Reducing Burnout

We live in a culture that values being busy and productivity. When was the last time you caught up with someone and ask them how they are and they said ‘Actually, I feel balanced and relaxed’? Sometimes this drive to be better, be busy, productive and successful becomes so consuming that it leads to burnout.

Burnout comes when there is an imbalance between the expectations you put on yourself and what you can do as a human being can actually do without sacrificing looking after yourself. Often people try to cope with when they feel overwhelmed by dropping activities not seen as ‘necessary’ (read: enjoyable things) and distancing themselves from others. You might tell yourself ‘this is just temporarily – just till things calm down’.

Often burnout starts with a slight imbalance, which overtime progresses to chronic emotional strain, feeling overwhelmed, exhaustion, less effective and reduced satisfaction with personal accomplishment. You end up on a hamster wheel of never ending stress.

So what’s the solution? You need to put your own oxygen mask on before you can help others.

Imagine each person has a jug. The water in that jug represents our time, energy and attention. This water is a finite resource. Then we each have glasses, which represent different areas of our lives. These might be things like work, family, relationships, friendships or hobbies.

We get to choose how much water goes into each cup. One person might choose to pour 80% of their water into work, another might choose to pour 80% to family.  That is entirely up to you. Although, it is important to realize that if all your water is one cup, someone can come along and poke a hole in your cup, and in turn your self-worth can go down (e.g. if you lose your job).

The important thing to know here is that the jug does not fill itself. Only by looking after yourself will the jug re-fill.

If you want your success to be sustainable, you need to move from seeing self-care as a luxury to a necessity.  Time needs to be made for you to sleep, eat good food, socialize, relax and work out, if you want to be efficient long term.

If you'd like help in reducing burnout, please book in today. You don't need to suffer alone any longer.