There’s a funny thing about burnout – it can happen when you’re bored, when your not doing anything new, when your feeling lonely, or after a failure or setback.
Burnout can also happen when you’re at the top of your game, working hard, successful, and feeling in the flow with things.
Grant yourself some understanding and empathy about why burnout happens.
Here are some steps to take when you feel like you’re running on empty:
1. Hit The Reset Button
This first step is to chalk in on how you came to be empty. Use HALT to ask yourself:
- Am I hungry?
- Am I anxious?
- Am I lonely?
- Am I tired?
Deficiencies of sleep, fueling your body with healthy foods, social connections, or stress can all affect your ability to function optimally. Solving these problems is key. Putting quality food into your system and allowing ample rest time are simple.
Loneliness can happen even when you are surrounded by people. Being lonely doesn’t come from being alone; it comes from not feeling a sense of belonging or being heard by those around you. If you aren’t surrendering yourself with people who inspire you, challenge you, and help you to stay motivated, it may be time to make some changes.
Anxiety floods your body with chemicals that hijack a part of your brain that allows for planning and good decision making (amygdala). This is useful if you must fight ninjas or run away from a tiger, but it’s not so useful when your stuck in traffic or about to speak in public.
Burnout can be the reaction to prolonged stress and one of the best antidotes to stress is meditation. If you need an immediate boost, take some long deep breaths for 90 seconds to disrupt the fight-or-flight pattern your body had initiated. Later, you can make a plan to incorporate meditation into your day in order to keep anxiety and stress levels low. I find that reading helps also.
2. Check in on your sense of purpose
People who identify a source of meaning and purpose in their life’s report greater life satisfaction. They also have higher levels of both physical and mental health, higher levels of resistance, and a greater sense of control. If your feeling a lack of any of these, you may need to check in and see if you’re still aligned with your purpose.
3. Make sure your burnout isn’t coming from comparison
There can be an upside and a downside to comparisons. Seeing the good in other people’s lives can be a motivator; however, people are also able to construct identities that show their highlight reel without giving you an inside peek at the process.
You don’t see the mistakes along the way, the false alerts, the failures, and the tough times, are all as important as the end product that is usually what is posted on social media. If you’re comparing your rough first draft to someone’s highlight reel you’re always going to come up feeling badly. If you catch yourself comparing yourself to anyone but yourself, STOP,
4. Assess your levels of self-compassion
It has been said that compassion is incomplete if it doesn’t extend to yourself, We are often hardest and most critical of ourselves. Notice hoe you speak to yourself.
Try using the carrot and the stick method. Ask yourself would you speak to a friend or a colleague the way you are speaking to yourself? If not start to be kind to you. Go for a massage, take a walk, Celebrate your successes. These reminder will help keep burnout a bay.
5. Use a quick fix to turn around the negative downward spiral
Think of well-being as either spiraling up or spiraling down. There are some quick fixes that can help you begin the process of changing a bad mood to a good mood or burnout to ease. The smell center and the auditory center are both right next to the pleasure center. This means you can use a good smell or a favorite song to help get back in the game when you would rather stay on the bench.
Feeling burned out is your body telling you something. When your body is in balance it tells you to rest when it needs rest and it pushes forward when it has a purpose and energy, Learn to listen to your body. Your jobs, your friends, your family, and your goals can get in the way of accurately seeing your levels of energy, engagement, and resilience. When you feel depleted, instead of vowing if as a weakness, use it as an opportunity to reassess and then move forward in a way that supports your continued ability to flourish.
From Pity to Praise 