How to Navigate Out of Burnout Land

Your alarm clock goes off in the morning after being snoozed for the third time. You drag out of bed to get ready for work. Once you’re there, you slog through your workload, feeling like none of it has a point. And as soon as you’re home, you’re dreading going back to work the next day.

Welcome to Burnout Land. Current population: you and roughly 50% of working folks.

While the description above may sound similar to feeling stressed, burnout is more than just stress. In fact, it’s characterized by three main factors:

• Physical/emotional exhaustion
• Cynicism
• Sense of ineffectiveness or a lack of motivation

Since burnout, like stress, doesn’t have a definite medical “diagnosis,” it can run on anyone for a while. Some signs (insomnia, pessimism, lack of enjoyment, increased irritability) may mimic symptoms of mental illnesses, making it even harder to spot.

In the modern workplace, the rate of burnout is worse than ever. Brad Stulberg, co-author of Peak Performance, states that burnout rates across all job fields in Amerca stand at about 40–50%. Individuals in high stress positions like physicians, nurses, teachers and social workers can have even higher rates of burnout.