Preventing Burnout as a Social Entrepreneur: The Foundational Resilience Practice I Teach My Clients

Do you want to prevent burnout as a social entrepreneur?

The very first suggestion I have is to acknowledge and celebrate your successes.

For example, I recently heard from a client that they got a contract that doubled their revenue.

Doubled. Their. Yearly. Revenue.

When we met for our first session after the news, she was 100% focused on all the things she needed to do to keep growing.

I'm all for social entrepreneurs thriving and making a great living. I’ve built my business on this premise.

And, imagine you worked for a boss who no matter how hard you worked and what extraordinary resources you bring into the company - barely says thank you and is immediately pushing you to get back to work on your growth goals.

It's a recipe for social entrepreneur burnout. It’s the recipe for how you diminish your passion to make a difference and create a seething sense of resentment instead.

Do. Not. Treat. Yourself. That. Way.

When you experience a success on your journey, acknowledge it.

Mark it.

It doesn't have to be a big or expensive thing.

Give yourself a morning off of work to go for walk in nature.

Get a massage.

Take a loved one out for a nice meal.

Give your body and mind an experience, one that involves taking a pause, appreciating the significance of what just happened.

There are a lot of tasks to accomplish and challenging issues you are working to address as an impact business leader.

No wonder social entrepreneur burnout is quite high.

This is a very simple practice. Deceptively so.

And yet, in my experience it’s the foundational practice for preventing social entrepreneur burnout and creating healthy work cultures in impact focused businesses and organizations.