How To Conquer Burnout And Define Your Dreams With A Life Brief

Women – disproportionately burdened by childcare, unpaid labor, and other stresses – are experiencing burnout at alarming rates. According to the 2023 Deloitte Women @ Work: A Global Outlook survey, “nearly a third of women are burned out, over one-third rate their mental health as poor or very poor, more than half rate mental health as a top concern, around half say their stress levels are higher than a year ago, and only 37% feel able to switch off from work.”

This reality threatens to hollow out the female half of the workforce, particularly in leadership positions. “Leaning in” won’t cut it. Women require flexible work models, robust mental health options, supportive managers – and practical tools they can utilize to help make it all happen.

Bonnie Wan, partner and head of brand strategy at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, knows all about burnout. Even though in 2010 she was a celebrated senior strategist at a major ad agency with both a beautiful family and a dream house, she felt miserable. Job stress was major, her marriage seemed to be crumbling, and parenting three young children was downright exhausting.

So, Wan decided to harness one of the tools she used regularly in her ad agency job to analyze brands — the creative brief, and apply it her own life. In a short time, she discovered that diving deep into her priorities, values, false limitations and inspirations in order to create her life brief made a huge impact. She spoke openly with her husband about working together to improve their marriage, adjusted her parenting strategies, found herself far more satisfied, and even achieved greater success in her already-flourishing career.

She was so astounded by the transformation her life brief enabled that she decided to write a book about it. The Life Brief: A Playbook for No Regrets Living provides insights into Wan’s own journey as well as a clear roadmap and worksheets to execute your own life brief. She explores topics such as how to get curious about your fear, challenging the norms that create friction in your life, and asking how questions instead of what questions.

“I am in awe at Bonnie’s ability to examine herself and her life,” says Jeff Goodby, the founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. “The Life Brief calls for a necessary confrontation of self that could not have a more gracious guide. By baring her own struggles, Bonnie encourages a kind of collective bravery for the rest of us. A wonderfully important work.”

As an immigrant from Taiwan, Wan spent her early childhood as an outsider. In an exclusive interview with me, she said, “One of the benefits of being on the periphery is getting to study how people move through the world. So, in that sense, I’ve been fascinated with human motivation and behavior for as long as I can remember. I found myself fixated on what drives people to overcome seemingly impossible hurdles and navigate the trickiest of challenges. Yet I didn’t pursue this life purpose until I wrote The Life Brief and began speaking to people about how to transform their lives.”

Advertising, Wan says “runs at the speed of culture and business. We don’t have months or years to assess, then activate change. So, strategists need tools that penetrate deep, unlock fast, and open expansive fields of possibilities.” These tools came in handy when she began exploring powerful methods for improving her own life. And, once discovered, she immediately saw the potential for her Life Brief strategy to inform everything.

Wan says that her greatest challenge is “acting from a place of urgency, instead of clarity.” She explains that we live in a business culture that values speed above clarity. “We throw around mantras like hustle harder, or have a bias for action, while true creativity and innovation require clarity, alignment, and thoughtful experimentation. These don’t necessitate more time, but they do require focused engagement and attention – our most precious and scarcest resource.”

To young people eager to tap into their life purpose, Wan offers this advice: “Dedicate small slivers of daily time for reflection so you can tune into your voice and separate it from other voices you’ve picked up or inherited along the way. Allow yourself space to be nakedly honest with yourself about what you want and use that as fuel for carving a life path that’s unique and distinct to you.”