one podcast episode is going to eliminate your burnout. That is some bullshit. But I’m so glad you have a starting point.

And please remember to subscribe to the episode. I have so many other podcasts that complement this one that will help you. A few weeks ago I shared my public health burnout story, when I went through, and tips of how I got out of it. And there’s so many other episodes in the catalog of podcast episodes here around stress and rest and so many other things. So I’m glad you are here. It’s never too late to reduce your stress or get out of burnout. And you don’t have to quit your job to do it, that’s the best news.

For some of you it might seem like the worst news, but it really is the best news because you don’t have to force things outside of you to change, like your partner or your kids or your boss or the government to feel better. Which is good news because you can’t control those things. I wish we could, you all. If I could invent a mechanism to do that, I’d be so rich. But that’s just not the way the world works.

And if you find this helpful, I want you to make sure you stick around the episode to the end because I have an additional resource that is going to help you. And I want to share a quote, a comment, an email basically I got from a colleague of yours, another woman in public health about her experience using this resource and how helpful it was. So make sure you stick around for that.

Today I’m going to be sharing five ways that can prevent public health burnout and help you get out of it. And these aren’t the only ways. There are many ways to do this. But here’s why these five ways I wanted to share. I’ve been coaching women who have been in burnout, most of which don’t even realize they’re in burnout until we start coaching together for several years now. And as I shared, I went through my own burnout journey and shared that in a podcast episode a few weeks back.

So I’ve been doing this work for a while and when I really thought about what are the core pieces that people I’ve worked with and myself have really worked on. That have helped us not just get out of burnout but specifically prevent burnout from happening. Since I went through burnout in about 2017/2018, I have not hit it again at all. And mind you, I have had huge life stressors. We moved to a total new state without knowing anyone, sold my condo as soon as interest rates hit 6%. It was like, what the hell, did I make a huge mistake?

I started a business on the side of working full-time, I had no fucking clue. I don’t have an MBA. I don’t have any business mentors. Currently, and I won’t go into too many details, I have a family member who’s going through a lot of health issues and it’s been very challenging. So there’s been so many opportunities for me to hit burnout because burnout isn’t just when you have a shitty boss or there’s not enough funding or high turnover.

If you listened to my episode where I talked about my experience of burnout, you know what I’m talking about. It’s not just one thing. It’s many things. I have not hit burnout again and been anywhere close to it. And when I think about what are the key things that have helped me keep burnout away, not just at bay, away, these are the main areas. And when I think about the clients I’ve worked with and they’ve had this experience. These are some of the core things they really not just learned but mastered and continue to practice. It’s a lifelong practice.

It’s not about becoming enlightened or perfect, it’s about a practice. And these are the five core areas that I have found over and over and over again really, really help to prevent burnout. And I will be honest, what spurred me to do this episode was I was listening to a different podcast. I’m not going to share the name and you’ll see why in a second. The episode was on, I don’t know if it was preventing burnout or dealing with burnout, getting out of burnout, something like that. The episode was terrible. It was shit. I’m sorry, it’s true.

This is not personal to that podcast host. I would never put down another podcast host because podcasts are a lot of work, so it’s not personal to them. But they weren’t someone who’s a rest coach or a stress coach or a therapist or someone with a lot of experience. It was kind of an offshoot from their typical what they talk about. And what ended up happening and I don’t think they had any realization of this, is what they were doing, they were actually promoting hustle culture.

They were promoting strategies and ways to get out of burnout or prevent burnout that actually are steeped very deeply in grinding and hustling and overworking. And we’re not about that here, if you’re a long time listener, you know that for many reasons. But one of the biggest, that doesn’t work. That shit does not work. So I really wanted to make an episode that would be actually helpful and here we are. So let’s get into the five ways to prevent burnout.

First, identify where you are preventing yourself from getting rest. Now, I know, it feels like it’s not you, it’s everything outside of you. It’s my kids preventing me from resting, always interrupting and asking me questions. It’s my job, they don’t hire enough staff, I just have too much work. It’s my partner for not helping out around the house. I get it and I know it feels that way, but that’s not true. And I’m not saying those things don’t suck or aren’t annoying or frustrating. That’s not what I’m saying.

But those are not the things that are preventing you from getting rest. You are preventing yourself from getting rest. And by rest I don’t mean just sleep or taking a vacation. I mean stepping away for lunch, ending work on time, prioritizing working out, spending time with friends. For those of you who are new here, the way we define rest here, it’s not just a set of checklists. Rest is different. Rest is different from person to person, day-to-day. It’s really about giving your mind and body what it needs when it needs it, and you’re not doing that now.

You need to identify all the areas that you could be accessing rest, that you could be listening to your mind and body, that you could be giving it what it needs but you’re not. And you need to take responsibility that you are preventing yourself from taking rest, that you are preventing those opportunities of rest from happening. Of course, those external factors can make it a challenge. I’m not denying that. But you’re ultimately the person who decides if you rest or not and how you rest and how much you prioritize it. You have so much more choice and agency than you’re admitting to.

Number two, set boundaries properly. Boundaries are something that you set for you to follow, not for someone else to follow. A boundary is not, I told everyone to stop emailing me after five and then they kept emailing me seven or eight o’clock, even ten o’clock I got emails. They did not respect my boundary. They totally crossed it. No, you all, just no. I get why you think that because we’re taught that but no. A boundary is I’m committing to not checking my emails after 5:00pm, no matter who does or does not email me.

It’s not their job to stop emailing you. It’s your job to commit to yourself, to stop checking or replying to emails. A boundary is not something that you do or enforce to control other people’s behavior. Other people have free will. You’re not in charge of them. You can’t control what they do. Even if you are a manager, you can ask your staff not to email you at 5:00pm. They’re still adults who are going to do that. Other people are always going to keep doing what they always do. A boundary is a commitment to you that you make to yourself about your behavior, about your decisions, about your choices.

Number three, drop the perfectionism. Now, this is going to be challenging for so many of you because you don’t believe you’re a perfectionist, which is the irony. The reason you don’t think you’re a perfectionist is you don’t believe you ever do anything good enough, which is actually the defining factor of a perfectionist. Just sit with that for a second, it blows your mind. This is coming from a fellow recovering perfectionist, by the way. Start being okay with putting out B minus or dare I say, C plus work instead of aiming for a plus.

Trying to be ‘good enough’ or have the work be ‘good enough’ isn’t working. Start aiming for things to just be done. Not done great, not done perfectly, maybe even not fully complete, just done. This might look like not rereading an email draft 10 times before you send it. Draft it, read it once, send it. Yeah, it might have some spelling or grammar mistakes. Maybe you forgot something. That’s okay.

Maybe it’s sending a draft manuscript that’s missing the method sections to your colleagues to review. Rather than forcing yourself to get the methods done and start working late, they can still review it if the methods section’s missing. I actually just had this. I’m a co-author in a paper right now. The paper itself is fully drafted and they sent it to me to review. And I was reviewing it and I was supposed to be putting in comments and I noticed my old perfectionist brain being like, “That’s not good enough. You should do the revising. You should do all the editing. You should add.”

I was like, “No, I’m not first author. This is what I committed to. I’m not being an A+ co-author, that’s not my job.” I’m giving great comments in the timeframe I’ve committed to, that I communicated with them. This also looks like dropping the perfectionist ideals of who and how you should be, not just the work, you as a person, as an employee, as a partner, as a friend. To not have to be perfect, you all. Listen, you don’t have to have your house clean all the time before people come over.

You don’t have to have the kids’ lunches 100% in order. You don’t have to always remember your friend’s birthday. Stop holding yourself to this unrealistic expectation that you can do it all, remember everything, be the perfect person. Because aiming for this consciously or not is keeping you overworking, stressed out, putting yourself last.

Number four, stop people pleasing. This has come up so much in my coaching program that I recently created a four week people pleasing masterclass for my one-on-one clients only because it comes up so much. This is one of the core components that I see is necessary to work through and continue a practice of working on in order to prevent burnout. You do not cause other people’s thoughts or feelings, and they don’t cause yours. Your decisions, your actions, your behaviors do not create what other people think about you.

Other people decide, consciously or not, what they want to think. Saying yes to helping with a late night event, even though you want to be with your family. But you’re saying yes because you don’t want your boss to think you aren’t a team player isn’t helping you. Always being on email and responding right away, nights and weekends or on vacation because you don’t want anyone to think you’re slacking isn’t helping you. And listen, I have a whole podcast episode on this. I want you to go listen to it later. It’s episode 107, Stop People Pleasing. It goes in much more detail.

But once you learn how to stop prioritizing everyone and everything else over you and you move through the discomfort of that, you let go of wanting to make sure everyone likes you or thinks nice things about you. It’s so much easier to move through your day-to-day, without overworking, without bringing yourself out. Your job isn’t to make other people like you or manage other people’s emotions. Your job is to make decisions that best support you.

Number five, start to delegate. And listen, it’s a huge myth that the only reason to delegate is if you’re a manager or a leader. No. This in general is not talked about enough as a strategy, as a necessity to reduce your stress. And I’m not just talking about delegating to other people but delegating to the no pile, to the not now pile. Delegate to the committee members that you co-chair a committee on, give them assignments. Delegate to your co-volunteers you collaborate with.

Did you know I used to delegate to faculty members when I was just a staff member? Faculty members who had worked there for 30 years. Delegation isn’t necessarily about hierarchy or authority. It’s about distributing the work. This can happen at home too. I had someone comment on LinkedIn in total shock when I shared, I delegate to my partner at home. I know, it’s crazy. And he delegates to me too. It’s about the distribution of work.

Now, when we hear the word delegate, we think being authoritative, being bossy. No, that’s not what that means. You can delegate in so many ways. You can delegate through a question, through an ask, through a discussion. You can also delegate to the no or not now pile. That might mean if you’re a team lead, deciding not to have your team work on a project or pause it. Or if you manage a grant, ask your project officer for an extension on a deadline or a million other scenarios.

Part of the reason you aren’t delegating is because of the four prior reasons or prior ways to prevent burnout I talked about. All of these things are connected, which is actually good news because if you work on just one of these ways you’re going to get better in the other four. Your stress will start to reduce. Your workload will start to decrease. Your time will start to free up. And this does not happen overnight, it takes time, but do not use that as an excuse to not put in the work and make these changes.

Because when you invest the time in making these changes, the return on your investment is double, triple, quadruple that. You will not only get out of burnout or prevent future burnout, you will make sure it stays that way. And these are skills. These are skills you have to learn and you have to practice but you can take them with you for the rest of your career.

So if you are struggling with burnout, with stress, I want you to come join my Not Your Average Productivity course. Enrollment is open right now and it will help you with just this. And I want you to hear from Katie, who took the course last round, and what she has to say. She emailed this to me, she says, “The Not Your Average Productivity course was just what I needed to get through some rough spots in my job as a public health professional.

To my knowledge, there’s nothing else like the program Marissa offers, providing targeted information for women who serve in leadership roles in public health. I was grateful to receive her support and thoughtful insights during our coaching calls and enjoyed learning different tips and techniques during the videos she sent out each week. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for outside support and reframing your thoughts and moving your work in a more positive and productive direction.”

Now, I know Katie mentioned leadership, that’s because Katie is a leader, but you don’t have to be a leader to join. Any woman who works in public health can join the course and get benefit out of it. Enrollment is open now until November 5th. The course starts November 13th and we have an orientation call, just you and me, one-on-one the week before. It’s five weeks long. It includes video lessons, one-on-one coaching with me and worksheets.

All of the other details are at mckoolcoaching.com/courses or you can check out last week’s podcast episode where I go through all the details. And Sarah and Vicki, who also took the course, joined me and share their experience, what they got out of it and what they’d say to you if you’re thinking about joining. We’ll put a link in the show notes to enroll. I hope to see you there. Bye everyone.

If you found this episode helpful then you have to check out my coaching program where I provide you individualized support to create a life centered around rest. Head on over to mckoolcoaching.com, that’s M-C-K-O-O-L coaching.com to learn more.

Enjoy the Show?

Don't miss an episode, follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Marissa McKool
Previous

132. Self-Care During a Crisis
Next

130. Not Your Average Productivity Course