Welcome to reThink Your Perspective’s blog. Helping you to unlock your potential, empower your mindset, create productive habits, and boost your motivation. Today’s instalment looks at BURNOUT.
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Do You Know What Burnout Is?
I don’t care who you are, ALL of us will face burnout at some point in our lives. Regardless of your job role, your work ethic, your environment, your passion…
“Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged or repeated stress. It is characterised by feelings of energy depletion, increased mental distance from one’s job or life, and reduced professional efficacy.”
Unfortunately, it is still quite taboo. Labelled as stress and tarred with the same brush. Considered by many to be an excuse to get out of work…
This needs to stop.
Many think of it like a drained battery, they just need to “recharge.” Unplug from the thing that has drained their battery, and then get right back to it. Sometimes it works and other times? People burn out again a few days or weeks later.
That is not sustainable…
Watch this video now, recorded a while ago but still relevant! Or keep reading to find out more.
What Is Burnout?
Burnout is a symptom to a greater cause that needs addressing. Like the red warning lights on your car dashboard. It is a sign that whatever you are doing is not in alignment with what you really want to be doing. You are not doing something you are passionate about, or if you are passionate, you are being forced to do it in a way that doesn’t feel right to you.
It is like banging your head against a wall repeatedly. Eventually your body is going to shut down to make you stop doing it! Burnout is your body telling you that you need to stop.
Just a slightly lighter point before we go on! Please realise that burnout is normal and happens to everyone at some point.
It is perfectly OK to burnout, it is NOT OK to keep burning out. It’s not healthy emotionally and physically and the cause needs to be addressed.
The cause can vary, but as I said above, it is usually because you are not in alignment with what you are doing, or the way you are having to do it.
My Story
My burnout was caused by the workload and expectations which I and others put on me working as a teacher in a school. The expectations were set by the school, but as a new teacher, I did not take the time I needed to take breaks from work. I felt there was always something I should be doing to the point where even when there wasn’t anything to do I worried that there should be and continued working rather than setting healthy boundaries for myself. This led to stretching myself too thinly and not doing any single thing to the standard expected! A few months of this, ignoring the symptoms and just keeping at it, and wham! Welcome to one big hole that could have been avoided!
Teaching is only one industry where burnout is rife. Teaching staff give and give and give to try and provide the students the best with no regard for their own health and then end up off sick for an extended period of time. If the school system was less derogatory about taking an odd few days here and there, and were not so judgemental of staff, then long sickness absences could be avoided!
What Did I Do?
For me personally, a combination of factors out of my control around my own burnout (other staff, circumstances and situations) created the opportunity to go on forced gardening leave. Which I agreed to for my own sanity. And then I spent the time getting back in touch with me and doing the things that I like doing. And, more importantly, that I wanted to do but could never do while I was working as a teacher. Going to the gym. Sewing. Drawing. Going for walks. Spending more time with my daughter. And after a month or so, building a business to remove the need for me to go back into fulltime teaching.
How Do I Know If I Am Burning Out?
It can appear differently for everyone, as we are all individual. You need to listen to your body. What feels off for you might be completely normal for someone else! For me, I just felt utterly empty. I couldn’t find joy in anything, depressed, hollow… It was not nice. I floated through each day like a ghost, hardly seeing the people around me or finding any sparks.
Other signs include :
- Physical feelings of tension – stress headaches, aching shoulders or neck, being physically tired
- Emotional exhaustion – you are ratty, emotional, sad, down, depressed
- Loss of motivation – to do anything! Including things you would normally enjoy
- Constant doubt and fear – over everything, lots of what ifs
- Feeling down and worried – again, about everything and anything
By identifying the physical symptoms, you have a chance of preventing the burnout from evolving into full depression or anxiety. You can stop it before it goes too far and give yourself the time, energy and space that your body and mind is asking for.
What Do I Do If I Feel I Am About To Burnout?
When you notice the symptoms above, or your own ones, there are 7 simple steps you can follow.
- Write! – You need to uncover why you feel you are burning out and the best way to do that is by writing it down. Do a brain dump! Ask yourself: What am I ashamed of? What am I feeling guilt from? What am I afraid of? What do I not like that I’m doing? What is making me feel upset or scared?
- Find the trigger – From your journaling you will be able to spot what the thing is that is weighing down on you. Once you know what it is, you have to change it in some way.
- Give yourself a boost – Remind yourself of all the things you are good at, maybe go and do some of them!
- Take a break – A complete mental and physical break from the thing causing the burnout. A few days or a week of being completely disconnected from it
- Talk to someone – Like journaling but with another person. Look for ideas about how you can change the thing causing the burnout.
- Find joy – Go and do what you enjoy while you take the time off!
- Get more sleep – You are taking time off, use the extra time to get a few extra hours of sleep each night. This will help you recharge physically.
These can be done in any order that suits you, and they won’t all work for everyone. Do what works for you.
The Biggest Thing Though?
Don’t spend the time recharging to then go straight back to the thing that caused the burnout in the first place! You need to approach it differently or move away from it completely.
What Do You Think?
Have you ever suffered with burnout? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments so we can all try to overturn the taboo of mental health! The world needs to be a place where people can take time to recharge and rethink rather than keeping pushing on to avoid the lecture and judgement for taking a few days off…
I hope you found this insightful and helpful. Feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss it further. I am happy to be an impartial person (as per number 5 above) to help you to talk it through. Either here or through any of my social medias or schedule a call to discuss it with me directly.
I look forward to speaking with you soon and hope this post helps you to notice and catch burnout before you are too far in.
To your success,
Jaiye
