Jessica Hallahan, a public health educator, shares the impact of making small, consistent changes in daily routines on personal and professional growth while tackling burnout. Yvonne and Jessica discuss the symptoms of burnout, the importance of human connection, and strategies for time management, emphasizing the significance of setting boundaries and finding balance.

Guest Bio:

Jessica Hallahan is a public health educator specializing in stress management and burnout. Through her business, Journey to Yourself, she provides individual and corporate training on effective stress management techniques.

Key Points:

- The Physical, Emotional, and Behavioral Symptoms of Burnout (00:13:33)

- Finding Balance and Setting Boundaries as an Entrepreneur (00:20:12)

- Importance of Human Connection and Communication (00:22:35)

- Tips for Building Consistency Through Daily Routines (00:24:24)

- Embracing New Experiences to Foster Growth (00:25:02)

Main Quote:

"Drink the coffee while it's hot."

Guest's Website:

journeytoyourself.net

Welcome to the One Small Change. I am thrilled that you decided

to spend some time with me today, and I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy. And

I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial

experience and passion for discovering growth through the power of

seemingly small changes. And I can't speak, but,

you know, that's how you know it's live. So I'm really happy that you're

joining us. And one of the things that I find is that you sometimes you

learn more from your mistakes than you do from getting it right the

first time. But we are gonna share some of those small changes, which

are not necessarily mistakes, but things that have happened that have

had an unexpected impact on our life and our business.

And this is one of the ways that we can transform and grow in both

our personal and our professional life. And today, I have an

interesting guest for you, Jessica Hallahan.

Jessica, thank you for joining us in my audience,

and I know that you've got something amazing that you're gonna share with us

today. Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be

here. So tell us a little bit about why

you what you do, and tell us the small

change that had an impact in your life and your business. Yeah. Of course. So

my name is Jessica Hallahan, and my business called Journey to Yourself. I am a

public health educator, and I focus on stress management and burnout.

So I do individual train coaching, and I do corporate training.

The small impact that I said actually kinda started

this whole journey was learning how to make time for myself, but in the sense

of doing it every single day. So how do I make that 1 to

5 minutes a day? How do I actually start to implement these habits? So my

story is when I was on this mission to heal myself after burnout,

it was learning how to make time for me, and I didn't know how to

do it because I thought I was doing it by going to the gym and

meal prepping and doing those kind of things. I did the traveling. I, you know,

did it. Traveled a lot of places, but I wasn't showing up for myself every

day. So I had to learn how to even do that into a busy

schedule. So when I learned how to go, I'm just gonna read 2 pages a

day. I'm going to drink the coffee while it's hot. I'm going to just

write one sentence in my journal. Those are the things

that I know impact my my life to get me on the journey where I

end today. But, also, when I'm trying to think about

that to do list for my business, it's that, okay. What is the

one thing I can do and just take in everything in that bite sized

pieces? Well, first the first thing I wanna say is

I think I'm totally amazed by the fact that you said 5

minutes. Yes. Because I think so often,

we take a look at this and think, I have to set aside. I

mean, I know I'm one of these people that believes in the power hour or

doing the first thing first thing in the morning and stuff. And I

tend to look at it, as a bigger chunk of time.

So, you know, I'm I'm really happy to

know that there are things that I can do,

not only in just 5 minutes, but throughout the day. It doesn't have to

just be at the beginning. So what do

you think happens to

us when we do that? I mean, what's the

shift that that, you know, that that makes it be, like, a bigger shift

when we do that? Yeah. Of course. So what I would say, you

can read all the books. You can do every program. The The only thing you're

ever going to see that's in all the different programs and all the different books

is consistency. So when you do the small things and make that

foundation, you're building consistency, and that's where you're gonna see change. Right?

Because life is always moving. Life is always gonna have these ups and downs. Life

is always gonna throw something at you. So if I have a small foundation

where I can go back to, okay. It's just 2 pages of reading.

It's just one sentence. It's only 1 to 2 minutes drinking the coffee

while it's hot. That's my foundation. Now like you said, there's that power

hour. I can work up to that, and that's super awesome. But then when life

hits me, I start to take off the whole hour instead of just going, well,

let me just go back to 5 minutes. I've now created a foundation and a

consistency in my life, which then goes to boundaries, which

then teaches me how to communicate, which then right? So then you just it

starts to build on changes throughout my life. Well, there are a couple things

that you said there that that I really like, that I truly believe.

One is, you know, we're in a we've always

been in a situation where we're juggling. It's a juggling act.

But right now, the, you know, the more we're into the informational age,

the faster things are changing. So I always say, you know, the only

constant is change. And I think,

it's really important that people have variety

and different things that they can pick from. Like, I, you

know, I go back. A lot of my good habits come

from when I was trying to lose weight that I really and it wasn't it

it was about losing weight, but it was kind of more about learning how

I operated. You know, what worked for me. And

so, I had someone who said, you know, that

you should have 4 different kinds of exercise that

you do. You know, one was, like, competitive, one

was social, one was kind of like your relaxation or your

zen, and I can never remember the 4th one. But but but

swimming for me was like my zen. It was like no

phones. It was, you know, the repetition. It was like,

I could just my brain could just relax. Right? And,

you know, I'm competitive with myself. I mean, I don't play

on sports teams, but I you know, when I would say I wanted to have

a certain number of steps, I would find myself at the end of the day

walking in place. So I

you know? And so give give me the reason I'm saying this is because I

think if we had a better idea of the the ways we

could do the 5 minutes I mean, one of the things that that comes to

me is just doing some breathing.

You know, just taking time to go.

Got a dog, guys. Yeah. It's okay. I got one too.

I actually have 2. So give us some ideas of

some smaller things that we could do in 5 minutes.

Yeah. Of course. So I like what your coach or your method was when you're

losing weight because you have to have as many things in the toolbox because I

think to your point is that there's gonna be I'm gonna have different modes. I'm

gonna have different moods. I'm gonna have different time restraints. So how many things can

I add in that toolbox so it's still showing up every day, but to

but meeting myself where I'm at? So what I started with was

Lily's sitting outside with a cup of coffee, and my my saying is drink the

coffee while it's hot. So just sit in there. Right? So maybe to your point,

it's just breathing. But I think sometimes when we think about

breathing and sitting there, we think about meditation. And as much as I love meditation,

I think it's an amazing tool. When you're first starting out, it can be seem

overwhelming, and I don't want people to get scared of it. So I say, just

sit outside with a cup of coffee. Bring it till it's cold, and then come

back inside. And to your point, even if it's just gooing a couple of breaths,

reading just the 2 pages. Right? And sometimes we go, let me read a whole

chapter, 3 chapters tonight. Just 2 pages. If you wanna keep

going, great. But if you can't, that's fine too. Then that's,

one sentence in the journal. Just one sentence. Sometimes we wanna figure out the whole

problem, process the whole feeling, but right now, we just need to kinda get something

out of our brain. So just the one sentence.

Going for a walk. Drinking the water. Right? So just find

the little things to do throughout the day. And then,

one I like to tell people too is when you're in the shower, like, giving

yourself a good hug. You always have to go to the shower. Right? So just

giving yourself a hug when you're in the shower. It's it's less than 2 minutes

sometimes, but just giving yourself that time to kinda embrace yourself. But,

yeah, just finding the small things. Well, I think and I think the other

thing is, and I'm sure you know about stacking, you know, where you put

one habit with another habit. So if you've got something, you know,

that's gonna stress you out, if you

can, you know, put something that's gonna relax you with it either before or

after whenever you need it. Like, I used to, when I was

doing I had to speak. No. It would be

like, you know I always tell people that if you're not a little bit nervous

when you're speaking, it mean for me, it means I don't care. You

know? So I wanna have a little bit of edge to me, but I also,

you know, wanna make sure that I I have a message. And so,

that's probably the time that I do a little tapping. And and,

basically, what I say is I I want you know,

let me let me provide value. Let me provide value. It's you

know? And it, you know, it takes me, like, 2 minutes, and it kinda just

focuses me for what I'm gonna do. And, And, you know, I still

feel energetic and, you know, to give it. And and I

think the other thing is, talk

about I think this is important. Talk about

say you say you set a goal for yourself that you're gonna read 2 pages,

but you don't get 2 pages done. You get a page done. Talk

about how we how we punish ourselves or you know?

Yeah. So stacking is so stacking is super great.

So only because you mentioned I wanna bring it up too. So stacking is super

great too. But what I was talking about too is just creating that foundation so

that you can begin stacking. Right? So kind of going back to that power hour.

These are all great things, but where do you start? And then to your point,

if I know that I get nervous speaking, doing a presentation

for work, you know, whatever the case may be, end of the quarters, you know,

things I have to hand in, whatever that case may be. What am I implementing

then? And that's where that all those tools come from. Right? So which tool does

work for me? So going back to what you're just saying too, I said

something where it's like, okay. It's just 2 pages, and I only read a page

and a half. Well, there has to be that common awareness where

why did I only get 2 pages? Is it because my kid came in and

said, hey, mom. I want I need your attention, and then I didn't get back

to it? Makes sense. Is it because I fell asleep and I

was tired? Is it because I end up having a good conversation with my husband?

Is it so I think you have to start with why did I not

get to the 2 pages and starting from there because it's not

we tend to, like, look back on it. Oh, why didn't I read 2 pages?

I'm a failure. But in reality, you might have been doing something that was still

really good for you. Having a conversation with the kid, having a conversation with your

husband, falling asleep. Right? These are all still things that are

really good for you. So asking yourself what happened when

and that interrupted my 2 pages and starting from there. Now

if it's because maybe my brain is racing and I just can't pay attention to

the book and I think the book is stupid so, again, maybe that book isn't

for what you wanna read right now. Maybe that's not the good stress relief right

now, and maybe I have to focus on a different goal. Or maybe I go

down to the one page. Meeting myself where I'm at, again, if

I'm still showing up every day, one page every day

is still better than no pages every day. Mhmm. Exactly. Exactly.

And and I think the other thing

is that's kinda that's that's kind of the beginning.

What I find with my clients is

either they're at the point of burnout or they're so wound up

that they can't slow down. Yeah. You know? I

I I have a thing called steps, and it's the first thing

is to stop. Just stop what you're doing. Right?

Think about what's important, evaluate what's going

on, and then proceed proactively knowing it's

never gonna be a 100% right. And then the

success that you were you were able to get, celebrate that. Right?

So if you what let's start with why you

wanna avoid burnout. I mean, I think that's and I think that

as an entrepreneur, I think sometimes we think of burnout as being a

just a corporate thing. But entrepreneurs can have it

too, particularly because, you know, we're so focused on

what we're doing and we're, you know, we're so driven.

Yeah. So the crazy thing about burnout is it can happen to anybody.

So that's what was one of the reasons why I started my business in the

first place is because I got hospitalized because I was burnout. I didn't

have kids. I didn't have my own business. I was a college student. Right? And

so I got hospitalized because of burnout. And so that was where my

mission started up. Well, if I can, then anybody

can. Right? And it's that sense of, like, I didn't have the big important

things like feeding a family or running a business.

Right? And so it's a lot of that mindset piece of what I'm doing, but

also to your point where we're talking about a little bit earlier with the setting

these boundaries. How am I stopping? How am I setting priorities in my life? So

to your point of why do we wanna avoid burnout? Because it's not an

accomplishment, 1. 2, anybody can have it. So how am I

creating that awareness so I can avoid burn burnout and see those

signs? Right? So when I'm doing this 1 to 5 minutes a day and I

find those recent thoughts, I find that I'm not concentrating, I find that I'm not

happy, I find that I'm tired, I'm crying, whatever your symptom is

that day. Right? I have that awareness, but I'm

also giving myself time to have a little bit of process. So if I'm giving

myself that 1 to 5 minutes every day, I'm releasing

some of that. Right? I might not be solving the problem, but I'm releasing some

of that. Alright. So can I because I

wanna go back to I don't think we recognize

the symptoms of burnout? So you just did a few of those, I think.

So can you talk can you do that again? Yeah. I think

that I just remember once going to the doctor and he said, do you

have anxiety? And I was like, no. And then I said

and then I was like, well, what is anxiety? Because you wake up in the

middle of the night, you can't go back to sleep. I'm like, yeah. I got

anxiety. So so

let's let's start with because we may not

I I think some of our listeners, you know, because we've always been ambitious

and driven, we may not actually know

what the symptoms are and how they show up. I mean Oh,

yeah. So So that's talk about that a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Of

course. So this is the thing. We have a idea of how we

react to stress. So your first response is physical. So you have this physical touch,

which is your stomach, the migraines, the headaches. My favorite is

an eye twitch. Right? You have eczema, psoriasis,

hair falling out. Those are typically your first signs. Physical is your first

sign. But because we're so busy, we ignore it. Right? Oh, I

always have a migraine. Oh, my stomach always flips. Oh, I always have gut problems.

So we ignore it. Then we get those emotional signs. Like, you're

mentioning, I have that anxiety. I have that depression. I have that isolation. I feel

overwhelmed. I feel angry, frustrated, irritable. My ones where it's

like someone's clipping the the, what's it called? The pen. And you're like,

oh my god. Stop clipping. Stop chewing like that. There's irritability.

Right? Hence the behavior. Amazon shopping, the

mindless scrolling, right, the eating, the cravings,

the right? All these things, you're going to have

stress. And I wanna emphasize this because you're going to have stress. You're gonna have

these reactions is when these tend to take over life and these

become consistent, like you mentioned the sleeping. Right? So if

I'm consistently not sleeping, I'm consistently waking up in the middle of the night, and

this is going on for a period of time, you are now in burnout.

And that's where we tend to go, oh, well, I have to live this

way because I have to pay the bills, and I have to have a kid.

I have and we start to make excuses for this lifestyle, for me

being sick, for me having highs, for me having eczema, for me losing my hair,

for for me being irritable. We make excuses and then don't

realize that eventually, we're going something's gonna

happen. Something's gonna break. Eventually, something gives. Right? And so to

my story earlier is that I was 24 years old, hospitalized

from a head to toe in, like, wolf size hives, and I was

diagnosed with mono. And I kept giving myself mono. So they called it chronic

mono, but it's burnout. Right? I kept giving myself getting myself sick because you lower

your immune system. Something eventually is going to give.

So understanding your your own symptoms and then understanding

how long you've had those symptoms. So,

you know, one of the things that I I wanna point out that I think

is really important is

we have coping mechanisms, and

we tend to swap them. Do you

know? And I have to say that my

coping mechanism at the moment is Timu,

which is taking me down the I I think I've worked it out, you know.

But, you know, it's like, you know, I never realized

that, you know, I I

am a I I still am a compulsive overeater, but it is

controlled. And then I went from being a

compulsive overeater to being a compulsive shopper.

And typically typically, the good news is that I shop I

buy cheap things. So it hasn't made me bankrupt. So that's why our

team team move became, like, the perfect thing.

But we we substitute those things, and I think that,

it is so important to recognize

that sometimes our obsessions

even though there are things that we're really good at and can be

really beneficial I'm not saying shopping is all that beneficial. But let's

say for instance, you know, the person that overexercises,

right, to the point that it no longer is beneficial. That it's really,

you know, important for us to recognize that you can take something that's

good to an extreme. And it Oh, for sure.

And it no longer really, really serves you. And, I think

that's the other reason that I think having a variety of coping mechanisms

so that you don't get so, you know, into one that, you know,

the other. Alright. So enough, enough

about that. I think the other thing, you know, the the

big thing that I was gonna say is I think it's important to have variety.

So I I just remembered again when I was losing weight, one of the things

was like, well, I'm gonna walk, you know. But then when it

rained, I didn't have a indoor exercise that I could

do to take the place of that. And so I think having a you know,

you use one of my favorite phrases, tools in your toolbox.

And this is actually going to a point, I think. And I think one

of the points is one of the toolbox that I think a

lot of us, especially entrepreneurs, are

incredibly deficient in is human contact.

We've gotten so isolated. I mean, I remember I

I, you know, I I was having a call with somebody, and they were like,

well, did you do that? I said, you know, I just need a

friend. I just need I just need some I don't

wanna I don't wanna critique on, you know, my business. I don't want any

helpful hints. I just wanna talk to somebody like another human

being. Do you know? And I think that

that's something that we don't often think about. And so I

often say to people, if you need somebody that you just want somebody

to listen and you don't wanna be critiqued

and you, you know, you know, sometimes I find that when, you

know, we're sick or somebody in our family is sick, we don't wanna talk to

them about it because we don't wanna worry them. You just need an outside ear.

And I think can you talk a little bit about how that

human contact can be golden? Oh my

goodness. Yeah. And I think this only because you've mentioned overdoing stuff.

So speed as an entrepreneur. Right? You go you have

opposites. The person that doesn't go out that's stuck behind the computer, and then you

have the person that's always out. Right? So I thought there's a I was always

taught to find that balance, and that's hard to do because there's always some type

of networking meeting. And as an entrepreneur, you're doing all the

pieces. Right? You are the admin. You're the billing. You're the social media person. You're

the where you are all the people. So trying to find that balance is

super overwhelming. So I think there's a couple pieces to this. 1, I like

someone taught me this phrase, and I always keep it with me. There's only one

letter separating from networking to no working. So

just keeping that in mind. Right? So there's that balance, like,

you're talking about earlier, not just focusing on on one avenue.

And then the other piece, there's a couple of pieces that why entrepreneurs got lonely.

1, entrepreneurs typically don't have a partner that's on as

another entrepreneur. Right? So, like, for example, my husband, he is a former carpenter.

Right? He goes to work. He comes home. He goes to work. He comes home.

That balance of understanding that there's gonna be some nights I'm sitting with my laptop

because I couldn't I was out networking that day. I was out presenting that day.

So there's gonna be times where I have to put the admin hat on when

I'm with him. But there's also I have to find that balance so I'm not

always doing that. Right? So it's trying to find that balance. So there's that

human connection where you need to be with other people. So there is days

where, yes, I can sit with him on the computer, sit with him on the

couch with my computer, and that's okay. But where is that

balance? Right? So there's finding that balance, but there's a big piece with the human

connection is that communication piece. So when I'm talking to him and

saying this is what I need and want, this is the support I

need. This I need to go laugh. I need to go move because I've been

sitting in my desk. My my body is stiff. I need to be out of

the house. Right? I need or it's been a long back to back day

where it's either networking meetings or, you know, client meetings, and

so I don't wanna have conversations. And so but I just wanna sit with him

and watch our wheel of fortune together. Right? And so it's figuring out that, quote,

unquote, balance, but a lot of that does start with that communication

piece of saying, this is what I need, this kind of support I need. But

to have that, it goes back to having that consistency in my life knowing

and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm allowed to be tired and frustrated and still

go watch Wheel of Fortune with him. Right? There's finding that balance and

having that human connection because just being in the same room means

something. But then there's days I'm like, let's go out or let's have a

date night inside. Let's play a board game. Right? And so but it's

figuring out what I need kinda like you were saying earlier. Different tools and

toolbox. It's different tools and toolbox. So what do I need for that human connection?

I would just say I would just say as someone who's been married over 50

years, probably the best lesson I ever learned is

your partner is not a mind reader. As much as you would think that

they are, they are not. And it's really unfair of you

to to to think that. And so, you

know, sometimes I think my husband thinks I'm nuts because I'll go, what's on

your agenda today? Would you rather that I spend time with you? I

have some time that I can spend and have lunch with you this afternoon,

or I can, you know, keep working and be done

earlier and spend time in the evening. Which would you prefer? You know?

Yeah. Baseball game is this evening. Let's do something at lunchtime. And

it just made life so much simpler just because I'll be like, I'm finishing.

I'm finishing. I'm getting he's like, I'm gonna watch the baseball game. I'm like

no. So so alright. So, unfortunately, we are

our time is almost up. So can you tell

us, like, just real fast, like, just a couple of things

that you think are, like, really good starting points?

Yeah. Of course. I don't care if it's a morning routine, a lunch

routine, or a night routine. Find one thing for you to do every single day.

Don't care what it is. Find one point in time of day that makes the

most sense for you. So if you're not a morning person, do not force yourself

to get up right away. Find one thing to create that foundation, and then start

there. So finding some a time of the day that makes the most sense for

you today, start there. 1 to 5 minutes, making it a 1 to 5

minute habit. Do that for a couple weeks, and then add on to it.

So maybe the first couple weeks, it's coffee. Next couple weeks, it's 1 page. Next

couple weeks, it's such a where you add on to that. It goes back to

that stacking mindset. Right? So just slowly add it on to it because remember your

base is the foundation. That's what we wanna focus on, creating foundations. Not that

you can't handle 6 more habits in the morning. It doesn't make you weak

or anything like that. It's just creating a foundation because life is always going

to happen. So how do we create that foundation? So that you've got

consistency. And that's the other thing in business too. It's Yeah.

You decide that that consistency, that regularity.

Alright. Here's the question. Okay. Let's hear it. When was the last

time you did something new for the first time?

I think oh, don't quote me. This first thing came to my brain. I might

be wrong, though. January, I went cliff jumping.

Oh my god.

You that is fabulous. That is fab I'm always surprised at what people

say to me. You know? That is a fabulous thing. Jessica,

thank you so much for spending time with us. This has been

really helpful, and I know that burnout

is something that entrepreneurs have and are not necessarily

aware of it. And so I think it's really important to take a

look at that. So, guys, we have to bring this to an end.

Oh, I didn't you know, what I didn't do is ask you what your your

freebie is. It's gonna be in the notes. Oh, the freebie. So speaking

of boundaries, consistency, time, all that fun stuff, I am giving you my free

time management guide. Okay. So who doesn't need

that? Because we all only have 24

hours. It's just a matter of what you do in it and how to prioritize

that. Oh, yeah. So guys, bringing this to an end, you know, I want

you to be sure that you subscribe, that you share,

you know, wherever you do your social media and take a look. And, you know,

the more people that that look at this, the more vibrant the community becomes.

And I wanna make sure that you join us for one small change again.

And I have been really lucky to have some really

interesting people come and share things that are definitely

going to help you. They're gonna help you to,

you know, dive into a world and have a bolder vision and more

innovative possibilities. Jessica, give us your last words.

Oh, last words. Drink the coffee while it's hot. Drink the coffee while it's

hot. I love that. I'm a coffee drinker, and I I it does make a

difference whether you drink it when it's hot or not. Okay.

So my last thing is always is remember that change is simple, but it's not

always easy. And it requires courage, resilience, and a

willingness to stop and step outside your your comfort

zone. And so I hope you will join me again next week when we

embark on this journey again, and I will have another

amazing guest for you. Until then, stay curious

and don't be judgmental. Bye.