We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caitlin Morris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Caitlin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I thought my job was making me miserable but it was actually me that needed to change. I thought if I changed jobs I would be happier, but I was wrong. I needed to change first.

I’ll take you back to my first job out of college that I loved. The people that worked for the company were fun and supportive and the work we did was creative and exciting. My friends were jealous of where I got to work and with all of that, I thought I had it made. As a young 20 something living and working in a big city, exploring my freedom for the first time in my life, life was good. I gave everything to that job and it meant working 10+ hours a day for years. Fast forward five years later and I was burned out. Seeking a big change in that exhaustion, I not only left that job but I left the city and industry as a whole.

In my new city, I was able to start growing in my passion for supporting other people’s growth and became a fitness instructor. But I didn’t just stop there because I fell in love with the mission and vision of the company and loved what I got to do everyday. Before I knew it, I was teaching 15+ classes a week and was climbing my way up the ladder at that company. Classes started at 6a.m. and went all the way until 6p.m. and a day at the studio for me was a great day. No surprise though: After doing that for a few years and starting to work on the corporate side of things, I was still giving it everything and didn’t understand why I was so exhausted.

The Pandemic forced a career change and for the first time, I got a job at a company that I was not invested in on a heart level. After years of drinking the kool-aid and working myself to the bone at passion places, I was ready for a change. I was ready to work for a company that didn’t have the culture or support that had led me to burnout before. So this was my fresh start, right?

You probably know where this is going! Within a few months of working at that company, I realized that I cared too much… yet again. I was competing with myself to do more and be more everyday, silently competing against other employees to be better than they were. I saw a path forward that would make things better for our customers and for our employees and I fought really hard to make it happen. I was met with resistance and apathy but I kept trying and I kept showing up.

This time, it only took me six months to realize what I was doing. I had created the same cycle yet again where I was giving my all and not getting anything back. This time I was forced to look inward.

What I came to realize through coaching and building on my self-care was that I had no boundaries, I didn’t value myself and my worth and I didn’t know who I was outside of being productive. I was a perfectionist and those tendencies had allowed me to keep going for more.

The work that it took to slow down and start asking hard questions was really uncomfortable, I won’t lie. Setting boundaries and flexing my self-compassion muscle was a tough one and it’s one that is more a daily practice to keep working on for myself, to be completely honest.

And yet, I wouldn’t change the process for a second. I help my clients on a daily basis do what I did but in a way that works for them in their lives. How to set boundaries, build self-worth, ask for help and find work that’s in alignment with who they are and what they’re here to do in this world. How to slow down and realize that what they are doing on a daily basis is enough.

Of course, I do work for myself now and being able to set boundaries around how much I’m working has allowed me to find the balance I need to be an entrepreneur, mother, wife, all the things, and to still have something left over for myself at the end of the day. I have enough left for myself at the end of (most of) my days because I’m giving to myself first above everything else. I wouldn’t know how to do that without learning those important lessons and could be on my way to burnout again. This time, I know I’m not.

Within a few months after making those shifts, I found the peace I had been looking for all along. I’m not ashamed to say that I can go all in on the work I do in whatever industry I’m working in. I also know – now – that the effort I give is always enough because I am enough. Working more doesn’t equal more worth when we are already whole.

Caitlin , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m an Overcoming Overwhelm Coach. As both a certified functional health coach and life coach, I love being able to hold space for my clients and normalize the fact that they’re not alone, to help release shame and guilt around their experiences and what they’re up against and partner with them to create a path forward.
To be clear, I can call myself an Overcoming Overwhelm Coach because it’s a part of my story, too. So it doesn’t mean I don’t get overwhelmed, it just means I’ve cultivated tools to support me so that when it does happen, I can move on quicker and not get stuck. And so that’s what I get to work with my clients on now in a private, virtual setting. I currently work in six months contracts, too, because it does take time to make the shifts that people want for themselves.
My path to coaching was a long one – and as you’ve heard a little bit about today – one filled with burnout. I started in advertising and film, pivoted to fitness and now feel like I’ve found a home in between the two.
I want people to know that coaching is a creative process and it can be fun. The coach gets to hold a vision for you that you might not be able to see yet. It means you’re not alone on that journey.
I love that I get to combine my love of empowerment from the fitness world with my love of creativity from film and advertising and be able to be with my clients in a way that supports them to move forward.
With my unique personal and professional backgrounds combined with my two different coach trainings, I bring a deep sense of empathy, understanding and hundreds of tools to make every coaching experience different. I find myself flowing between the facilitative coaching on the wellness side and the ontological way of being on the leadership side and so it’s a really fun place for me to play in the middle: To be with my client fully and meet them where they’re at.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Absolutely! Two of my favorite books (that I gift my clients) are The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.

The Big Leap helps you identify how you’re getting in your own way and discover what your Zone of Genius is. I know that if we all spent more time in our Zone of Genius, the world would be a better place. I try to reread this every few years because of new growth and new blocks in my own journey.

And Four Thousand Weeks is the most real perspective I’ve heard on time management. I believe it’s not about getting everything done, it’s about focusing on what matters and Burkeman offers an entertaining and detailed perspective on it. You won’t look at time management the same way again!

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Nope! I would choose the same path to get here, too. I’m a firm believer that I can do what I do now because of where I’ve been. Without changing careers and industries a few times, without burnout, without doubting myself, I wouldn’t have such confidence in where I am now. I was in a lot of spaces and relationships that were disempowering and I didn’t know what to do. I’m grateful to hold a safe space for my clients that I never had.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coachingwithcaitlin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_withcaitlin/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-morris-pcc-a-cfhc-10458520b/

Image Credits

Erin Waynick Photography