How to Set Realistic Goals to Avoid Burnout for Yourself and Your Team

People experience burnout when they are constantly overwhelmed with details, tasks, or emotional issues. This can cause them to be emotionally exhausted and stressed out with their workload or life responsibilities. To avoid that, one of the things we can do is reevaluate work goals and life priorities.

It is great to have big dreams and ambitions, but we also must set realistic goals. Achieving a series of smaller milestones can help us stay optimistic, feel more fulfilled, and avoid burnout.

Think about life as a long road trip. When we go on a long drive, you need to stop to rest, eat, and walk around. If you are like me, you also travel with dogs. They need time to stop and recharge as well. We all need stopovers in  life to recharge and rethink your path.  Sometimes we need to reevaluate the goals because they are impacting others around us in ways we may not recognize. So, we need to be aware of our situation as well as how we are affecting others.

Set Realistic Goals

The big question is, how do you set realistic goals to prevent burnout and achieve a healthier work-life balance?

Here are six actionable tips to help:

1. Understand and Respect Your Limits

I make my own travel arrangements because that way, if I am flying all night, or connections are tight, I have no one to blame but myself. I also tend to overbook my own schedule. I forget that I need time to sleep.

Look at your current work and personal life responsibilities and accept that you have limits. You cannot say yes to everything, so you must set boundaries. This self-awareness and setting your boundaries can help you set realistic expectations for yourself and avoid going overboard with your personal limits.

When you overextend yourself, it can lead to burnout, so it is important to assess yourself and be aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and personal capacity.

Accept that you cannot do everything and be happy knowing that you cannot. Respect your limits and be kind to yourself.

2. Break Down Big Goals into Manageable Tasks

Big, complex goals can become overwhelming, especially if you do not make considerable progress or face unforeseen setbacks. Break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks, which will help you realize that you are still making progress, no matter how slowly.

Many young people today claim that home-buying is not possible for them. “Why not?” I asked.
“It is too difficult and too expensive.” they answered.

People have been buying homes for a long time. Maybe it is not as impossible as it seems.
At this writing, the average home price in America is $407,100. If this is your first home or condominium, you will likely spend less. Let us say 25% less. That is $305,325. Assuming you use 20% as the basis for a down payment, ($61,065, and yes, that is a lot of money and I have strategies on how to come up with a down payment in other articles, and no, it does not involve selling your kidney) that is a mortgage amount of $244,260.

Experts claim that your housing costs should only be 28% of your income. The median household income in the US as of this writing in 2024 is about $75,000.
Take 28% of $75,000 and that gives you $21,000. Divide by twelve and that means a monthly payment of $1,750.

A 7% mortgage rate on a mortgage of $244,260 means a monthly payment (before utilities and taxes) of about $1,600 per month. Tough, yes. Impossible, no.

Some of my young friends say their goal is to buy a home, so when setting goals, I suggest they break it down into the following steps:

• Find stable employment that provides the income you need for a down payment and for the monthly payments to buy a home.
• Build and maintain a good credit score.
• Save for a down payment by taking the difference between what you are paying now for rent (remember, you can always rent more home than you can buy in the first few years) and what a realistic mortgage payment would be and save the difference in your down payment account.
• Create a budget and stick to it – if you need an easy and free household budget, go to www.ProductiveLeaders.com/free-resources.
• Get pre-approved for a mortgage loan.
• Set a time frame to achieve the desired amount for your deposit and when your pre-approved loan may be ready or expire.

All these milestones can lead to your ultimate goal of buying your home.

3. Identify the Resources You Need to Achieve Your Goals

Part of getting overwhelmed with life or work is not having the resources to achieve your goals. Worse, sometimes you do not even know what you need to achieve them. After setting goals, you must identify the resources that will help you achieve them. That makes your goals realistic.

Think about the money, time, training, self-development, or any help that you need. Then plan on how you can acquire these resources.

Once you know, you will be properly equipped to go forward. You will also feel more confident about being able to tackle your work and life priorities.

4. Use the Pareto Principle – The 80/20 Rule

You can use the Pareto principle when identifying your priorities. This 80/20 principle means that you can focus on the 20% of tasks that can yield 80% of the results.

When setting your priorities, investigate the smaller and more manageable tasks that will give you the most impact. It helps you avoid burnout because you can maximize your productivity and reduce stress.

5. Prepare for Flexibility

When things do not go according to your plans and expectations, do not assume the worst. You must be flexible and adaptable along the way as you work on your goals.

Accept that failure is part of the process and that you will face several challenges and setbacks. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, be willing to make changes to your plans and take a new route when necessary.

6. Keep Track of Your Progress and Reflect

When you have identified your goals and the milestones you want to hit, make sure that you spend time monitoring your progress. Reflect on your tasks, see where you can improve, and revise your plans, as necessary.

Remember to celebrate your small wins and reward yourself. Giving yourself credit where credit is due can help you feel more positive and avoid burnout.

Everyone faces challenges and setbacks. Setting realistic goals can help you prevent that from happening.

Take time to reevaluate your priorities, set more realistic goals, take smaller and achievable steps, and you will be more productive but less stressed and overwhelmed.