Virginia WaltonBurnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to: physical, psychological and emotional exhaustion
cynicism and detachment feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment self-doubt and devaluation of self-worth.
It is progressive. It does not happen overnight. It builds over time from long hours and stress without the body having time to physically or mentally recover and replenish themselves.
This causes you to no longer function effectively in either a personal or professional capacity. How ironic is that! You are killing yourself with long hours and not enough rest trying to meet all of the demands coming at you, but here the efforts are making you less effective and productive.
Not sure if this applies to you? Here are the top five signs you are experiencing burnout.
- Chronic fatigue. You are not giving your body nor your mind time to rest. You are constantly tired. Personally, I did not pay attention to this and it impacted me. Well, I should say it impacted the car in front of me in traffic and several of my co-workers stuck in the traffic behind the accident. I was stressed from home, a home renovation project and the regular demands of life that I wasn’t sleeping well and nodded off in traffic one day.
Thankfully, only our vehicles were hurt!
There are two points of irony here. The first I was rushing to work, only to be delayed by all the fun of a police report and sitting on the side of the road while they checked everyone out and got statements. Of course this also added to my overwhelmed to do list as now having to deal with getting the police report, insurance claims and my jeep going to the body shop.
The second ironic thing. I was listening to an audio book on mindfulness and being present! YUP! I was totally not present in my driving!
2. Insomnia and poor quality of sleep. Your mind is constantly ‘on’ so you struggle to fall asleep and then may be struggling to stay asleep once you finally get there.
For me, the sign was that the people I work with started appearing in my dreams. Thankfully, I wasn’t dreaming about work, but it was on my mind so much that it was overtaking my minds at night! Talk about not getting a break!
I was able to learn this pattern and used this is as a indicator to plan some time away from the office.
3. Forgetfulness/impaired concentration and attention. You have a lack of focus and maybe some forgetfulness. This is impacting your work. When you cannot focus you are not able to produce your best work. And you certainly cannot be efficient. In the world of ‘do more with less’, you need to bring you’re a game which requires focus. You are going to produce lesser quality work and take longer to do it.
Do you see the vicious cycle?
4. Cynicism or pessimism. This shows up in your self-talk. You start telling yourself, your incapable an imposter, you only see the downside of things and may even start to have trust issues with co-workers, friends or family. The ‘why bother’ mindset creeps in.
If you are doubting yourself or feeling like you do not deserve your position that mindset is going to have a negative impact on the quality of your work, your ability to lead your team and your ability to collaborate with peers.
Relationships are key to success in industry and if you are the naysayer in the group you will not be in the group long.
This is not the same as having to say the proposal, policy or process does not comply with a regulation. That is completely different. That is a fact-based statement! I am talking about thinking you can’t improve any process or enter a new segment because there are too many regulations without evening looking at the possibilities or that thinking no matter what you offer they just dismiss you so you do not even bother.
5. Of course, there are physical symptoms. Stress and lack of down time are going to take a toll on your body. It is a fact that the body needs time to rest and recover. Your personal trainer probably builds in recovery time to your workouts. The same principle applies here too!
Some physical symptoms may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal pain, dizziness, fainting, exhaustion, or headaches.
Let me say it again.
The irony of this is that burnout out keeps you from being your best in any aspect! You are working so hard, sacrificing sleep, rest, downtime in the hopes of making everyone else happy and putting their needs first, but the reality is you are not giving anyone your best!
The Olympics are coming up, do you think those athletes build rest and recovery into their routines! You bet.
If you truly want to serve, be the best leader, the best mother, the best daughter, etc., you have to rest and recover!