When Your Well Runs dry - A Guide to Overcoming Resource Shortages and Burnout: Week 11 Podcast

In this enlightening episode of the Conquer Your Mountains podcast, titled When Your Well Runs Dry we explore how to navigate and resolve resource shortages. We delve into understanding the implications of a "well running dry". From financial and emotional deficits, to creative aspects, burnouts often manifest as fatigue, unexplainable headaches, lack of joy, and a diminishing ability to engage in life fully.

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The conversation unpacks the various dimensions of our personal "well". For some, the well contains faith, creativity, ability to adapt, and the joy from relationships with family and friends. Recognizing when your "well" starts to run dry, expressed through physical signs and feedback from loved ones, can help avert significant emotional and creative distress.

Within this expansive dialogue, invaluable strategies are shared on how individuals can replenish their own personal "wells." It is suggested that addressing core shifts and implementing self-care routines are fundamental steps to recovery. This can range from pursuing activities that once brought joy, to reading books that expand the mind, and seeking support from a faith-based community.

In divulging Mandla's personal experiences of overcoming dry spells in his work and personal life, it is emphasized that these experiences often trigger necessary transitions. Sometimes, a "dry well" may simply be an indication that it's time for a change. Maintaining balance in all aspects of life, and regularly "checking in" on your well can prevent it from running dry.

Intricately tying together personal experiences, expert advice, and spiritual teachings, the episode delivers important reminders of the need for self-awareness, self-care, and God's provision when faced with burnout or resource depletion. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What do you do when you run out of resources? Welcome to the Conquer Your Mountains
Week 11 podcast titled, When Your Well Runs Dry.
And in today's episode, we will explore how you can resolve resource shortages.
If you are following the Conquer Your Mountains reading plan,
you are in Week 11 that has the name Two Kings, Provider of Double Portions.

(00:22):
My name is Amanda De Witt, and I am a Senior Editor at the Luca Faith and Inspiration
Imprint of Penguin Random House, South Africa.
We publish books that provide readers with engaging, high-quality reading material,
both fiction and non-fiction.
I'm excited to be chatting to Manla in his podcast today, so let's kick off.
What do you mean about someone's well running dry? Are you referring to a well of finances?

(00:48):
Yeah, so typically when people hear about wells running dry,
the metaphor, they think of money running out.
And I think finances are actually more of an indication because by the time
your finances have run dry,
it means that the resources that you have for creating wealth and creating provision have run dry.

(01:12):
And that's your ability to be creative in your work, your ability to handle situations.
Situations, when those abilities run dry, your ability to be creative,
then I think your well runs dry in every other aspect of your life.
Absolutely. So what does it mean for someone's creative or emotional well to run dry?

(01:37):
I think when you have emotional burnout, you start to see certain symptoms like
you don't have the energy that you used to have.
You wake up and you just feel drained like
you've slept six eight nine hours
and you wake up and you feel like you
could go back to sleep and do it again the even your emotional response to situations

(02:03):
you start to feel detached and like not connected to what's happening in the
world around you and that's often
a sense that you yeah you're emotionally exhausted you are creatively,
things that you used to be able to solve, you find that.
The answers don't come and you just get stuck. I actually spoke to someone the

(02:27):
other day who said they were feeling like they were just not getting any joy
out of anything, things that used to give them joy.
Would you say that's linked to burnout and let your walls run dry?
Yes, yes, certainly, yeah. So things that give you joy, it could be,
yeah, like being around family, around friends, could be hobbies that you always enjoyed.

(02:50):
Maybe you like playing golf or you like fishing or whatever it is that wraps you the right way.
When that well is dry, that's when you do those things, but you are sort of
like out of body. It's like you're not there.
Absolutely, I understand. How do you recognize then when your well is running dry?

(03:12):
So we said that was one of the symptoms that joy runs out, but how do you recognize,
are there other symptoms? terms?
There are physical signs. I think fatigue is probably the biggest sign.
You can end up with headaches as well, which are unexplained.
And that's really from literally bashing your head against the wall, trying to find answers.

(03:35):
You could actually get feedback from your people that are close to you.
They might say, hey, Amanda, you're not looking yourself today.
You're off of color and what's happening.
And sometimes they'll pick it up before you pick it up yourself. Yeah.
So it's the people around you, it's signals, it's stress responses that you

(04:00):
start to see within your environment.
And if we look at the analogy of a well, normally traumatic when a well runs dry.
So picture a village in the first century, you got every day to draw your water
for the the day and you've lived in that place for, let's say,
decades and you lower your bucket,

(04:24):
and lo and behold, there's no water.
And that can be quite earth shattering because it's not just that the world is dry.
I think it's also that your livelihood could be gone because now you've got
no water for your animals, no water for you to drink. and in those old days

(04:45):
you might have had to even relocate.
I imagine you've been in this village for years, but now the well is run dry.
So it can be quite a significant event when you get to that dry spell.
We use the analogy now of a well with water in it. What would you say is your

(05:06):
personal well? What does that contain?
Yeah, my well, several aspects to it.
I think the one, I'd say that the deepest part of my well is probably my faith,
because it's through my faith that I feel strengthened and able to tackle all
other issues that come by.

(05:26):
And then the other parts of my well, before I look at my job and so on,
I think the deeper parts are capabilities that I have, the ability that I have to adapt to situations,
the things that I've been blessed with in terms of my education and my experience.
Those are all part of my well.
Family is also a very key part because through family, that's where you replenish

(05:51):
yourself. self and other relationships, your friend network, that's also a well.
If you have a group of friends and relatives that you can go to when things
feel dry, that's also a well that you can, you can tap into.
So I know I said it's a well, but it's now sounding like it's many wells.

(06:16):
Well, it's one well filled with many things.
Yes. Yeah, many things. Definitely.
I think something that could add to a well-life that would also be your faith-based
community and the people around you support you.
Yeah, definitely. That's great. I like that.
What strategies can individuals use to replenish their own personal wells?

(06:40):
So it's important not to start with symptoms. So I think the symptom could be
challenges that you're having in terms of your ability to create wealth, your work, for example.
But I think you need to start at a core level in terms of what has shifted within
me, what is so different now.

(07:03):
And am I doing the self-care routines which I used to do?
So maybe my self-care was literal in terms of going for a massage.
That could be something that replenishes you.
It could be an activity that you used to do that refreshed you with water in a metaphorical sense.

(07:27):
And in my case, it can, like when I go to a running race and there's lots of
people and there's the excitement of the announcers and there's thousands of
people running down the street with me,
that to me is part of my self-care.
And also reading books, often you can get stuck into a small world.

(07:49):
And when you engage with books or movies or anything else that's creative,
it can help you to expand your horizon.
So you start your self-care journey. There's so many different go-to places
for self-care, and it really varies with each individual.
But the end result should be that once you've implemented that self-care,

(08:11):
you feel rejuvenated and you feel able to tackle the symptom of what you're facing.
And that symptom might be manifesting in your work or in your finances.
But remember that those are symptoms. You need to tackle that well at a deeper level.

(08:33):
That's a good analogy as well. So do what makes you happy, what gives you joy,
what fills up those resources again. Okay, that's very good.
Have you ever faced a dry spell in your work or personal life?
And how did you overcome it?
Yeah, my working career has been over 20 years and there have been dry spells.

(08:56):
Often the dry spells have come at a stage where they triggered a change in terms
of what I was doing at that point in time.
So, for example, the first major job that I had, I was there for 17 years in this global firm.
And for most of those 17 years, call it 16 years, I was always energized and

(09:21):
there were things to solve, people to see, things to do.
But I got to a stage where it started to feel empty.
I was like, okay, I've enjoyed this for 16 years, but that initial spark is
gone, that joy that I used to have.

(09:41):
Have, and that to me was a sign that that particular well had run dry for me.
And just as in the story of the village where you find that your well is not
dry, and then had to start a journey to find other places where I could sink
another well and, and start afresh.

(10:02):
So it's not always a negative when your well runs dry.
Sometimes it's a sign that you've been at that village for far too long.
Maybe it's time to move from the village to the city.
That's a good analogy. So you can grow. Yes. Where your water arrives by tap instead of...

(10:24):
That's good. That's good. How can we prevent our wells from growing in the first place?
I mean, we've been talking about what to do when it's dry, but how can we prevent that happening?
We need to be proactive in how we maintain our balance.
I did mention this in a podcast a few weeks ago that everyone has got so many aspects to them.

(10:45):
There's what you do in terms of your, your relationships, your spiritual side, your.
Activities from a physical side, your hobbies, you've got about seven or eight aspects to your life.
And if you don't maintain that balance, any one of those things that you don't

(11:07):
look after can start to dry the rest of the well.
So for example, if your focus is purely on work and you haven't followed the
self-care routines that I mentioned earlier,
those things that you're neglecting can be the same things that start to creep in and,

(11:28):
dry your whole well or poison your well which is also not a good thing if your
well is poisoned so there's many areas that we need to look at in terms of balance
ultimately to avoid burnout,
and to sustain our inner resources so your body is an engine it's got so many
aspects to it it It needs food for sure.

(11:50):
The brain needs its own version of food.
Definitely. And if you're not sustaining that, then your well could actually run dry.
Sorry, the point is about being aware and taking note and checking in on the
levels of your well to prevent that it completely runs dry. That's a good one. Thank you.

(12:13):
We will end the podcast with an extract from Amanda's book, Contour Your Mountains, Week 11.
Page 47 reads, When our backs are against the wall and we have tried everything,
we have a God that often tells us to try one more time and rely not on our skill
and reserves but on His provision.