How to Deal with Burnout

Sadly, this has probably happened to you too – suddenly you realize that you are so tired and morally exhausted that it is difficult to remember when you were cheerful and happy with life. You may be feeling it right now. Nevertheless, if you feel that you are exhausted and have lost the incentive to take any action, but at the same time you are reading these lines, we hasten to inform you that …

• you are motivated to regain your former cheerfulness, and this is good news;

• you have every chance to get out of the stupor of emotional burnout.

Where did we get it from? Because you were exhausted enough to search the Internet for an article about burnout, but had enough will to find it and start reading. In addition, this confirms that you want to return to your former energy and are very motivated to do so.

Now that we’ve established what you want, let’s move on to learning a practical strategy that can help you in situations where you need to pull yourself out of the swamp of apathy and powerlessness. If this is your case, do not delay, start as soon as possible. Bonus at the end of the material – a personal story on the topic.

STEP #1: FOCUS ON TRUE LOVE

The basic strategy for overcoming emotional burnout is based on the principles of good old fairy tales, where princes and Cinderellas overcome any problems because they strive for their true love. To put it less figuratively: if you want to regain strength (not necessarily magical), you need to “feed” from true passion, doing what you like and are good at, without exchanging for a million doubts and additional worries.

So, first you need to find out what is the real reason to get out of burnout. What is “light in the window” for you, what makes you look for ways to solve the problem – people who are counting on you, or some clear goal, for which you are doing this?

The definition of real love, as pathetic as it sounds, is your compass. Whenever you feel on the verge of complete burnout, remember the people or passion for your cause that confirm your uniqueness. It will give you strength and motivation to rise even when you feel like there is nothing left of you.

STEP #2: BEAT THE OPPONENT

…and direct the rest of the energy there. Again, like in a fairy tale: there is always someone or something that the hero is supposed to win. By understanding what it is, you can gradually fix every aspect of your life by focusing in turn on one or two problems that are causing everything to be so difficult.

Tip on how to identify the root cause of burnout: audit your experiences. In order to simplify this exercise, 10 main positions are proposed to help classify the importance of causes with ratings from 1 to 10: 10 = “amazing”, 1 = “terrible”. Aspects with the lowest numbers are the culprits of your moral and physical exhaustion:

• career

• love

• family

• friends

• money

• communication

• personal growth

• spiritual life

• health

• entertainment/leisure

After marking the marks, ask yourself carefully why you give the reasons one way or another. And then compare: what will happen if the aspect rated at “one” is brought to “ten”? And how would you achieve this? Describe in as much detail as possible and compare the ideal picture with the current situation.

An important point: if you feel completely exhausted – with chores, responsibilities, and everything, everything that cares and excites – for a productive return to motivation, you need to focus on one reason that has the most negative effect.

STEP #3: REMEMBER YOU ARE THE MAIN CHARACTER

Let’s go back to the “fairytale” metaphor: we must always remember that you are the leading character in your own stories and, despite what tasks oppress us, you are one hundred percent responsible for what is happening. That is, when and how to deal with them.

When the energy is close to zero, it’s easy to feel like a hostage to circumstances, subconsciously reinforcing the idea that you need an unspoken permission to do something that will make life easier. This is fundamentally wrong: no one but you gives out such indulgences. You can cry on your partner’s shoulder for hours and harass your girlfriends with complaints, but you will not take their advice until you take the risk yourself. This is because someone else’s opinion motivates much less than personal determination based on forced mobilization of forces (there is nowhere to retreat!) And a creative approach to the problem.

And once you take full responsibility for your circumstances and self-salvation, there is one more important point to be made clear (see next point).

STEP #4: TAKE HELP FROM FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES

Sometimes a sign of weakness is a manifestation of strength. You are definitely a hero, but at the same time a person. Decisions are made internally, and help must be sought from outside – among friends, relatives, colleagues and specialized specialists such as coaches, trainers, psychologists and therapists (maybe your hemoglobin is not higher than 90 or you have immunity problems and you constantly catch a cold, which is great exhausting ).

Overcoming a crisis, you can and should seek help, but it is better to create a whole support group that will help you recover. And stop ridiculing yourself with the thought that no one cares about your problems. You need concrete support on the way to a bright future: their kindness, skills, experience, care, even material support – why not?

STEP #5: DON’T Ignore the Impending Apathy

Remember, burnout doesn’t happen overnight. Guess the first signs of a crisis – the problem is always easier to prevent than to disentangle. Take care of internal batteries, save energy, from time to time allow yourself to do nothing without remorse. Switch to what you love and what matters right now – so motivation will begin to recover without reaching a fatal peak.

Sometimes it takes a big life change to find inspiration again. And sometimes it can be fixed with a couple of volitional movements: turn off the computer, put the smartphone in flight mode and give yourself a break from work and contacts.