Overcoming Career Burnout
First of all: been there, done that…. many times. I’ve had just about every shape and size of burnout. It’s an occupational hazard of being a helping professional. And, yet, therapists and other “do-gooders” are not alone in our struggle against burnout. All professionals must be mindful of job burnout if we are to be sustainable and effective in our work. Here are some of the most important lessons in burnout prevention that I have learned along the way and share with my clients.
Notice YOUR signs of burnout. Job burnout often starts out slow and can be hard to notice in the beginning. Do you wake up with a sense of dread at the thought of going to work? Are you tempted to call in sick, when really you are just sick of work? Do you feel undervalued and underappreciated? Are you feeling more and more distracted at work and less and less productive? Burnout can look different for all of us, and only through tuning in with our own basic needs and discomforts will we be able to recognize our own signs of burnout. Recognizing burnout is the first step to doing something about it.
Soothe your body in moments of stress. We know that memories are encoded more permanently when we experience emotional extremes or high stress. This is why many people describe a kind of instant replay of thinking about negative experiences over and over again long after the stressful event has passed. Your body has a natural alarm system for stress. Many individuals experience heart palpitations, muscle tension, shortness of breath, and other aches and pains when they are feeling stressed. You can decrease the likelihood of thinking about work after hours if you are able to tune into these signs of stress and soothe yourself physically — either in the moment of the initial stress, or afterwards when you struggle to stop thinking about it. Practice slow and gentle belly breathing. Progressively tense and relax different muscle groups. Drink a warm and calming beverage. Run in place as fast as you can for one minute. Do whatever your body needs to do to feel grounded and soothed. Even when a deadline is fast approaching, or when you are in a crisis situation, it is worth taking a moment to calm your body so that you can respond to work demands more effectively.
Take vacations, duh… OK, now actually do it. Studies show that vacations have a significant impact on emotional health and wellbeing. And, yet, many of us struggle with actually setting time aside in our schedules to take vacations. Prioritizing vacations is important to promoting long-term sustainability. And, don’t just GO on vacations, but immerse yourself in every detail of the vacation before and after the actual vacation. Savor the planning of a vacation and get lost in all of the little details. Spend time thinking about the fantasy of your vacation and savor the experience afterwards. Make this your happy place. Keep in mind that vacations are prone to a fade-out effect for lasting benefits, so you will have to balance the pleasure of intermittent vacations with long-term sustainability strategies.
Live your values at work. Finding meaning in your work will boost satisfaction and help curb job burnout. This does not necessarily mean that you have to work at a non-profit or be a public servant to connect work with your core values. This, of course, means that you must first reflect on what your core values even are. What is most important to you? Providing for your family? Innovating and creating something new? Making a positive difference in the world? Promoting equality? Safeguarding the environment? Even when your job does not explicitly promote your specific goals and values, ask yourself how can you bring personal meaning to your work. Can you advocate for company policies that will improve the quality of the work environment for staff? Can you join a task force to solve specific problems at your work? Can you join a company campaign to give back to the community? Can you reach out to an employee who is struggling on the job to offer your support? When a job is unsatisfying, look for ways to enrich that work with a personal expression of your values.
Give yourself a chance to regroup completely every once in awhile. Is this the job that I want to have? Is this the position or project that I want to have? If not, visualize what is. Even if it doesn’t feel achievable right now, visualize it anyways. Sometimes you will only see the hazy outline of an idea, and it can take a long time to fill in the specific details, but let yourself daydream anyways. Someday you will know exactly what you want and giving yourself the space to regroup will help you get there.
Practice a rich fantasy life. Don’t like where you are in this moment? Let your mind take you away — even if for just a moment — to a lovely, relaxing, and peaceful place instead. Maybe your happy place is a deserted island, a favorite memory from childhood, or just the idea of a feeling that you’d like to have — the warmth of the sun on your back, a cool breeze across your cheek, or the tightness of a hug from a loved one. Picture every sensation of your desired visualization fully until you notice a slight feeling of restoration. Savor it completely before gently bringing your attention back to your work, knowing that you can always come back to these thoughts at any time.
Say it out loud and get support. The fatigue and exhaustion that comes with burnout can make it difficult to craft a creative response to burnout. Getting a fresh perspective can help. Verbalizing feelings of burnout and getting support from others can validate our experience and help us generate ideas for getting through it. Support can come from a therapist, a partner, a friend, a supervisor, or anyone with a kind ear. They key is not to be left alone with your burnout, because this is not a fun place to hang out.
*** What will you do to overcome job burnout? ***
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Anna Lindberg Cedar, MPA, LCSW is a Bay Area burnout prevention psychotherapist and founder of Therapy for Real Life. Her personal mission is to break beyond the traditional therapy hour to offer expanded access to therapy concepts — adapted for everyday use. Anna specializes in evidence-based therapies for changemakers in her Bay Area counseling practice, in addition to burnout prevention consulting with workplaces far and wide. Anna created the fun and interactive Burnout Prevention Hack-A-Thon, which she facilitates in workplaces across sectors to buffer employees against everyday stresses. Anna makes self-care even more accessible through the Therapy for Real Life podcast. Anna explains burnout prevention strategies drawn from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) — a counseling style that combines Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and other change-based skills with mindfulness and acceptance-based strategies to help you lead a more balanced life. Get to know Anna’s therapy and consulting work through her website and contributions to Teen Vogue, The Mighty, and Medium. You can also find her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
