In this episode, Leah discusses decision making, decision fatigue, and frameworks to lessen the toll of decisions.

In life, there are many opportunities and decisions that arise, and it can help to have “unshakeable unbreakables” or frameworks based on personal rules, values, and priorities. These frameworks can help protect you from decision fatigue, over giving and depleting your energy, and keep you oriented towards the things you want in life.

With some decisions, having personal rules makes the decision for you before you face a question, which can help take the pressure off in the moment. Taking your priorities and values to make a framework can look like personal rules, time blocking, and personal purpose statements. Time blocking helps to balance life and work, allowing for focus on specific commitments in their dedicated time block.

With personal purpose statements or personal constitutions, you can compare opportunities to what your purpose is and see how it aligns with your values and priorities and how they fit into what you want in your life. In Leah’s Burnout Buster Blueprint, she works with others to create their personal constitutions. Having your own personal purpose statement or constitution helps take the pressure off when opportunities and decisions arise, protecting you from decision fatigue and pressured yeses. You can compare opportunities to this framework and ask questions like “will this help with what I want in life or will it pull me away from where I want to go” or “does this align with my priorities?”

Having these frameworks already set in place can reduce pressure and decision fatigue while bringing relief, peace, and confidence, allowing for empowered nos and resounding yeses.

Do you have trouble saying "no"? Do you worry about letting others down or missing out on an opportunity because you say "no"? In this episode, Leah discusses saying "no", why it’s important, and how to practice this in your life. When we say yes, we are also saying "no" to other things.

Sometimes situations come into our lives that are simple yeses or easy nos, but other times we may struggle with saying "no". Saying "no" is an important muscle that we need to exercise, not only for our own protection, but for others.

Expressing a direct "no" helps us to feel empowered, and it protects our time and energy while also being kind to the other person. We can use stand-up words like “I won’t” or “I don’t” when we say "no", and we can express our appreciation for the consideration.

Sometimes saying "no" can be difficult if our brains aren’t used to it, so practicing with ourselves or friends can help rewire our pathways and make saying "no" easier when the time comes.

Learning how to say "no" and exercising this muscle is important since it protects and empowers us while showing kindness to those on the other end.

In this episode, Leah reviews some of the things we've learned about finding and setting our priorities. When we don't know what we should be aiming at, life can often feel like a game of Chutes and Ladders. You work so hard only to find yourself sliding back to where you were ten moves ago. That's why it's important that when we set our priorities, we are setting them with a clear understanding of our values and our roles.

It's also important that we are intentional about how we set our priorities and spend our time. If we don't establish priorities (and boundaries) we will often find that we are ruled by the demands of the day, and not the other way around. We can also find ourselves acting upon other people's priorities to the neglect of our own.

Now is a good time to figure out what your priorities are. Set aside a little time with a pencil and paper, follow with Leah as she guides you through the process, and refer back to other episodes as needed.