5 Reminders When You Experience Self-Improvement Burnout

We are fortunate enough to live in a time of elevated awareness and advanced communication platforms that allow many to express their personal and professional wisdom. For those of us who have a thirst for knowledge and are dedicated to optimizing our human potential, we can feel like a kid in a candy store, wanting to get our hands on everything we see — there is just so much valuable wisdom out there.

At the same time, this can become a rather addicting process, jumping from one personal development program to another, or weaving in and out of communities, constantly searching for the next thing to better ourselves. After a while, the opposite effects can take place, a sense of incompletion and never being good enough. This is when a long break or what I call an integration period is needed — an important step we often skip when we are super pumped about becoming the best version of ourselves.

If you are experiencing fatigue or burnout from serial self-improvement, here are 5 reminders you could benefit from:

1. You are already whole and complete

As ironic as this statement can sound — how can one be whole and complete when there is so much to “improve” upon — this is a true statement in a sense that we are each whole and complete in any given moment. Our desire to learn and better ourselves is a choice to explore our optimum potential and evolve ourselves for the better. Evolution is always a work in progress, yet, any living being in any phase of their evolutionary process is already whole and complete by design regardless of where they are. Humans are no exception.

Knowing we are whole and complete takes us out of the mentality of not being good enough when pursuing self-improvement, and puts us in the mindset of empowerment instead. This way, we are on a journey of discovery rather than a search for something we don’t have. This is a self-love exercise to remind ourselves of self-acceptance and compassion every single day.

2. Don’t compare your progress with others

Being inspired by other successful individuals is our natural tendency. We might also look to our peers who started out in a similar place and see that things are going great for them. Sometimes inspiration can turn into competitiveness or impatience, because we feel we need to catch up. A quote by Tom Hiller comes to mind that says: “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle, or your middle to someone else’s end. Don’t compare the start of your second quarter of life to someone else’s third quarter.”

Your timeline is your own and it will be different than anyone else’s. Rushing to get ahead when it is not the right time will most likely delay your progress. You are exactly where you are supposed to be at this point in time and there is no need to rush to get to the next point. Be patient and wait for the next wave of opportunities to come your way.

3. It’s okay to be a hermit sometimes

Personal development can be intense (and often should be), if you take it seriously and dive deeply into it. It can dig up many unprocessed traumas and emotions from the past, as well as open us up to a whole new perspective on how to look at life from now on. During that process, we can go through a death and rebirth experience, letting go of the past and staring directly into our unknown self — a daunting realization. We need to take some time to think about what that means to many aspects of self, and that is more or less a solitary process, done in quiet stillness. 

If you have been learning nonstop for some time and are feeling overwhelmed by all the new information you have absorbed, then you might feel the need to go into “hiding” for a while, and that is okay, and necessary. Trust what your mind-body and emotional-body is telling you and give yourself the time to slow down. Relax into and love this quiet time rather than see it as a defeat or punishment. Instead, see it as a resting and rejuvenation period after some hard internal work you’ve just done.

4. A single life lesson goes a long way

When we are on a self-improvement roll we can become so motivated that we charge toward anything that can give us a new tool or perspective on how to manage life. Reality is, a program or class does not replace any real-life experience, nor can they prevent painful life lessons. 

When we study and gain insights from a class, that lesson doesn’t stick with us unless we incorporate and practice it in daily life. A class lesson can only turn into a valuable life lesson when we live it.

Before the age of internet and online learning, people learned few life lessons in their entire lifetime. Yet, they were still able to become incredibly successful human beings because they allowed those particular life lessons to sink in and shape who they are. The downside of having an abundant amount of information at our fingertips is that we don’t always allow ourselves the time to process and integrate any information we have acquired.

This becomes an important reminder to actually benefit from the lessons we learn instead of being confused or overwhelmed by them — sometimes a single lesson takes a lifetime to learn.

5. Celebrate your progress regularly

To me, progress looks like positive changes in anything ranging from personal appearance, daily habits, how you handle situations, to overall outlook toward life. A change in one thing is never isolated from another; they are all interconnected. The decision you’ve made in eating healthier will affect your energy level and daily moods, your energy level and moods will affect your attitude and how you handle situations, etc.

When you notice positive shifts in your life, whether it's internal or external (remember, a positive shift in energy will also affect the relationships you attract), it is time to celebrate! There is no need to throw a party for every shift you’ve noticed — it could be as simple as telling a friend about what you’ve noticed or treating yourself to a nice massage. Anything that acknowledges the work you’ve done and encourages you to keep going.

This isn’t about planning activities for self-reward. It is, in a way, keeping a manifestation journal to show yourself that you not only can create the changes you want to see, that you ARE actually doing it.

Though our self-improvement journey is unique to our own, we each go through a similar process as human beings. As we go through changes in life and become the person we know we can be, our body needs nourishment, our mind needs clarity, and our emotions need serenity. We need to feed each with the type of nutrients it needs, and sometimes, all it takes is a few reminders and a little time to ourselves.