Burnout: Take Something Off Your Plate
Burnout is a serious mental health issue that needs to be addressed immediately if you notice symptoms.
“You need to take something off your plate.”
My therapist told me this a few weeks before I quit my job as a General Manager. We were discussing managing my stress levels, and I was venting about how it felt like I couldn’t manage my personal life and work. During that conversation, we were discussing stress relief strategies such as meditation, exercising, & journaling. These strategies only provided temporary relief, but burnout was already setting in, and I could feel it.
I began to care less about my job, I became a cynic at work, I was irritated, my self-esteem dipped, I was anxious about work (even on my days off), resentment had set in & I barely had the energy to do simple tasks at home.
Additionally, I fell behind on my schoolwork, and my relationships with my friends/family were impacted as well. I was feeling the effects of burnout and it was clear I needed to make some changes in my life to improve my well-being.
What is Burnout?
According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, Burnout is a “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes towards oneself and others.”
The World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome associated with chronic stress with work, situations at home, and other factors.
Burnout can have negative effects on your health and your personal life. The important factor to note from burnout is that in its early stages, it is not easy to spot warning symptoms until it’s too late.
When we’re driving a vehicle, we can tell when the gas tank is getting low in our vehicles and we need to stop and refill. However, if we’re talking about constantly going without managing our gas tank meter, we’ll hit empty without realizing it.
It is much easier to refill your gas tank from half-full rather than empty.
Here is a resource that defines more clearly what burnout is:
https://mentalhealth-uk.org/burnout/
What To Do if You Feel You’re Burned-Out
1.) Prioritize your mental health — I can’t stress how important this is. Prioritize your mental health over your relationships & work. It’s time to be selfish, develop a routine to take care of your mental health and incorporate that time into your daily routine. I would highly recommend seeing a therapist for professional help with your mental health.
2.) Practice Mindfulness — Practicing mindfulness means just being emotionally present. One of the most important things you can do is practice breathing. I like to practice inhaling for four seconds and exhaling for four seconds but there are different exercises you can use as well. The important piece of breathing is to ground yourself and be present at the moment. You can also practice mindfulness by meditating and journaling, both tools are helpful.
3.) Set Boundaries — With some jobs, there is no work-life balance because our jobs can access us at any moment, 24/7. How many jobs now have team apps? Where anyone can message the group chat at any time of the day, a perfect example would be to silence the app after you clock out of your shift. If it’s important, your coworkers can call you/message you directly. Your boss nor your coworkers should have access to you 24/7, that’s not normal.
4.) Exercise & Diet — Almost any exercise can help improve your overall health and reduce the symptoms of stress. Incorporate any exercise you wish into your daily routine, walking is easiest for me so I make it a goal to incorporate walks into my daily routine. I put exercise and diet into one category because it’s important to take care of your body just like you would with your mental health.
Take Something Off Your Plate
When dealing with burnout, some of the common action items we hear about are protecting your mental health, exercise/diet, journaling, etc., but we hardly hear about identifying stressors that we can remove.
While the previous steps mentioned above to take care of your physical and mental well-being are a priority, there is one piece of advice I wish I saw more of. That advice is, ‘Take something off your plate’. Taking something off your plate can mean something different from person to person, for me, it meant removing the biggest stressor in my life, and at that time it was my job as a General Manager.
Sometimes, we take on too much and therefore need to identify something on our plate that we can either delegate to someone else or remove entirely. When dealing with burnout, some of the common action items I normally read are protecting your mental health, exercise/diet, journaling, etc., however, I think identifying stressors in your life that are damaging to your mental health should be taken off your plate immediately.
If you have a job and or relationship that is damaging to your mental health consider seeking support from your friends/family and professional help.
Thank you for reading!
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