My Sustainable PACE “I felt like I was on a one-way track to burnout. PACE has changed my life”
Client: Bec Buchanan
Location: Northern NSW, Australia
Occupation: Founder of online bookkeeping and accounting firm Straight Up Bookkeeping
foundher program: Sustainable PACE & Reset YOU Retreat
Bec Buchanan initially postponed her enrolment in Sustainable PACE for a common reason: she was simply too busy!
Although Bec was eager to overhaul her productivity, as a small-business owner and mum of two young kids, she was overwhelmed with the day-to-day challenges of keeping life and work running smoothly.
“My business is very labour-intensive, so I just wasn’t getting a break. And that, coupled with the stress of growing a business and having a team, [meant] I felt like I was on a one-way trip to burnout,” Bec says.
This is a story we hear often in our community. Even though people are aware something needs to change, finding the time and space to learn a new way feels impossible.
After delaying PACE once, Bec’s solution was to simply commit to the program. “I was curious about what I could learn, knowing that something needed to change if my business was going to be around in five years,” she says. “I told myself to just turn up, and I’m so glad I did.”
A new perspective
With so many demands on her time – running the business, leading a team, doing school runs and prepping family meals – Bec felt that she was constantly working.
But, inside PACE, she found a helpful reframe. The program’s Doing Diary exercise – where students track their tasks every day for a week – gave her a whole new perspective on her life.
It wasn’t so much that she was busy working, she was busy living.
“Until I did the Doing Diary, I felt like all I did was work,” Bec explains. “The Doing Diary showed me that I’m actually only working some days four hours, but I’m busy dropping my children to activities or doing the groceries or getting my eyebrows done! I realised that I have an amazing, diverse life, and it led me to feel more grateful for the life that I’ve got.”
The Doing Diary is a fascinating process because it has different outcomes for every student. While some pinpoint their procrastination habits or time-sucking distractions, others find, like Bec, that they’re not actually working as much as they think.
Thanks to the facts that the Doing Diary presented, Bec was able to embrace what she loves about her life now, giving her a clear-sighted jumping-off point from which to make adjustments to her pace.
The early weeks of PACE also focus on integrating science-backed stress-reducing rituals such as a daily gratitude practice, which cemented Bec’s new-found perspective on the life she’s created.
“I’m more aware,” she explains. “Initially, when I started the gratitude practice, I was grateful for my children and my husband and all those things. Now, I’m finding 1000 things to be grateful for throughout the day, and I feel like I’m happier.”
Being mode
In PACE, students learn that the key to avoiding burnout and maintaining a sustainable success rhythm is embracing their ‘being’ as well as ‘doing’ modes.
Just like our devices, humans aren’t meant to be switched on all the time. We need space to rest and recharge in order to perform at our best. But, in our fast-paced, messy world, it’s easy to slip into the habit of trying to squeeze more (and more) into every day.
Discovering the importance of ‘being’ has made all the difference to Bec.
“This idea was completely lost on me for my entire working life,” she explains. “I was aware that I was kind of a slave to my clients, but I didn’t appreciate that I was losing the purpose of life somewhere along the way.”
Thanks to PACE, Bec realised that she was in the habit of packing productive activities into every minute of her day: if she got up early, it was to catch up on work; if she went for a run, it was to train for a half marathon. It was no wonder she was on the brink of burnout.
“I had no time in my day where I was being ... This is why I say PACE changed my life, because it’s pretty simple stuff but it was lost on me until I did the course.”
“I had no time in my day – except for lighting some incense – where I was being. I was just working. And I still wasn’t doing a very good job! I wasn’t being a fun mum who plays with the kids, or cooking good dinners,” Bec says. “This is why I say PACE changed my life, because it’s pretty simple stuff but it was lost on me until I did the course.”
The sustainable PACE toolkit
Now, with an aim of bringing more being into her everyday, Bec has embraced foundher’s signature routines and rituals that create space for rest, recharge and reflection.
Bec says she’s “100 per cent committed” to all the practices that the Sustainable PACE course teaches. She starts her day with a morning ritual, which includes reading – a hobby she’s become “obsessed with”.
“Then at 8am I have a meeting with myself to assess whether my day seems right now that I’m here. I love that,” she adds.
“I’m definitely someone who thinks I can get 20 things done in a day, and really, there's probably space for three things. The morning meeting is about checking in to see whether all the things that I thought I’d be doing make sense, and recalibrating those tasks across the week. I’m conscious now that my to-do list was so aspirational, there was no way I was ever getting through it. I’m not setting myself up to fail anymore, I have a more realistic to-do list.”
Bec is also embracing the weekly Sunday session to get a handle on what’s coming up for the week. The Sunday session is about taking 15 minutes over the weekend to address the week ahead, which helps to counter any sense of dread about work.
“The Sunday sessions are really powerful,” Bec says. “It’s having that power over your week so that on Monday, you’re not in shock. You know exactly what you’re doing because you gave it 15 minutes on a Sunday. That’s a powerful practice that I’m enjoying.”
These planning practices aren’t just helping Bec steer away from burnout. She’s also noticed an increase in her creativity as a result of the PACE program.
“I’ve noticed ideas just come to me more easily,” Bec says, noting that coming up with topics for her small business podcast is no longer the chore it once was.
“I was sitting on a plane recently and I just churned out the content for three podcasts,” she says. “I think it’s the space [I’ve created]. I used to be a bit panicked about it, but now I feel quite confident that if I give myself an hour of deep work time, I’ll be able to do it.”
This is one of the beautiful benefits of designing your own unique sustainable pace. Finding space in your day isn’t just about recharging your battery, it lowers the mental load and gives your mind an opportunity to explore and create freely.
A sustainable culture
After experiencing the benefits of these sustainable work practices, Bec is now keen to pass them onto her team.
“An aftermath of the realisations I had in PACE was being respectful of my staff’s time. If I’m sending them an email at eight o’clock at night, I schedule it to arrive at nine the next morning because I want the tone from the top in my business to be that our personal lives are very important,” Bec explains.
She’s also discovered that she’s better able to respond in difficult conversations with clients and colleagues. Rather than avoiding a tense interaction or feeling upset, Bec says she’s able to sit in the discomfort and ask herself what she can learn from the situation.
As an entrepreneur, Bec has participated in other small business-focused courses. But she says Sustainable PACE stands out thanks to its high-quality materials and the breadth and depth of Elana’s knowledge, which taps into important concepts that others overlook.
“PACE isn’t about improving your business as such, but your business will improve as a result. So, I think it’s truly unique,” she says. “And getting access to a really senior leadership coach in a sustainability subject is amazing.”
Bec now describes herself as a “changed person” and is grateful to have routines in place to support her as she manages work and family life.
“The ‘being versus doing’ realisation gift PACE gave me is that I truly feel like I’m a happier, more balanced person, and the rituals and routines have given me the guardrails to not fall too far out of balance with this again,” she says. “I’m looking forward to the next decade of being as well as doing in a sustainable fashion with my business and personal life.”
Giving leaders of change like Bec the tools to beat burnout for good and fall in love with their life again is what Sustainable PACE is all about. We want you, like Bec, to create transformational change in your work, life and leadership. Learn how you can do that by clicking the button below!