Burnout - Exhausted, Too Pooped to Pop, Wiped Out, Lost Your "Umph".  However you describe it, burnout is a real thing.  This week, we help you get your Get-Up-And-Go back.

Jeremiah 31:25

I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.

Burn out is a psychological syndrome, emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. Three key symptoms are overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job. It’s also common to feel a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.

Personal burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally, drained, and unable to meet constant demands. It also occurs when an individual doesn’t have enough time to be physically active or able to spend adequate time resting mentally. Not having time to respect and care for one’s own emotional health will also lead to burnout.

BURNOUT…FROM HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

For years, it was believed that everyone reacted to chronic workplace stress in the same way. But research has revealed that burnout manifests itself in different ways depending on a person’s work environment as well as their internal resources, including dedication to their job and coping mechanisms.

Let’s take a closer look at the three types of burnout and how you can overcome each one.

Overload Burnout

Overload burnout occurs when you work harder and more frantically to achieve success, often to the detriment of your health and personal life. This is the type of burnout that most people are familiar with, and it’s also the most common.

Overload burnout typically affects highly dedicated employees who feel obligated to work at an unsustainable pace. As a result, they drive themselves to the point of physical and mental exhaustion.

Professionals with overload burnout tend to cope by venting their emotions to others (i.e. complaining about how tired and overwhelmed they are). This subtype is also quick to jump into problem-solving mode, creating more work and responsibility for themselves, which only exacerbates their stress.

Signs to watch out for:

• You overlook your own needs or personal life to fulfill work demands

• You invest more than is healthy in your commitment to your career or ambitions

• You endanger your well-being to achieve your goals.

How to address it:

Researchers note that the way out of overload burnout is two-fold. First, it’s important to develop stronger emotion regulation skills, such as naming and processing your emotions and reframing negative self-talk. For instance, you could reframe the belief that you need to work all the time to be successful to “enjoying my life helps me become more successful.” After all, resting is not a reward for success. It’s a prerequisite for performance.

Second, it’s crucial to separate your self-worth from your work. “Consequently, by learning to keep a certain distance from work…,” researchers Jesús Montero-Marín and Javier García-Campayo write, “individuals could avoid excessive involvement and prevent burnout.”

Strive to diversify your identity — to create self-complexity — by investing in different areas of your life beyond work. You might decide to devote time to your role as a spouse, parent, or friend. During the pandemic, one of my clients restored an old identity by renewing his pilot’s license. Volunteering with the Civil Air Patrol proved to be a healthy forcing f

To reach Tom Russell, go to https://www.heritagechristiancounselingofmansfield.com.