This isn’t sustainable.
I spent 10 months on track to bill 2300 hours once in my career. (And only once.)
It never occurred to me to question how much I was working.
Or to ask for help.
I just thought it was something that had to be done.
My plan was just to keep my head down until things naturally slowed down on their own. Which wasn’t coming anytime soon.
Fortunately, someone intervened.
A partner had taken a look at my hours.
He said something to me that has stuck with me for years.
“This isn’t sustainable.”
When I think about the moment he uttered those words, I can still feel the relief.
He confirmed what I already knew deep down, but I wasn’t at a place in my life where I was willing to trust my own gut. Where I felt able to give myself the permission to do less. Where my self-worth wasn’t tied up in doing the most and being the best.
That was the permission I was waiting for to ask for help with my workload. I had plenty of busy times afterwards - that’s just the life of a litigator - but it was always much more short-lived.
When I reflect back on it, I could have saved myself so much agony by just asking for help in the first place. Or setting some boundaries before I got to a place of needing help.
Giving myself the permission I sought.
I’m not mad at the version of me. I don’t blame her. She didn’t know better.
If that’s you - if you aren’t ready to give yourself permission to acknowledge when something isn’t sustainable, when something isn’t for you, when something isn’t the way you want it…
Let me be that person for you.
Ultimately, you already have permission to choose something different. You are the ONLY person you need permission from.
But I’m happy to give you that permission if you aren’t ready or able to give it to yourself.
If you don’t think the amount you are working is sustainable, it isn’t. Regardless of what your hours look like. It’s not a competition (and the prize for overworking is just more work and burnout). What might be sustainable for you isn’t the same as what might be sustainable for anyone else.
Don’t wait around for someone to notice how much you are working. Don’t assume that because no one has noticed they don’t care or won’t help. Don’t wait around until your body tells you enough is enough.
Make the choice now to do something different.
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A ❤️note to you: If you know your current pace isn’t sustainable, but you don’t know what to do about it or you’re too uncomfortable to ask for help. I hear you. You’ve spent years tying your self worth to how much you do. And years of worrying about what people think about you. Years of sacrificing yourself for others and for some perfect version of you that isn’t attainable. I can help you stop overworking. Send me a DM or sign up for a free call at jenndealcoaching.as.me/consult to learn how.
