When Business Doesn’t Fit Your Life Anymore

If you’ve ever found yourself completely burnt out by business advice that feels like it’s made for someone with way more time, energy, or support than you… you’re not alone. And you’re not doing it wrong.

The truth is, a lot of what’s out there assumes we’re all operating under the same conditions. That we all have consistent capacity, regulated nervous systems, perfect childcare, and the mental space to hustle 24/7.

But what happens when you don’t?

What happens when your life is more complex, more demanding, or more unpredictable—and your business just doesn’t fit anymore?

That’s exactly where I found myself a few years ago.

Life Changed. My Business Didn’t.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost a decade now. For the first few years, I was steadily growing my business and figuring things out as I went. But everything changed when I became a mum to twin boys, and our family life brought new challenges I couldn’t have planned for.

Suddenly, the way I’d been running my business—relying on sheer willpower, staying up late to “catch up,” pushing through stress—wasn’t just unsustainable. It was wrecking me.

I couldn’t keep going like that.

So I stopped and asked: What if the way I’m working isn’t the problem? What if the system I’m trying to operate in is broken?

That’s what led me to start digging deeper into how our nervous systems affect the way we run our businesses—how we show up, how we make decisions, and how navigate challenges.

And what I found changed everything.

The Burnout Loop (and Why It’s Not Just in Your Head)

Burnout isn’t a mindset issue. It’s not just about needing a better routine or taking the occasional day off.

It’s about your nervous system being in a constant state of stress—fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. And when you’re living in that space for too long, your capacity tanks. You lose clarity. You overwork and under-earn. You feel like you’re failing, even when you’re trying your absolute best.

Sound familiar?

This isn’t a personal failing. It’s your body doing exactly what it was designed to do: keep you safe. But that survival state makes it almost impossible to make grounded, strategic, sustainable decisions in your business.

And if you keep trying to force yourself into someone else’s strategy—one that doesn’t take into account your actual life, health, and capacity—you’ll keep hitting the same wall.

So Where Do You Start?

The shift begins when you stop asking, “How much can I get done today?” and start asking, “What’s the next small win that moves me forward—without burning me out?”

Here’s one quick exercise I teach my clients (and use myself, all the time):

Nervous System Check-In:

1. Pause. Right now, wherever you’re reading this—just stop for a second.
   
   
2. Notice. What’s happening in your body? Tight jaw? Racing thoughts? Shoulders up to your ears?
   
   
3. Breathe. Take three slow, deep breaths. The kind that drop your shoulders and soften your belly.
   
   
4. Ask yourself: What would feel like a small, doable win today?
   
   

It doesn’t have to be dramatic. Maybe it’s sending one email. Or taking a proper lunch break. Or deciding not to post on social media just because you feel like you “should.”

These are nervous system-friendly decisions. And they add up.

A Different Kind of Business

This is what I teach through The Living Business Project: building a business that works with you, not against you. A business that flexes around your life instead of asking you to pretend you don’t have one.

If you’re juggling parenting, health challenges, burnout, financial pressure, or just a general sense that this whole business thing shouldn’t feel so awful—there is another way.

We’ll go deeper into that in future articles (and podcast episodes), exploring things like:

• How to build momentum when you have no time or energy
  
  
• How to stop tying your worth to your output
  
  
• How to make strategy work for your capacity, not against it
  
  
• How to regulate your nervous system and run your business
  
  
• And how to build something sustainable—even when life is messy
  
  

But for now, just start by checking in with your body. Let that be your starting point.

Your business doesn’t have to be built on self-sacrifice. You’re allowed to do this differently.

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Want more?

Here’s where you can start getting support right now:

• Free Quarterly Goal-Getting Workshop – Neuroscience-backed support to help you plan in a way that actually works with your nervous system (and real life).
  
  
• Free Anti-Algorithm Visibility Workshop – Get seen without selling your soul to social media. There’s a better way.
  
  
• Living Business Intensives – Hands-on support to help you shift how you work, how you earn, and how you feel doing it.
  
  
• Come connect with me on Instagram – My DMs are always open.
  
  

 

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