622 | Boldness vs. Burnout: Reclaiming Your Energy to Lead with Confidence

Today we're tackling a critical challenge that so many leaders face. That is the tension between boldness and burnout. Now, leadership is tough, and the constant resistance, problem solving and responsibility can wear you down.

But here's the good news. Burnout isn't inevitable. And boldness is a choice, one that you can cultivate. All of that is coming up next.

Foreign welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. Today we are going to explore a number of things.

One, the warning signs of leadership burnout. Now, this is super important for you to know and recognize and make sure that you know you're doing the things to keep you from burnout and recognizing what's legitimate burnout and what's not, right?

Also, how boldness can be a remedy for leadership fatigue.

Practical ways to build resilience and stay confident, and tools to recharge mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So by the end of this episode, you'll have actionable strategies to reclaim your energy and lead with confidence. So let's dive in.

Now, I'm going to use another fantastic story as an illustration of Moses, a situation like I did on the last episode. And I want you to really take a hard look at this as a leader, because most leaders today, now, it's just bad teaching.

It's bad leadership modeling that people have received and they've taken it on themselves. And that modeling is that everything is on your shoulders.

Now, it comes from many different areas, right? It comes from people saying, so, you know, hey, this is your role. It's all your responsibility. You run with it.

Usually a leader who puts somebody in a leadership role and gives them responsibilities and ownership and then backs completely off is because they don't know how to lead.

They don't know how to help that leader be successful. They have no clue. And many people have. I can't tell you how many times in my leadership career that when I had leaders above me, that that's exactly what happened. Right?

That's why I refuse to do that to leaders that I have led for the decades. So that happens. Another thing is that it's just people will show up and, you know, they claim that they have all the answers.

And so a leader lets them go at it and, you know, then later on the leader finds out, nope, that team member actually didn't have all the answers as well. So there's many different ways.

What we're looking at here with Moses is a common altruistic style. It's all on me. I have to take the responsibility. I have to do this. I don't know any other way. I've not been taught any other way.

I, I, I don't have any great examples of other ways. So I'm going to run with this. Right. So Moses as the leader of the Israelites was overwhelmed.

This is Exodus 18, by the way. And he's exhausted from handling every single dispute and every decision that is coming his way. Everybody is coming to him.

You know, this is, we're creating a brand new nation here. We're coming from a very pagan nation, very polytheistic nation.

They're coming out of slavery. There's all kinds of stuff going on. God's trying to create this new nation of his people. Mixed multitude.

By the way, this wasn't just Israelites, this was also the Gentiles that came out of Egypt with them. If you go back and read, it wasn't just Israelites that came from Egypt, it was a mixed multitude of people.

So he spent all day listening to the people's problems, trying to solve everything on his own.

And seeing this, his father in law, Jethro, warned him that he would eventually burn out if he didn't start to delegate some of these responsibilities.

So Jethro advised Moses to appoint capable. Let me have you circle star, highlight the word capable. Capable leaders.

Able men from among the people who feared God, that were men of truth, that hated covetousness, that could be able to rule over thousands or hundreds or fifties or tens.

They could handle smaller issues, reserving only the most important cases. For Moses, there's no possible way he, he could have handled all issues.

So the story highlights a powerful leadership lesson, which is boldness isn't about doing everything alone.

Guys, I suggest to you, if you are in the place where you can create a leadership team now, you can't have a leader if they're not actually leading people. So we're talking about leading people.

If you're in a place of being able to create a leadership team, you can start to take everything off of your shoulders if you're willing to. If your identity isn't tied up in you being the one who solves all the problems.

If you're not the bottleneck of, well, I've got to be the one who handles everything. No, you do not. You do not. I promise you, we get so much done with our team.

Because I'm not the bottleneck. Because I consistently teach people how to solve problems on their own and to run with things and take ownership.

So boldness isn't about doing everything, it' all by yourself. It's about recognizing limits. It's about delegating wisely, or as we would say, properly, properly delegating. Right.

And it's about sustaining energy for the long haul. You should have bigger things that you're focused on. So at whatever level of leadership you're at right now, here's what I want you to know and understand.

You're capable of more, but you're not capable. Well, I don't know your specific situation. Maybe you're bored twiddling your thumbs, but let's assume that you're busting it, right?

Like, let's assume, assume you've got a lot on you right now. You're. You're very busy. You're capable of more if you're able to properly delegate.

So Moses was still bold and leading, but he avoided burnout by sharing the load. So a key takeaway here is that great leaders don't let burnout creep in.

Instead, they take bold steps to set boundaries, healthy boundaries, to empower others and to preserve their energy for what matters most. So let's dive into the key points of the discussion today.

Recognizing the Warning Signs of Leadership Burnout

Number one, recognizing the warning signs of leadership. Burnout. Now, burnout doesn't hit like a lightning strike. It's something that builds up over time.

You know, many leaders don't recognize it until they are way deep in exhaustion, in frustration.

It's affecting their family, their, Their marriage, their parenting. These are things that when the issues start mounting, that's when leaders start to realize, maybe I've got a problem here.

Maybe I'm. Maybe I'm overwhelmed with burnout, right? So what are some potential symptoms of burnout? And I'm going to give you a long list, but there's even more constant fatigue.

Now, as I say this, I'm going to also say, you've probably heard me say this as well in the past. Your diet can absolutely be destroying your body.

There are people that are not in burnout, but they are destroyed by the crap that they are putting into the body. Sugars, processed carbs, you know, bad fats, seed oils, all kinds.

Did I say sugar? Let me say sugar again. These are things that can be destroying your brain, body.

Trust me, we've been working on health journeys for decades because we've had to, you know, I'm somebody who still to this day has high levels of lead.

And I've been able to bring it down considerably. But I'm not done. It's still a long stinking process that I've been having to deal with. And so I, I, I know what I can't eat.

I know what I can't put in my body because it will destroy me.

You know, go out and eat, you know, wake up in the morning and, you know, throw back a bowl of sugary cereal and then ask yourself, how do you feel 30 minutes later when you're ready to take a nap, right?

Why did that happen? Why did you tank? Right? So I'm going to say everything that we're talking about in here, in these symptoms of burnout.

Let's assume that everybody is super healthy physically and that our diets are all fantastic, right? So that we can just stick to the legitimacy of the, the burnout that we're experiencing.

So consistent fatigue even after resting. Like, you know, if you're feeling burnt out, stress cortisol is dumping in your body, then you can get rest and feel like you, you can't, you can't recover.

We do StratPlans. We only do so many StratPlans a year. This is a, a long event, you know, almost a week long event. And it takes me a long time to recover.

That's why we only do so many a year, because it's pretty darn taxing and I need to take care of myself, I need to take care of my body. And I understand that it taxes the daylights out of me in this process.

Super powerful event. But if I continued to do them back to back to back, I'd be burnt out like crap. I wouldn't do them at all. We wouldn't have StratPlans as a process, right?

There was a day when we attempted two Next-Level Lives in a week. A Monday, Tuesday, and then a Thursday, Friday. And it did not take us long before we're like, nope, can't do it.

It's great for the client. It is not great for the person leading the process, right? Me and Joel, we're like, nope, we can't. I'm not saying that we haven't done that once in a great while.

Like maybe once a year, there might be a special situation that we really need to try and make something work out. But that is a standard for us that we don't do that.

So fatigue is huge. Increased frustration or cynicism toward team members, toward the business, towards leaders, towards whatever. Now I love-- Jim Collins described cynicism.

He gave a great definition or descriptor of a cynic. I believe it was back in his book Good to Great, back in, you know, forever ago, 30 years ago, whatever, where he said, a cynic is nothing more than a passionate person who's tired of being let down.

I just, I have always loved that because it has helped me to understand cynicism in people and cynicism in situations and why somebody might be cynical to a situation.

So you might find that frustration that somebody's just done. They're tired, they're done, they don't want to continue this.

It is not helping them. It is not helping them to, you know, love their life and their work and everything.

Because they're burnt out, because they're struggling. Why are they cynical? Because things aren't working. Because they're tired of being let down.

There's so many good reasons in this, right? Another symptom of burnout would be struggling to make decisions or feeling overwhelmed by small problems.

Folks, now listen. Many people struggle to make decisions, but a person who is feeling burnt out subconsciously recognizes that the decision making process may bring them more stress.

And they have convinced themselves, unfortunately, that waiting and procrastinating and not jumping in and taking things on, they've convinced themselves that it's giving them a relief.

And it is for a second. But the problem is that what's happening is that issues are mounting and decisions are mounting and you're going to have to get to it. It's going to just create something bigger.

I hate the times that I know I'm supposed to solve something--

I'm supposed to do something about something, and I've convinced myself probably, okay, and I'm not talking about being in burnout, I'm just talking about poor decision making where you're like, I think I got more time on that.

You know, holy spirit's going, you should do this right now. And then there's some bad consequence like, dad, come on, why don't I just do the. Solve the problem, make the decision.

Well, when you're in burnout, that's every five seconds, you know, everything is.

And by not solving problems, their problems are coming at you much faster, by the way, because you're procrastinating and you're delaying and you're struggling, then they're coming at you really fast.

They just continue to compound.

Another thing is loss of motivation or loss of passion for the work that you do.

It's quite often for somebody who's been burnt out to want to shift gears, go in a different direction, sell their business, step out, do something, change, you know, go to another company, whatever.

That's that's a common thing, because the passion for what you're doing, you're tying this burnout to being what's affecting your passion.

And so it's very easy to just say, nah, I'm done. Another thing is avoidance. Avoidance of people, avoidance of key responsibilities, avoidance as a whole.

So, for example, if a business owner, you know, as we look at all these different symptoms, if a business owner that we work with was so exhausted from carrying every decision that he started dreading. He or she started dreading coming to work, well, that's.

That's something that this person once loved. This is something this person was once excited about doing and now they don't, Right?

So their burnout leads to avoidance of hard conversations, being disengaged with team members, maybe not facing their leaders. Maybe it's ending up in declining business results because maybe they're part of that, that growth process.

Whatever it is, these are all things that can happen. Now, here's the takeaway. You can't fix what you don't see. If you don't see that this is where you are, or one of, you know, maybe it's one of your leaders is in this position, you can't fix what you don't see.

So step one is recognizing the early signs of before you hit total burnout. If you can recognize these signs that I've just walked through, if you can see these things once again, caveat.

You're doing well with your health. And chances are, if you're in burnout, you're probably eating sugar and pasta left and right. You're probably putting crap in alcohol. There's probably all kinds of stuff going on here. So it's just compounding the issue again.

Why Boldness is the Antidote to Burnout

So number two, why boldness is the antidote to burnout. Now, many leaders, many leaders pull back when they're exhausted. I don't want to be bold. I don't want to go make decision.

You know, I don't want to handle problems and issues and solve things like that. They think that the solution is to do less or avoid challenges.

But folks, that's the exact opposite of what is often needed. Boldness doesn't mean that you work harder. Let me say that again. Boldness doesn't mean that you work harder.

It means that you step into decisiveness instead of hesitating. It means that you address issues head on instead of avoiding them.

It means that you focus on delegating and empowering others so that they can carry part of the load, so that you're not carrying everything.

Alone, it means that you're setting firm, healthy boundaries to protect your energy.

Listen, this is a terrible misconception that if I'm going to step up and be bold, then I'm going to take on 20, 30, 50, 100 times more work by doing so.

I will tell you, I am an 88S. I'm a high S. And in my early years, I used to get so ticked off of procrastinating and things piling up that one day I just finally told myself, I can still look back decades ago and still look back at myself being frustrated, going, that's it.

I'm handling everything that comes my way. As soon as it comes my way. I just emboldened myself. I'm just going to handle it.

And the crazy thing is, as a problem came in, I handled it, and it was done in, like, no time. 30 minutes.

Solved the problem where normally it took like a week through procrastination and avoidance and all that kind of stuff, and I could just solve a problem. And here was the most profound piece to me.

You know, you would think the most profound piece is, oh, wow, it didn't take long to solve the problem.

Nope. The most profound piece to me is that when I solved the problem that came in the issue right in front of me, I didn't have any issues.

I could just work. I could just go back to doing my job until the next issue came along, which was a while. When you procrastinate, you compound problems.

They keep stacking up over and over and over again, and then it's not solving one issue, it's solving 40.

So boldness allowed me to tackle the problem. You know, I'm doing it. And then I tackled it. And then I was like, oh, not only is it done, but I don't have any other problems I've got to solve right now.

I could just get back to work. So it's important for us to recognize that, you know, you don't have to carry everything. You can't do it all. Be bold.

You know, I remember a leader that we. We coached who was struggling with burnout because she was constantly putting out fires on her team.

Constantly, constantly, constantly. She started practicing boldness in delegation. She started allowing others to handle responsibilities she.

She had been hoarding. Why do we hoard? Because, you know, many reasons.

One, we can feel like it's our identity, or we can feel like it's all our responsibility, that nobody else can do it this way.

But when she started doing this, when she realized, I can't do it, this way. And we were coaching. Let go, let go, let go.

And delegate properly. Don't delegate crappily. And then it comes right back to you and it's, you know, stockpiled back on you.

Do it properly, you'll get rid of it. What did she experience? Less stress, less stress, less stress.

What else did she experience? Her team's performance increased.

What? How is that possible? Think about it. When you treat people with dignity, when you give people the opportunity to grow, expand, you know, operate in better ways and, you know, work on things that they haven't worked on before, they grow.

They grow. What did it do for her? It renewed her energy. She came out of burnout, renewed her energy, and also helped her to regain her passion.

The thing is, the bold move is often the best move, right? Boldness fuels confidence, it fuels energy.

It helps you to solve problems. It helps you to get that junk off of your shoulders.

Building Resilience to Stay Confident

Number three, building resilience to stay confident. Now, resilience isn't just about pushing through hard times.

It's about how you recover and keep going. People think resilience is something that you just have.

It's actually trained, it's actually built inside of you as you deal with something.

When something knocks you over, how you get back up, that. That's what. Think of that rubber band. It builds a resistance.

Oh, I got knocked back. I come back forward, right? So believe it or not, tougher times, tougher situations make you more resilient.

It is a truth. It is something that. It exists. The more that you get knocked back, if you're able to recover, if you're able to, you know, work positively and solve issues, then all of a sudden you create a resilience.

I've been somebody who's been knocked back an incredible number of times in my life, which has made me very resilient.

And I've gone through the last couple of years, have been some of the most stressful things with family members and, you know, health issues and just situations and.

And it's just been amazing how a lot of stress and difficulty.

But through the whole process, I've just continued to be resilient, to keep going, you know, keep solving, keep doing what you can, finding rest, removing stress, do, you know, doing what I can.

And it's been powerful to get to where we are right now and having stressors taken off our plate and going, okay, wow, man, I feel so much better, you know, because you just assume that once you get rid of everything, you're just like a pancake.

You're just done. But the truth is, is that that resilience gives you energy back.

So ways that you could build resilience, reframe obstacles as growth opportunities.

I know that sounds Chris, how do I do that? In the moment, instead of seeing resistance as a burden, see it as a refining process.

Now if you will look at this through the lens of scripture. If you will look at this through the lens of God. So many people think that God is concerned with your happiness.

He is not. God is not concerned with you being happy.

God is concerned with you being obedient. He is concerned with you following Him. Why? Because his ways are his instructions for you to have the best life you possibly can.

Here. Now, as I say, best life. Don't you hear some crazy, you know, TV preacher stuff?

One of the ways, one of the biggest ways that God helps you to have a strong life and strong relationship with him is through suffering, is through struggle.

Because God understands that when you struggle, it builds resilience.

When you look at struggles as opportunities for being refined, you know, the refining process is taking the impurities off so you could become more pure.

That's God's goal, is for us to become more pure. The sanctification process is a process. It's not an event, it's not a one time thing.

We are being perfected as we walk with God and we obey his instructions.

He tells us what to do. He tells us what anybody who's telling you that all you have to do is say a prayer that doesn't exist and you're in right relationship with God.

That's ridiculous. We see God saying over and over again, my people, those who love me, obey me, do what he tells you to do.

And you will be amazed at how much you create relationship. You will be amazed at how much better your life goes.

Will it be, you know, void of issues? Heck no. I just told you. We've gone through a couple of years worth of difficulty.

We've had people sinning against us, trying to steal money from us. We've had some crappy stuff that's happened.

Do you know what? God taught us to pray for them. You know, lord, forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.

I remember praying that while I had two different people stealing from us, one was a vendor and one was somebody else.

And in the midst as I'm praying the Lord's Prayer one morning, I, I feel like I heard God say, you know, you, you have people who are, who are trespassing against you right now.

And it's like, oh my gosh. I never thought about that in the, in the present.

I always thought about that in the past of thinking about people who have trespassed against me in the past and forgiving them.

You should be forgiving people right now that are doing bad things to you.

That started a process, a very difficult one, very difficult one of praying for those people.

I would love to say on a daily basis. It, it was definitely weekly, let me say that.

But there were some days it was tough and then it got easier and then it got easier and then it got easier and then it got easier and I found myself forgiving people who were trying so hard to steal from us.

The more I allowed the processes to refine me, my wife, the situations that we were going through, the more we allowed those to refine us, the better people we became, the stronger we became, right?

We looked at those as growth opportunities. We still look at those as growth opportunities. And it's, hey, don't.

Now that we're on the other side of those things and it's worked out in our favor, we don't look at that and just go, oh great, we're all great now.

No, we've learned and so we utilize the things that we've learned.

The refining process has taken impurities away and we look at people different and we pray for people in different ways and we forgive people as they do stupid things.

And you know, that happens, right? We do stupid things, right? So prayerfully people are forgiving us when we do stupid things.

Another thing you can do is surround yourself with wise circle star, highlight the word wise, wise counsel.

You don't have to carry everything alone. Few young folks out there. I'm going to say there's something I do not understand about this younger generation.

Okay, there's 400 things I don't understand. But here's one thing that I really don't understand.

It is amazing to me that a 1920, 21 year old person is taking life advice from a 1920, 21 year old person.

There is this incredible thing where so many young folks are listening to young folks on how to live life and how to make decisions and how to get wealthy and how to do all these different things.

It is blowing me away. How does a 19 year old have the wisdom of life experience?

As somebody who is fifth just turned 55, ah, it's been a while, don't feel 55, which is a good thing.

But I look back on when I was younger and I was constantly looking to wise older people to tell me what to do to give me guidance to help me make right decisions.

Why? Because nobody my age knew how to do those things.

And yet today's generation, this younger generation, is looking to TikTok to find out from some other young person how to make a million dollars and all the things that they're going to do and their life is just going to be happy. Right?

And then they go out chasing that dream and then they wonder why it fails consistently.

How is it that the person on TikTok in a 30 second video is living the life I dream of?

Because they're not. So, folks, please, young folks, listen to me. It doesn't mean that a person has to be old to have wisdom.

But don't surround yourself with people who don't know what the heck they're talking about.

Go get counsel from people who are wise. Wise counsel will help you to not carry.

I'm not saying that they're going to take on your stuff. I'm not saying that they're going to, you know, carry your load.

What I'm saying is that they are going to invest in you. They are going to mentor you.

Find mentorship groups, invest in mentorship groups with wise people or people that are walking through, you know, ahead of you, behind you so you can mentor them, but that you are surrounding yourself with wise people and wise counsel to learn how to solve issues in your life.

If you, if you don't have a great group, look at ours, look at some of ours. I mean, there is just powerful stuff that's happening there.

That's just a, a side note. Surround yourself with wisdom. Another thing you can do is develop a mental reset routine.

So what do you do when stress builds up? What do you do when you're feeling that, that burnout? Right.

So take a step back, recalibrate, refocus, take a look.

Now, I want to empower you as, as somebody who is listening to me and looking to me for guidance and direction.

I want to empower you on something and I'm going to make a very big disclaimer on this. I want to empower you to take care of you.

Well, Chris, you've talked about that whole self care thing. Yep. I'm going to get to that in just a second.

Here's what I want you to know. As somebody who has made sure that I'm getting time in all the right places.

Time with God, time with my wife, time with my family, time resting. I'm somebody who makes sure that happens.

Why? Because for so long I ran so hard. And I look back on my life and I went, you know what?

I have missed a crap ton. There's things that I've missed out on.

I did amazing things, helped people change their lives, incredible stuff. But what did it do for me? What did it do for my family? Right?

So there is a limit to how much you should be focusing on doing your work.

You know those people that are, hustle, hustle, hustle, get up at 4am, work until midnight. That's ridiculous.

Now, if the ox is in the ditch, get the ox out of the ditch.

But to live a lifestyle like that, 20 hours on, four hours off, is stupid. It's ridiculous. It's not going to help you.

It's not going to bless you, right? So here's what I want you to focus on. Bust your butt when you can.

In the timeframe that you have to bust your butt. Bust it, work hard, be diligent, but then put things in place that help you to take a step back.

Put things in place that help you to recalibrate. Put things in place that help you to refocus.

You know, one of the things, you know, we have this farm that, praise God, God has blessed us with for the last couple of years that continues to grow, and it's amazing, it's fun.

But I can't tell you how peaceful it is to just walk around. It put on walking shoes and my wife and I and our daughter will just go out walking all around.

Right? When people come, they go for walks. Right? When other family comes, just walking around in this peaceful environment, it resets things.

It helps us not to focus on all the stress. You know, I'll be honest. I am somebody who does not get enough massages in my life.

That's always something that helps me out to relieve tension and things like that, right.

My wife and I, we will do on Saturday nights coming up soon, now that it's getting considerably warmer outside, we'll do movies outside and just in, you know, movie night and just enjoy just some time relaxing with family and friends.

And, you know, at some point we'll probably even open it up to some of our farm clients or something like that.

Things that rejuvenate us, things that bring us back to this place of not being so stressed out that, you know, things that refocus us, those things help us to look at the difficult things that we've got to accomplish and then with energy go accomplish them. Right?

But I will tell you, you got to spend more time with family.

And I define family how you define Family. I'm not saying go spend time with crappy, controlling, manipulative family members.

That's not what I'm saying. But find time with people that you love. Let me say it that way.

Spend more time with people that you love. Find ways to do that.

You know the song Cat in the Cradle? You know, when I was younger, I'm like, oh, I get it.

It makes sense. But I was still busting it. I was still the one who was, you know, working hard. Man.

Over the last, I don't know, 15 years or so, that song has just been so impactful. I don't care for that.

I don't want to be that one, you know? Our daughter, as she's trying to figure.

Our youngest daughter, as she's trying to figure out her ways and how to be, she's looking to us, and she's trying to model things, you know, it's so funny.

I'll see her on her fake cell phone, and I'm like, baby, I want you to understand.

Daddy doesn't like having a cell phone. I do it because of work. I don't actually enjoy having a cell phone. It's a tool that I use for work.

I don't want her thinking that being on a cell phone, because many times, coaching calls and stuff like that, being hour long on a cell phone. Right.

Or hour long on a zoom or something like that. I don't want her thinking that the tool is the good thing, because the tool is not. Helping people is the good thing.

Serving others is the good thing. The tool is a tool. Don't. I don't want my daughter being excited about having a cell phone. Right. I want her to understand what it's like to serve others, to take care of people.

Yes. As a young child, it was funny. We were in a doctor's office recently, and she had some little, you know, trail mix in a cup that they got that they gave her, and she accidentally dropped it, and it went all over the floor.

And the nurse was like, oh, honey, get this on. I'm like, no, no, she can do this. And she's, well, I'll go get the broom and stuff.

I'm like, okay, honey, you spilled your cup. Go ahead, clean it up. And she immediately jumps down, starts picking up, starts taking care of stuff. As soon as the gal came in with the broom, she's grabbing the broom, sweeping everything up.

Why? Because I want my daughter to take care of herself and her messes and solve problems and all that kind of fun stuff. But it was interesting for this nurse to look at that and go, huh, okay, that's a good thing, right?

Because what do we do? We want to solve everything for our kids. It's a terrible way to lead instead. I know I'm getting way off topic here, but I just want you to know this.

You know, if you teach your kids to solve their own problems, then they will be able to do that as adults. Heard a guy say this phrase and I just freaking love it.

We increase our self esteem by stealing it from our children when we solve their problems or when we don't let them solve their own problems, I believe is the way that he said it.

So just, you know, think about that. So we had a client who consistently faced team resistance, felt like giving up, but once coached, once guided, shifted his mindset to seeing conflict as part of leadership growth.

Once he got to that place, he found, you know, renewed energy rather than discouragement. So thing I want you to take away from number three is resilience is about your ability to bounce back quickly.

Not avoiding hardship, but instead growing through it.

Tools to Recharge Mentally, Emotionally, and Spiritually

Number four, tools to recharge mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Now, you can't pour from an empty cup, right? Leaders must be intentional about refueling, refuel, refuel, refuel. So things that you can do.

Some essential tools for recharging is make sure that you're spending daily time in scripture and in prayer. I cannot scream this enough. It aligns your mind and your spirit.

Folks, God gave us a tool to use. Tools, many tools. One of those was talking to Him. Yes, you can talk to God. And believe it or not, he will communicate back with you. Yes, he will.

Don't think of those crazy people on TV. I'm talking about a legitimate relationship with God Almighty who wants to have that. Why would he tell you to spend time talking to him if he didn't want to talk back to you?

Now, I'm not saying he's going to be, you know, flooding your brain and audibly speaking to you all the time. That's not what I'm saying at all. He will speak to you through many different ways and things that you'll experience.

But the key is, and sometimes he will speak directly to you. You just never know, right? The key is don't avoid it. Don't think it's silly. Don't think that God is such a distant God that he has no intention of talking to you, spending time with you.

He absolutely does. The other thing is, is that he gave us that manual, that handbook, the scriptures, for you to understand how to have A great relationship with him.

Do not do yourself a disservice and only focus on the New Testament. Listen to me. You cannot possibly understand the New Testament until you understand the Old Testament. I don't care what anybody says, anybody who tells you, don't worry about that Old Testament.

60% of the New Testament is quoting the Old Testament. If you don't understand the Old Testament, you're not going to understand the New Testament. Get in there, see what God's saying about relationship with him.

Learn, grow in that. Right. Also, physical habits, you know, put some healthy habits in place. Exercise doesn't have to be going to the gym. Get your butt up, eat a meal, get up within a short period of time and go for a 10 to 30 minute walk.

Yes, it could be 10 minutes. Just help yourself out. Get up, get walking, get moving, have your breakfast, have your breakfast in a timeframe where you can get up and go for a walk afterwards.

I'm really busy in the morning. I bet you are. You're probably too busy. You're probably not scheduling your time well. Right. Make sure that you have time for exercising to whatever level that is.

And just believe it or not, movement is better than nothing. Walking is phenomenal. Make sure-- this is an--

I am the worst. My wife says I'm just like a little baby. I fight to get into. I don't so much anymore, but for most of my life I have fought going to bed. Why?

Because as soon as I go to bed, I'm going to wake up and it starts the next day and I'm like, I'm not done with this day yet. Right.

I just need a little bit more rest, a little bit more reset. Well, what I have come to understand is the sooner I get my butt into bed and the sooner I get to sleeping, then the more energy I'm going to have the next day.

Now I'm somebody who wakes up. I the only time I ever use an alarm clock is if I have to catch a flight early in the morning.

I wake up naturally, 5:00, maybe 5:30. So I'm up early. That's just the way that I am. But if I stay up too late, I'm still going to wake up early.

Unfortunately, that's how my body responds where a lot of you can sleep in until like 10. Unfortunately that's just not me. That doesn't happen that way.

So make sure that you're getting plenty of rest. The earlier you get to bed before midnight, the more rest go look it up, the more powerful your recovery will be.

Also, nutrition. You've got to be fueling correctly. Get sugar out of your life. It's everywhere. Get processed crap out of your life. Get seed oils out of your life.

Get that junk out. Eat quality stuff. Find a place. We, our farm is a place that, for our clients, our farm clients, we are super transparent. They get to see everything, how we do stuff, feeds that we use, everything so that they know that it's the cleanest they can possibly get.

Find a place that will do that with you. Get your eggs there, get your dairy there, get your chickens, your. Your beef, you know, get grass fed, grass finished, right? Put--

Get lamb from there. Get quality meats and stuff and quality produce that's not, you know, grown with sprays and stuff. Quit putting crap in your body. Put healthy stuff in.

Ugh. I'm sorry, I'm on some-- I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry at all.

I know I'm on a lot of soapboxes, but, hey, you just need to get your. Everything I'm telling you is for your benefit. And everything I'm telling you is stuff that we've done and it's worked.

Make sure that you're setting work, life balance. Yes, there is no actual balance. There isn't a balance of work and a balance of life. But make sure that you're truly learning to unplug.

My wife and I honor the Sabbath, and it is one of the most powerful things we cannot wait to get to shutting the world out of our lives for a day. Right?

It is so powerful. It is. It. God put it in place for a reason. And man does it. Does it energize us. So also, make sure that you're investing in personal growth. Make sure that you're reading stuff that you can do something with.

Don't overload yourself. So this is strange that I'm saying this this way. Make sure that you're reading. Make sure that you're listening to podcasts.

Take courses and things that challenge you. Take courses and things that inspire you. Do not overload yourself with information to the point that you have so much information, you're not doing anything with it because you don't know what to do. Get the stuff you need.

You know, I'm a 67 Theoretical. I believe on the Values. And I'm somebody who loves to learn things that I can do something with. I don't want to overload my brain with a bunch of stuff and then I'm, you know, stuck with.

With too much information. I don't know. Do I turn left? Do I turn right? Get the information that you need that's helping you stick there.

If you're somebody who's listening to 14 different podcasts and you're reading 17 different books right now, you're probably not making a lot of good moves, right?

It's just too much information. So do all of those things and what you will find is self care isn't. Oh, I, I was going to hit the part about self care.

Especially ladies listening to this lady leaders household.

You know, if you're stay at home moms, whatever your role is, I want you to understand there is toxic teaching in the female leadership world right now with this concept that you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders and you have to spend time taking care of you.

That is a lie. You do not carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. There's only one person who does and it is not you. And it's not any man either. No guy. It is our Lord and Savior. That's it. Right?

So understand that there's this toxicity that's constantly teaching women. You've got to focus on you and everybody. The whole world depends on you and you're responsible for everything and yada, yada, yada.

It is disgusting because what it's causing is, it's causing many women to become incredibly self centered and selfish and that is not good for anybody. Get into right perspective. You are responsible for a lot.

You are busy, you have lots of stuff that you have to take care of. Maybe it's your family, maybe it's a role at work, maybe you're challenged with, I don't know, whatever, get your understanding of where you are in to a realistic version and go after the self care that you need.

But if you're listening to those voices that are saying the world is on your shoulders and the best thing you can do for the world is spend all this time taking care of you and shutting out, you know, family and you know, take your time and push family away and do listen, it's toxicity.

Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Now am I saying all female thought leaders are preaching crap?

That is not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying the, the teaching that is saying be selfish and self centered. Whether you are a woman or a man, a girl or a boy. Get that crap as far away from you as you possibly can.

Self centeredness will destroy you. Selfishness will destroy you. We are teaching our young girl to grow up to be a woman who serves and takes care of people and finds joy in that, but is not sitting there going, hey, everybody, look at me and let me tell you, she is a 99 I.

All my Is out there that are like, now I'm upset at you, Chris. Listen, I'm a 68 I, I think I am. It's not difficult to want people to look at us. Do not be selfish and self centered. Serve, serve, serve. Take care of people.

And you will find you will not deal with near the amount of stress. When you're looking for people to affirm you and tell you that you're great or see the amazing things that you've done, you're dealing with an incredible amount of stress.

All right, so self care isn't selfish. It's necessary for sustained boldness and leadership effectiveness. So, so with that, if you were hearing any negative thing about, you know, taking care of you the proper way, then you're not listening to me.

If you're hearing me say you're only selfish, then you're not listening to me. What I'm saying is make a mental decision. Move away from selfishness and self centeredness and move into serving, taking care, and then taking care of you as well.

What does proper self care for you? Rebalancing, refocusing, reigniting energy. What does all of that look like?

The Action Plan – How to Reclaim Your Energy Today

Number five, the action plan. So how to reclaim your energy today. So we've covered why burnout happens, why boldness matters, why and how to recharge.

Now let's turn that into some action. So I've got three steps that I want you to implement. You can start implementing this right now. First thing is identify your burnout warning signs.

Do you have any? You may not. You might. This might just be a phenomenal teaching for you for the future because you may get there someday.

But some of you probably have some of these signs already. Are you emotionally drained? Are you overwhelmed? Are you avoiding key responsibilities?

Take a look at that list and just ask yourself, where are you? First thing I'm going to tell you to do, look at your nutrition.

If you're like, nope, I am knocking it out of the park. I mean, nothing's coming out of boxes and microwaves and sugar. None of that's happening.

Then I'm going to say, you're moving in the direction of burnout.

And keep in mind as I keep pounding the nutrition piece, understand that that nutrition piece will push you to burnout faster, the way that you feel. Because what you put in your body can drive you to burnout in your life much faster.

Number two, make one, one bold decision this week. Where are you holding back? What conversation? What delegation piece? Proper delegation.

What shift do you need to make this week? Number three, schedule intentional, intentional recharge time. Make sure that you're blocking off personal time.

Make sure that you're setting healthy boundaries. Make sure that you commit to mental, spiritual health habits. I can tell you there's an amazing thing that happens when my wife looks at me and she goes, I need time away with you and nobody else.

I know that my wife is at a point that she needs a recharge and I might not be there. I might be able to, you know, I'm maybe handling things differently, but when I see that, I know that one powerful thing for my wife is the two of us alone for a couple of days.

Couple of days. All right, Four days is what she prefers. If we can go and take four days and it's just the two of us, then my wife comes back a different person.

She comes back completely different because there's a lot of stress and weight that's, that's hanging on her spiritually, emotionally, whatever, at the time. And she just needs to get away with just me.

I'm her person, right? She's my person. We get away. Nobody else. No involvement, no work, no nothing. And when we come back, I may still be the same. Well, actually, I'm not. I'm always considerably better.

But I know my wife is a different person when she comes back. So make sure that you're making small, intentional changes that are going to make a huge impact. And the key is, folks, you can start that today. All right?

I'm going to get to some additional resources that I want you to do. But before I do, folks, I need your help. This will help me immensely. We are working on making our leadership content even better.

And we want to make sure that we're tackling the real challenges that you're facing in your, your business, your leadership. You know, we don't want to just be throwing stuff out there and assuming this is going to help you.

We want to know what you want to experience. So we've created a super quick 5 minute survey to hear from you. This will help me. If, if I'm helping you help me.

I feel like there's a Jerry Maguire moment. Help me help you. So what's stressing you? What leadership advice do you need most? What would truly help you grow so your honest input will shape our content?

Plus, as a thank you, we're giving you exclusive access to a FREE five day leadership challenge, which is usually exclusive for our clients.

So find the survey in the link in the podcast description or go to chrislocurto.com/survey that's chrislocurto.com/survey and let's build something that actually makes a difference to you.

Additional Resources

All right, so back to the resources. Great blog post From Burnout to Balance: How Leaders Can Manage Stress and Recharge. So the good news is again, burnout doesn't have to be the end of the story.

So with intentional steps, you can manage stress, find balance, and and recharge so you can lead your team effectively.

Also, Podcast Episode 131 | 8 Ways to Avoid Burnout, so being aware of your burnout isn't enough. Here are eight ways to avoid it before it makes you crash. Well folks, leadership is a marathon. It's not a sprint.

So if you're feeling worn out, don't accept burnout as your reality. You can reclaim your energy. You can lead with boldness. You can lead with confidence. And things you just need to remember.

Recognize the early warning signs. Choose boldness over retreat. Choose boldness over retreat. Do not retreat.

Build resilience and bounce back faster. Use practical tools to recharge regularly. Take intentional action this week. Well, folks, thank you so much for joining me today.

If this episode was helpful, please share it with a fellow leader or somebody who needs encouragement. And if you want to dive deeper, check out our coaching programs to get the support and strategies to lead with clarity and confidence.

Okay, a lot of information is a long episode, but that's all the time we got for today. Hopefully this has helped you out. I know that if you will implement these strategies, it will help you out.

As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.