Burnt Out From Wellness - 8 Lessons From Starting A Business In Something You Love

First of all, it’s been a hot minute since I wrote my last blog. When I was travelling I found writing them really therapeutic, like a way to show the real behind the scenes of the aesthetically pleasing instagrammable pictures.

If there’s one thing you takeaway from reading this, it’s that I’d encourage you to write even if you never intend to let any eyes besides your own see it.

It doesn’t matter if it’s digitally, hard copy - whatever you prefer, getting our thoughts out onto paper just is such a useful way to express all of the mumbo jumbo and bullshit going on in every one of our heads. You see trends, you actually progress with ideas, just trust me even if it feels weird, give it a shot

"Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is" - Dick Guindon

It’s been a weird year for me to be honest. In January of 2023 I decided to start my own wellness business, I want to dedicate this blog purely to my experience of this venture, I will come back to the weird year another time

I started it with the intention of bringing my corporate experience and wellness passion together to create Mindsight, with the aim of minding our minds

At Christmas, I decided I needed to put it on the backburner for now. One of the main reasons was it was impacting my mental health ironically - burnt out from wellness, who’d have thought??

The lessons below aren’t necessarily my advice to you (you’ll see why later on) - this is merely me recording my experience and wanting to share it with you

1. Attaching money to your passion can change your relationship with your interest 

When the thing which you did before for pleasure turns into the thing that you are depending on for money, it can start to cause a strain on the relationship. Because I was putting so much pressure on it to work, I actually nearly started to resent wellness. I needed to turn it back into something for my own toolkit

2. A balance of both 

For me I’ve actually realised from this undertaking that the ideal life I am trying to create involves variety - not all or nothing. The dream is to have elements of both IT and wellness in my day to day life. Before I used to have wellness as my thing before and after work, when it became work everything just became too much of the same. I actually missed elements of using my IT background like problem solving skills, which I’ve come to realise I do get a kick out of

3. A watched pot never boils 

These things take time, patience is a skill not a virtue and as I once heard when you plant seeds for flowers you don’t go out to the garden the following day and pull them up. You trust that with time they will grow (but trust me I was out in that garden with a shovel pulling all of the plants up!)

4. Don’t go full hog

I had received advice that getting a part time job while starting your own business can take away time and energy from setting it up, however on reflection for me that’s actually what would have done me the world of good - it would have taken the financial pressure away to allow my creativity to flow. However I didn’t do this and put too much financial pressure on the business and nearly combusted, and so I really would recommend this one point if you are thinking of starting something up

5. Advice you get isn’t good or bad..

It just depends on what’s right or wrong for you and only you know what that is. I got advice from lots of people, I would sometimes huff and think that’s shit advice. In reality, it wasn’t shit, it just wasn’t the right thing for me and my venture whereas for them it was for their experience

6. The people you are around can have such an impact 

Another area I fell down in was I was back at home and adopted and subsequently drowned in fears from others. It’s so important to be in an environment of people who support you and lift you up, that don’t project their fears onto you 

7. It’s good to fail 

As someone who has always excelled academically and professionally, to be honest failing isn't something that I’m used to. When I failed (and I know its not a failure its a lesson etc. etc. lol - as someone in personal development I hear you) but let’s say the business financially failed, I can tell you my ego was black and blue from the bruising it got. However it has actually made me realise that failure is safe, and that nothing happens - you are still the same person, just with lots of new skills

8. You’re allowed to change your mind

There were a lot of red flags for me early on that this wasn’t really for me. However I ignored them and listened to the voice in my head which said “YOU’VE CHOSEN THIS NOW MARIA, THIS IS IT FOR THE NEXT 60 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE - MAKE IT WORK”. In reality the only person putting pressure on it to work was yours truly. We’re allowed to try things and decide oh actually that’s not really for me

I haven’t put a full stop behind anything, I just listened to myself and took a step back from something which was stressing me out (I thought I was a phony for being stressed out from trying to teach about stress, but from hearing stories’ from others, you’d be surprised at how common it is)

They say starting your own business is the biggest personal development journey you will go on, it confronted me with areas in my own life which first need some tending to. 

Was I disappointed with the result? Of course - nobody wants to fail. 

Do I regret it? I would be lying if I said there weren’t moments of regret, but I tried the thing I wanted and quenched the thirst (even if my mouth got burnt) and I know this is just another step along whatever this mad journey we are all on

(I always come back to this quote whenever regret rears its head “You made the best decision for yourself with the information you had at the time”)

What comes next? I haven’t a fucking clue 🙂

Vamos a ver - let’s see!