Life's Curveballs: How to Stop Doing It All and Break the Cycle of Burnout

Are you constantly exhausted, overwhelmed, or struggling to make even the simplest decisions? That’s decision fatigue and burnout — and today, we’re talking about how to stop overdoing it and start protecting your energy.

In this episode, I dive into:
✅ What decision fatigue really looks like (and why choosing a parking spot can suddenly feel impossible)
✅ The hidden dangers of being a high achiever who “can handle anything”
✅ Why burnout creeps in so quietly (especially for women in their 40s, 50s & beyond)
✅ Simple mindset shifts to stop glorifying busy and start prioritizing peace
✅ A real example of how I recently gave myself permission to slow down
✅ How to say no, delegate, and protect your energy — without guilt

✨ Whether you’re driving, folding laundry, walking into work, or just trying to reset your mind, this microdose is for you.

Thank you for tuning in! I truly appreciate every one of you, whether you’re here for the first time or have been with me from the start.

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Subscribe & Catch full episodes of In Shock Podcast on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@inshock.podcast 📺
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Transcript

0:38

Hi everyone. Welcome to your first official in Shock Microdose series. This is a new format that I'm introducing to the show because sometimes we don't have 30 minutes or even an hour to tune in to a podcast, and I really believe that personal growth comes in small doses these episodes are designed to be short, but very meaningful so that you can microdose your way through healing, growth, and moving forward. Whether you're driving, folding laundry, walking into work, or you're just trying to reset. These are for you if you're new here. Let me give you a quick background on how in shock came to life, and more importantly, why does it even exist. This podcast was born from some of my hardest chapters that I went through in my life. I've had cancer four times. I went through a lot of major surgeries. As a result, I survived two brain aneurysms that required a craniotomy, which is open brain surgery. I've had three strokes, because of the cancer medications I was taking, I also went through a very painful divorce. And if that wasn't enough, I lost my job during the global financial crisis that took me two years to recover financially. I was completely broke during that time, but this is not a story about all my suffering. This is about survival, and what it takes to heal. Grow and move forward, and that is what in shock is all about. It's about those moments that shake us to our core and what we have to do to overcome them. So if you've ever had a moment in life where everything changed or you didn't know how to get through, then you're in the right place. This podcast is here to remind you that you're not alone. Life is going to hit hard, and when it does. It's nice to have a place to go to where stories resonate. They're relevant and they're real. And that is what I'm here to share. Back in my first episode titled Three Strategies of Navigating Life's Curve Balls. I talked about the tools that help me survive and rebuild. If you haven't listened yet, I encourage you to go back and start there, but hang in with me today because we are gonna talk about something that many of us struggle with and that's overdoing it and how that leads to decision fatigue. Have you ever felt like you're juggling so much that even something as simple as choosing a parking spot feels overwhelming? That's decision fatigue. It builds when you're constantly making choices, managing chaos in your life, trying to solve problems, trying to make decisions. And staying on. All of the time I have been living that lately. We just finished a major outdoor renovation at home, and let me tell you the decisions for this were endless from the design, the materials, the landscaping, the trees, the plants, the flowers. The outdoor furniture and on top of that, we've done a full bathroom remodel this is not a moment about bragging the renovations is the payoff of me grinding through 14 to 16 hour days in my job, working a lot of weekends, and I'm in corporate America. And if you're in a corporate job and you're grinding, you get it. What I've realized and what this episode is here to unpack, I. Is that just because you can do it all does not mean that you should. We high performers, survivors, doers, we tell ourselves we can handle anything, and often we can, but over time that mindset can backfire and burn us out, and it happens quietly and slowly. I've lived that way most of my life. It has certainly served me in a lot of ways, but now standing on the edge of turning 60. I can't keep taking everything on, and it's not because of aging, it's because I've gotten wiser think of this episode as your permission slip to slow down to ask yourself, is this really serving me? Before you say yes, because we don't have to prove anything to anyone and we don't have to carry it all. And I think what's more interesting we have a tendency to say yes to everything. You're kind of in it, right? You're jamming and you're like, yep, I can take that on. Sure. That's no problem. That's no problem.'cause we haven't taken a step back to take a breath and tell ourselves, what the fuck am I doing? Right. Let's talk about what happens when we say yes or when we're taking on too much and how we can stop it. When we take on too much, we become exhausted. We. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Our clarity goes out the window and we start second guessing everything from big decisions to little ones like, what am I making for dinner? You could open the refrigerator 90 times, open up the cabinets 50 times, and you're spinning in a circle because you have taken on so much you're emotionally. Mentally drained, you are burnt out. We stopped feeling joy in the things that we used to love. And instead, everything feels heavy. It feels like a fucking chore, and we start hating it. I got to a point where I was hating having to make decisions about a lovely outdoor area Yesterday I was talking to one of my girlfriends over the phone and I even told her, I've realized I am taking on way too much and I don't wanna do that anymore. It's exhausting. I don't like that feeling of not being able to make a decision. Think about when you sit back and you're wrestling with a decision, and it could be something small, it could be something big. Why are we wrestling? Are we trying to change too much at one time? Are we trying to do too much at one time? The answer is probably yes if we're honest with ourselves. Burnout happens slowly. It happens after you've stretched yourself too thin. So how do we stop doing this to ourselves? Well, we start to get honest. We check in with ourselves regularly and ask, am I adding value or am I adding more weight? And that's why everything feels like a fucking chore. We need to stop glorifying being busy because it is not serving us. Start prioritizing. Peace. It means saying no even to the good things so we can say yes to what really matters. It means giving ourself permission to pause before we commit. Let me give you an example. I woke up today. It's misty outside. It's not that beautiful sunny day I was hoping for, but I shouldn't be surprised because in Massachusetts it's been raining every weekend and it's been beautiful during the week I sat in my chair in the kitchen looking outside at my new beautiful space with my coffee cup in hand, and it was very difficult for me because I was sitting still and I had all these things on my mind that I thought I should be doing right now. But instead, I gave myself permission. to sit quietly in the chair. There was no reason I needed to rush anywhere to do anything.'cause quite frankly, I was feeling incredibly burnt out. My body was hurting because I had been pushing it so hard in the gym. I was feeling fatigued mentally from having to make all these decisions that I was wrestling with that was keeping me up at night. I gave myself permission to have some peace and quiet for myself. So let's stop. Slow down and ask ourselves, does this really matter? Is it okay if I rest because rest is productive. It's actually serving us, and it rejuvenates us it means building, breathing room into our lives on purpose. Because protecting your energy isn't weakness, it's wisdom. I'm realizing I feel better when I've taken just enough on and said no to the excess, to the overflow. If you're burned out from trying to do it all, here's your reminder. You were never meant to carry everything alone. I. You do not have to do it all. Leaders like Cheryl Sandberg, who was the COO at Facebook, she didn't build success by doing it all. She learned to delegate, prioritize. That allowed her to focus on what really mattered. And you can too, start asking yourself, what can I let go of? Who can I trust to help? If you need help with something, doing everything doesn't make you strong. Knowing what to let go of does. So give yourself permission to stop proving, start delegating, and make space for what fuels you, for what brings you joy and doesn't burn you out. Thanks for hanging out with me today for your very first microdose with tea. That's me. If this resonated with you, if it gave you even a moment of clarity, share it with a friend who might need it too. Until next time.