If you are a faith-based entrepreneur and your mission is to serve others, then you probably already know how important it is to be functioning at your very best. Because the truth is, you must take care of yourself in order for your business to thrive and ultimately help and serve other people. And the reason why is that if you don’t, you might end up hopping on the train to burnout city and not even realize it.

If you are overwhelmed and you’re not sticking to boundaries, or you’re not taking care of yourself, it will show up in your business one way or another, whether it be right off the bat or later down the road. That said, in order to thrive in your online business and have the most lasting impact on your community and clients, setting boundaries in your business is crucial.

And I’ve found that when you do set these boundaries and you stick with them, even when it’s hard, you set yourself up for increased clarity, productivity, and performance in your life and business. 

That said, I’ve got three boundaries for you to implement in your business this year in order to avoid burnout, miscommunication, and even some resentment toward your business.

Let’s talk about burnout…

Burnout is not a fun place to be. It is very overwhelming. It is very frustrating, and it makes you feel very, very stuck. Especially when you are on a mission called by God and you know you are called by God to do this and you want to do this, but burnout makes you feel like you cannot and it literally keeps you stuck.

It literally feels like you are in quicksand. You’re trying your hardest to get out because you keep doing the things and you have pressure to keep doing the things, but you just keep sinking and sinking further. I say all this because I have gone through my share of burnout time and time again. 

In addition to that, I have also gone through my fair share of feeling resentful towards my business, which actually makes me feel very embarrassed to admit, but there have been times where I have literally resented my business. Even though I have been so blessed and it feels like a gift from God, there have been many times when I just felt this resentfulness and I didn’t really know where it was coming from.

And I definitely repented of that. But I’m saying this to say that if you are feeling burnt out, and if you are feeling any sort of resentfulness towards your business, I really do understand that.

If you are feeling this way, I want you to know that just because you are feeling this way doesn’t mean you aren’t supposed to be on this path. I think that can be really confusing when you are in burnout, and when you are just feeling resentfulness or resistance. I think it can be really confusing because part of you wants to do it and part of you doesn’t want to do it.

That said, just because you’re feeling this way doesn’t mean you’re not meant to move forward. Now, it does mean that something needs to change.

You know something needs to shift, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t meant to pursue the mission that God put on your heart.

It just means maybe it’s time to go about it in a different way. And that is what this blog post is all about… going about it in a different way. 

And for me, I really had to set some hard boundaries so I could go about my business differently. 

That being said, I’m about to walk you through the three boundaries that you can set in your business this year to avoid burnout.

Boundary #1 – Stick to Work Hours

I am serious. It is really important to set some work hours and stick with them. I say this because I think when you work for yourself, it is very easy to let those work hours fluctuate a little too much, or just let them fly by the wayside.

Let’s say a friend just calls you up and they want to go to lunch with you, but it’s during your work hours. What do you do? Do you drop your work hours even though you scheduled it that day, or do you plan another time with them? 

I think there’s a beautiful balance to this.

We get into business so we can have the freedom to dictate our own schedule, but at the same time, if we don’t stick to the schedule that we set for ourselves, then we wind up not having a business. 

So that being said, let’s just say a random friend from out of the blue that you haven’t talked to in years and years and years, and they’re in town just for that one hour. I’m exaggerating a little bit, obviously. But the point is… go ahead and go. As long as you don’t have something like a client call. 

But if it’s a friend that you see pretty often and they’re spontaneously calling you, you could say “Hey, I’m actually working right now. Can we reschedule this or table this for Friday at 3:00 PM?” Just reschedule with them.

I think it’s really, really, really important to set boundaries in that way, not just for yourself, but for other people. You have to take your business seriously first for other people to take your business seriously. 

That being said, my friends and family know when I’m working. My work hours are usually 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM ET  Monday – Friday. Unless I change my work hours, get notice ahead of time or unless there is an emergency, I stick to these hours.

For example, I just had a family emergency recently and I’ve had to shift some things around. But that being said, unless those circumstances present themselves, you’ve got to stick to your guns and it’s very important for you to do so. 

So, how do you do that? It’s really important that if you have a family, or if you have a partner, if you are living with people, you need to  communicate what your work hours are to them.

This is especially important if you have kids too. 

If your kids are old enough, have that conversation with them. Have that conversation and let them know, “Mommy’s gonna work from this time to this time and you can go watch this show from this time to this time.”

I just think it’s really important that when you are establishing your work hours, you are being communicative with the people that you are around the most. Now, in addition to being communicative with your family, your friends, and your loved ones, it’s also very important to communicate this with your clients.

Set the expectations that, “I work from 11-4 Monday – Friday, and you will probably hear from me during those hours. But if you reach out to me outside of those hours, I’m going to get back to you within those work hours.” Let them know so that if you do receive a message from them outside of those hours, you’re not feeling pressure to get back to them right away because you’ve already set the expectation for them.

Setting work hours are super important for you and your business. 

Boundary #2 – Establish Social Media Boundaries

Now, we’re going to move into another boundary that I think is just as important, and that boundary is a very overarching one, but it’s essentially to put boundaries on social media. 

When it comes to social media boundaries, they can really vary from person to person.

Do what works best for you with social media. But I have found that I need to be pretty strict with these boundaries just because my business is on social media. That said, I personally do not like to mix business and personal too much. Since my business is on social media, I have found that I need to let go of social media when I’m not in my work hours.

So, that being said, what I try to do is delete all of the social media apps off of my phone after my work hours are over, and I will redownload them to my phone when my work hours begin again. And this has been so, so wonderful. I talk a lot more about this in episode 49 of this show, and that episode is titled, I Deleted These Apps Off My Phone for Maximum Productivity Focus and Clarity.

If you have not listened to that episode, I highly, highly, highly recommend it. And if I’m being totally honest, I never thought I would do something like this. I’ve always been pro-social media and I still am, but also at the same time, I have really had to put some boundaries there too. 

These boundaries have helped with my mental health, and have helped me get back into my personal life mindset and out of my work mindset.

And if I’m being super transparent with you, separating work and personal time has always been a little bit difficult for me just because I do have an entrepreneurial spirit. I have a business minded brain and I am super creative, so even when I’m not working, I tend to wind up thinking about work just because I’m thinking of all these new ideas, and so on and so forth.

I’ve really had to put some hard boundaries on social media because I already struggle with thinking about work outside of work, so I’ve just needed to totally eliminate any sort of triggers in that way, and social media was a big one for me. 

Boundary #3 Stop Sacrificing Non-Negotiables in Your Personal Life

Do not let your non-negotiables in your personal life fall to the wayside. I think it is very easy to release some of our daily non-negotiables in our personal life in the name of growing a business. I am very aware, and I fully believe that sacrifices do need to be made when you are starting or growing a business.

What I’m saying though is please do not sacrifice your non-negotiables in your personal life for the sake of growing a business. When you do that, you will start feeling resentful towards your business. You will have a ton of resistance. You will experience burnout. You will get overwhelmed. You will feel creatively stifled. You’ll probably experience arguments with your family, or your partner. 

It really just is not good for anyone. 

If you choose to sacrifice what is really the most important to you, you may find yourself heading into burnout before you realize it.

Being fully transparent with you, this is one of the ways that I got myself super burnt out in the past. I was sacrificing a lot of my time with friends, family, going to the gym, eating healthy, and my time with Jesus.

All for the sake of growing my business. 

I basically neglected every other area of my life besides my business, and I paid for it.

I really don’t want you to make that same mistake. 

So, my friend, please make sure that you are spending time with Jesus. Please make sure that you have a date night with your partner. Spend time with your kids, and have fun with them! 

Take care of the things that matter most.

Those things are so important, and really at the end of the day, if you sacrifice those things, you are going to feel resentful towards your business.

No wonder I felt resentful towards my business…

I was sacrificing everything else that I loved for the sake of growing my business.

And it was not worth it. 

I’m just sharing this with you now because I don’t want you to get in the same position that I was in. 

Now again, I’m not saying you’re not going to have to sacrifice ever. You will, but I went to the extreme, and I basically isolated myself from everything else, and I got tunnel vision.

There’s going to be times when sacrificing is necessary, but maybe not in those non-negotiables. Maybe it’s something else like, not watching five hours of Netflix a day like usual and instead only watching two hours of Netflix a day. Maybe instead of just being super spontaneous with friends all the time, you know when you should be working and you actually schedule things in advance and work around those work hours. 

That’s what I mean by sacrificing versus isolating yourself from everything else, and isolating yourself from those non-negotiables. 

There have been so many times that I’ve skipped out on my time with Jesus because I thought that I just needed to get XYZ done for my business. And looking back, I truly believe that was not the right decision for me.

Now that being said, that wraps up the three boundaries that you can set in your business in order to avoid burnout. 

As a recap: boundary number one is to stick to your work hours, boundary number two is to establish social media boundaries and boundary number three is to stop sacrificing your non-negotiables in your personal life.

Next Steps

If you know the Lord has called you to grow a Holy Spirit-like coaching business and you want to do it with these boundaries in place, then I would highly encourage you to get on the waitlist for my signature coaching program, Faith-Fueled Coach Academy aka FCA, because the castle doors are opening up soon.

If you want to check out the program, hear some testimonials, get on the waitlist, and learn all the things, definitely go to www.hannahbrindley.com/fca.