Dr. Seuss told us, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” But what do you do when you’re in charge of many brains in many heads? What happens when you’re in charge of steering many feet (some of which have tiny shoes) traveling in many different directions? Is there any room left to choose? 

In this week’s episode, Sarah Argenal, author of The Whole SELF Lifestyle for Working Parents: A Practical 4-Step Framework to Defeat Burnout and Escape Survival Mode for Good, discusses her framework to escape survival mode, find balance, and defeat burnout. She explains that we often find ourselves working from problem-solving mode, moving from problem to problem and finding the quickest solution for each. As we get caught up in solving problem after problem, we experience burnout and find ourselves trapped in survival mode. Unless we get more strategic in how we approach our many life roles, life can become small and lose its vitality. Sarah provides a strategic framework for working from the inside-out so that we can allow our many purposes to better serve us, and to bring back a vitality that guide us in each of our many life roles. 

Listen and Learn:

• How survival mode might be affecting you right now
• Four steps you can take toward creating a more vital life
• Tips and tricks for escaping survival mode
• Strategies for including more self-care into your routines
• Methods for discovering what areas of your life are most important to you (and which are less important)
• What gets in the way of working from the inside-out, and how you can approach this work (even if you are too busy and tired!)
• How to make your purposes better serve you (instead of you serving them!)
• How to defeat burnout, find balance, and escape survival mode

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About Sarah Argenal:

Sarah Argenal attained her masters in counseling psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy and adult development from the University of San Francisco. She is the founder of the The Argenal Institute LLC based in Austin, TX, host and executive producer of Working Parent Resource Podcast, and author of the book The Whole Self Lifestyle for Working Parents: A Practical 4-Step Framework to Defeat Burnout and Escape Survival Mode For Good. Sarah uses twenty years of experience and her signature program, the Whole SELF Lifestyle™, to help working parents escape survival mode and enjoy their lives.

Resources:

The Whole SELF Lifestyle for Working Parents: A Practical 4-Step Framework to Defeat Burnout and Escape Survival Mode for Good, by Sarah Argenal

For more from Sarah’s work, check out the resources at The Argenal Institute.

Yael’s essay on working parenthood in the Wall Street Journal.

24. Choosing Both: Straddling Meaningful Career and Parenthood with Dr. Yael Schonbrun

45. Rest with Dr. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

58. Balancing the Big Stuff with Drs. Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin

73. Essentialism with Greg McKeown

83. Tao of Work and Family Balance

134. What to do When Work, Parenting, and Partnership Collide During Quarantine

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Psychologists Off The Clock.

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Please note the information on Psychologists Off The Clock is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be used as a substitute for psychological or medical care. If you are looking for professional help, visit our resources page for guidance on how to find a therapist. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call 9-1-1.

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