Fill Up Your Own Cup First

How many times have you put yourself last and depleted your energy?

The act of thinking about other people is an excellent trait to possess, and taking steps to improve their lives is even better. BUT. As you approach exhaustion and burnout, things start to get REAL. If you don’t take time to think about yourself before you commit to others or to something else, you start to feel the consequences. I learned this in my early 20’s in the hardest way possible.

I started my first job at Johns Hopkins University working on oncology clinical trials. If you are familiar with this space you know that it is often fast paced and requires a lot of effort from the team involved. The line between my professional and personal life was blurred, i.e. I had no personal life. I woke up, went to work, worked, went home, worked some more, and never got enough rest. In my head, I was helping other people, so it was justified. At the end of the day, I sacrificed myself for the sake of others and it took years to restore myself back to a place where I wasn’t feeling depleted all the time.

People who have experienced having an empty cup and trying to pour from it into others understand the statement fill your cup first before you pour from it into others. Get in the habit of looking at your cup and seeing what you have to offer from there. This also spills into learning how to say no when you don’t have the reserves to accomplish what is being asked. Don’t say yes because you think that’s what the other person wants to hear. Say yes because you know you can accomplish what’s being asked and still have enough energy to restore yourself at the end of the day.

Burn out and exhaustion is no joke. It can take months to recover from that state and get back to a normal where you feel like you have energy again. I highly recommend finding ways to focus on filling your cup first and moving from there. Here are three ways you can fill your cup:

1. Engage in activities at the end of the day that help you feel restored and rested. Don’t underestimate the power of well-being rituals. Human-beings are not machines. We need to get through periods of rest and restoration to function at an optimal level.
2. Get in the habit of paying attention to your energy levels. If you are feeling exhausted in…