Burnouts

Burnouts

Is one of your crisis being a burnout of your own or others?
Or have you ever heard of a burnout and maybe want to prepare for it in case it happens to you or other?
If, yes then I have some tips:

The cause of a burnout?

• Excessive and prolonged stress causing exhaustion, emotionally, mentally, and physically.
• Burnout is an extension of stressed condition.
• Main cause comes from constant demands from the environment and feeling overwhelmed by not being able to meet such demands.

At Work:

• Lack of control in work, lack of recognition or rewards at work, unclear and demanding work environment, unchallenging work, and highly chaotic and pressured work environment.

In Lifestyle:

• Not giving self a time to relax and socialize.
• Highly expected to do and be someone by others and lack dedication of work.
• Not enough help.
• Not enough sleep.
• Lack of support system.

Personality causes:

• Perfectionist
• Pessimistic
•  “I can do all by myself” or “No one can do better than me” tendencies.
• Control freak
• Type A personality

How to avoid it?

• Realize the sign by the lack of motivation and reduction in interest.
• Realize that minor feeling of boredom, overload, and feeling of unappreciated leads to the burnout.
• Recognize signs of a burnout which are:
• Caring less of life, work, and home.
• Feels that every single day is a bad day or feels sad or angry all the time.
• Physically exhausted all the time.
• Find yourself doing task that you doubt if you need to do it or it is dull.
• And you say “nothing will change,” “nothing will make a difference,” and you feel not heard and appreciated.
• Recover the damage by managing stress and seeking support.
• Create a context (environment) that is supportive, start with friends, family, and team mates.
• Build resilience towards stress by taking care of one’s mental, physical, and emotional health.

Prevention strategies:

• Have a relaxing ritual daily, such as morning exercise, meditation, breathing exercise, gratitude list which takes 2 to 15 minutes.
• Strategies to have healthy eating, exercise and sleeping habits.
• Learn how to say “NO” and set boundaries.
• Take a break from technologies (i.e., cellphones, ipads, laptops, etc.)- individuals are too connected to negative messages.
• Be creative and do things that taps into the creative part of the brain to keep motivation high.
• Learn stress management so it never turns into burnout.

What needs to be done to get over it?

• ONCE you have passed the point of BURNOUT
• Take a “pause” to slow down and to really solve the problem.
• Open up to friends and get support.  Simple sharing of feeling to others will reduce the stress. (Based on research).
• Revisit your goals and priorities.  Individual needs to refocus on the ultimate goals in life and make decision accordingly.
• CUT the loss short! Individuals usually have lost some in the process of burnout and feels they need to keep going in order to resolve the issue or have difficulty to discontinue.  However, the true choice may be cutting the loss short.

MORE SPECIFIC STRATEGIES:

• Actively tackle the problem by reporting to the supervisor or the individual who is causing the problem.
• Clarify your expectation or job descriptions to understand you own duties and responsibilities and do those first and do not take other task.
• Ask for new assignments or duties for a change.
• Take a vacation!