Burnout Resistance Tip

I hate being the odd one out. But if you want to not burn out — or if you're already feeling crispy and need to change direction — going against the current might be exactly what's required. Here's the practice that's changed everything for us.

The practice that's changed everything for us

Once a week, my family and I take a full day of rest. We go to church, take naps, take long slow walks, read fiction, draw, play games, talk, and laugh. At the end of the day we gather around a bowl of something delicious and eat together. We do this every single week — and it has been life to our souls.

Rest is not a reward. It is necessary for survival. And it is one of the most powerful antidotes to burnout available to you.

People ask, "How do you actually do that?" I tell them: it's hard. But hard doesn't mean it's not worth it.

How we make it work — practically

1 Prepare

We cook, clean, and run errands before our day of rest. Knowing it's coming motivates us to get creative about finishing things ahead of time.

2 Boundaries

We say no to activities and events that fall on our rest day. We unplug from social media and news as a way of setting mental boundaries around what we let in.

3 Check in

We recalibrate by noticing when a restful activity suddenly becomes a productive one — like reading a book and then realizing you have to finish it. We ask ourselves: "Does this feel like rest?" That question is a reset.

4 Experiment

We modify and eliminate what isn't working. Rest doesn't look the same for every person or every season.

5 Name the withdrawal

Early on, I noticed a nagging "you need to do something productive" voice showing up. That's the withdrawal symptom of busyness — and it will rob you of rest if you let it. I gave myself a new mantra instead: "Rest helps me recharge. I am choosing to rest."

A question to take with you

Knowing that going against the current means not burning out — what is one opposite thing you're willing to commit to this week?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

If the idea of rest sounds good but implementing it has been impossible — that's one of the patterns we address directly in RESET. You'll examine your relationship with rest, what stops you from actually taking it, and how to build recovery into your life in a way that actually sticks.

See if RESET is right for you →

Not tips. Not a list of habits. Real work, alongside real people, that builds lasting change.

Let's Explore Working Together

🕐 30min

Schedule a Conversation

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Carolon Donnally, MSOD, PCC

Burnout Resistance Coach · Trainer · Strategic Organization Consultant

Carolon helps high-achieving leaders and mission-driven organizations do great work without burning themselves or others out. She is a former Head of Leadership Coaching at the IRS, holds an MSOD from Pepperdine University, and is an ICF PCC credentialed coach. Her work is grounded in 20+ years of real-world experience — and her own experience on the other side of burnout.