‘I Won’t Burn Out. I Do What I Love.’

From a conversation: ‘If you carry on like this, you’ll burn out.’

‘Oh no, I won’t. I do what I love.’

There is a lovely confidence in that answer. You have found something that matters to you. You want to spend time with it, develop it, bring more of it into the world. Why would you need protection from something that gives you so much joy?

But loving the work and being able to sustain the way you work are two different things.

The WHO describes burnout in relation to chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.

As a hobby, it may be somewhere you go to replenish yourself. You can experiment, follow your curiosity, put something aside and return when you feel drawn to it. There can still be frustration and creative pressure, of course. But it doesn't have to pay the bills.

When something you love becomes your livelihood, your relationship with it changes.

Firstly, it becomes your workplace. Secondly, the stress of running a business is inevitable.

Now the thing you love needs a structure around it. There are clients needs, prices at correct price point, enquiries to answer, arrangements to make and accounts to keep. You need to explain what you offer, help people understand its value and deliver what you have agreed. You have to make decisions and manage admin, when you would much rather be absorbed in the work itself.

You may love painting. That does not mean you love negotiating a commission. You may love helping people. That does not make growing Instagram effortless. All of this asks something of you.

Then there is the part that can feel particularly exposing.

You have to take what is dearest to your heart and share it with people who don’t know you from Adam.

They have their own experience, preferences and opinions. Some will be interested. Some will disagree with something you consider fundamental. Others will barely notice.

Something you have spent years developing, something that carries meaning and beauty for you, can become a two-second scroll on Instagram for somebody else. That can hurt.

You know what went into it. They have seen a photograph and the first few words of a caption while waiting for the kettle to boil. There is an enormous difference between what you are offering and what they have had the chance, or the inclination, to receive.

Learning to communicate across that difference is part of building a business. So is learning how much of yourself to place in each response.

A post with just a few likes can begin to feel like a judgement not only on your work but also on you. A lack of reply to your email or a declined offer can follow you through beyond bedtime and bring some sleepless nights. When income is uncertain, it becomes harder to leave either alone. You return to the screen, change the wording, make another offer, give a little more.

And because you love what you do, there is always a reason to keep going.

This is where I would want to pause and look at the whole arrangement. How much are you asking yourself to carry? What support does the business have? What happens to you when you stop working for the day?

Practical structure matters here: a workable schedule, clear agreements, attention to money and enough room to rest. And believe me with my business background and MBA I have done plenty of that.

Alongside that, I am interested in your spiritual alignment with yourself as a business person, as well as a balanced flow of energy into the business itself.

You may feel completely at home as a creator or practitioner and much less at home as the person who sets a price, makes an offer or says, ‘This is what I can provide.’

Perhaps receiving money feels uncomfortable when the work comes so naturally to you. Perhaps being visible feels like exposing something you have kept precious and private. Perhaps you have adopted a way of doing business that leaves very little room for the person you actually are.

These are possibilities to explore. Your own experience will tell us where to begin.

In my Soul Alchemy work, I also approach a project as an energetic entity, for which you can have an Avatar or a mascot, that will carry the energy. From my point of view your business needs to be energetically aligned with, you while remaining sovereign. You need to develop a relationship with it, if easier through its Avatar.

This approach invites us to give attention to the project itself: its purpose, what you sense it needs, how you relate to it and what you are asking it to provide for you.

Are you allowing it to develop at a pace you can support? Have you asked it to provide an income while also proving your worth, expressing everything you believe and winning the approval of people who may never become your clients?

That is a great deal to place inside one project.

In a Soul Alchemy Session, we can explore these relationships through conversation and bodily awareness, meditation or a guided journey. We make room for a wider perspective, then consider what it means for the decisions in front of you right now.

You might recognise a boundary you want to set, a way of communicating that feels more truthful, or a different relationship with receiving payment. What emerges is individual. The practical work of building and running the business still needs your attention; spiritual exploration can support how you meet it.

You can love your work deeply and take its demands seriously.

You can give your project a place in the world while also giving yourself a place in the life you are building around it.

If you would like to explore your relationship with your business, and with yourself as the person bringing it into the world, you are welcome to come to a Soul Alchemy Session.

Let’s see what needs your attention.