Burn-Off Before Burnout
Rather than succumbing to the all-consuming flame of burnout, minimise the damage with a controlled burn from time-to-time.
In Australia, my home, our landscape is prone to devastating bushfires. As I write this, fires are blazing through my country, taking lives and homes in its wake. The effects of these deadly fires are brutal.
One strategy to reduce the impacts of bushfires is through the use of controlled burns, or burn-offs. In a controlled and strategic manner, trained people burn areas of land to reduce the potential fuel of a bushfire. Wild bushfires are inevitable in many parts of Australia, but hopefully, through the reduction of fuel, these fires are more manageable and less devastating.
The principle of burn-off can be applied to burnout.
Burnout
The term burnout is used to describe a state of complete exhaustion caused by prolonged stress. Whether it be emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, social or all of the above, burnout can affect all parts of your life. It might start as a work-related issue but it can spill out into your family life and your friendship network.
Feelings of being overwhelming, hopelessness and a lack of motivation are signs of burnout. For many people, burnout starts as innocently as sheer enthusiasm and a desire to achieve highly in a new role. Yet, before you know it, this enthusiasm is overcome by a new set of stressors and waning optimism. Then its snowballs from there as this stress starts to consume you and takes you to a point where that role that once excited you has now sucked the life out of you.
Burnout can lead to behaviours and emotions that can have pretty harmful effects. The desire to escape — leaving a job, moving away, isolating oneself — can cause some serious damage. So can trying to push through burnout.
Pushing through or putting up with it by doing nothing about it can lead to a chronic state of burnout. Here, nothing gives you joy, everything is hard work and motivation does not exist. This is why we must be aware of when we are on the brink of burnout so we can do something about it.
On the Brink of Burnout
That moment when you realise you’re teetering on the brink of burnout is a pivotal moment. Unfortunately, many people don’t realise it but the fact that you’re reading this suggests that you may be quite aware of your situation. Awareness that you may be about to burnout is a gift.
Maybe it was that moment you caught yourself hating the very job you so did so passionately for so long. Perhaps it was when you struggled to find the motivation to do something you’ve always loved doing. There are moments where we catch ourself off-guard. When we’re surprised, or even upset or angered, by our mindset, that could be a sign that you’re on the brink of burnout.
Like bushfires, if you give burnout enough fuel, it can cause devastation in your life. You could lose your job, your family and your friends — or worse, you could lose yourself.
Therefore, we need to embrace the principle of burn-off. If it seems like burnout is coming, start reducing the fuel that allows burnout to thrive.
Burn-Off
Burn-off and actual bushfires can look quite similar on the surface, but the distinction is that one is properly planned and conducted in the controlled conditions, whilst the other is not.
When it comes to burnout and the principle of burn-off, let’s think about it as though it’s a form of controlled burnout. It might look a little bit like burnout, except it’s planned, controlled and purposeful.
For the sake of this analogy, let’s think about burn-off as a deliberate effort to remove potential stressors to reduce the fuel of burnout. Whilst full-blown, genuine burnout says ‘run away and never come back’, this burnout says ‘I’m just getting some breathing space, I’ll be back soon.’
Working through each potential factor of burnout can be helpful to identify areas that need a little bit of maintenance. Exploring physical, social, mental, emotional and spiritual factors, let’s develop some strategies to perform a controlled burn.
Physical
Poor physical health is like throwing gasoline over a fire — it’s only going to make that thing grow. I know this isn’t very profound, but getting better sleep, eating well and exercising regularly can reduce the impact of burnout. This isn’t anything you’ve heard before.
I know that when I’m sleep-deprived, hungry and haven’t had a chance to burn some energy, I can be especially irritable. Being irritable and on the brink of burnout is a dangerous mix.
These are some simple steps you can take to slow down the approach of burn out.
- Go to sleep and wake up at regular times. Find some sort of routine to ensure you get the right quality and quantity of sleep.
- Assess your eating habits — is it time to change your diet?
- Develop an exercise routine. It doesn’t have to be strenuous, but start getting your body moving, allowing for a more productive place to offload that bent up stress.
Implementing some basic strategies to help your physical health can go a long way to minimising the effects of burnout.
Social
This one can get complicated as we all have different needs and desires when it comes to our social life. Understanding how your social life is impacting your burnout will help you decide how to approach this.
For some, isolation may be contributing to their burnout. Perhaps your work requires you to spend hours or days in isolation. If so, it’s probably wise you seek out time with the people you value. There can be the temptation to continue to grow more isolated, but understanding that some social time might just be the break you need to shortcircuit your growing distaste for your work.
For others, excessive social interaction could be playing a big part in your burnout. A big part of your role may involve a wide range of relationships and your struggling to find time for yourself. Carving out some intentional alone time could be just the remedy. Switch off from social media, bunker down at home and take a breather.
Take time to assess how your social life is impacting your burnout. Maybe you need to spend more social time with loved ones, or perhaps you need to take a break from people. Work out what you need and schedule it in.
Mental
When you’re burning out, you may find that your mental health is the most drained of all. It’s where all the stress lives, all those thoughts that keep pushing you to burnout. Addressing our mental needs can be the biggest challenges.
One of the worst things about burnout is that all the things that used to invigorate you feel like hard work and don’t seem to give you that same buzz of inspiration anymore. Finding love for those things is a challenge but one you must overcome to prevent full-blown burnout.
The first step is to give your mental health some space to breathe. Rather than forcing yourself into loving those invigorating activities again, find a space to let your mind just be. One of the reasons we get burnt out in the first place is that we have crammed our mind with so much stuff, it overcooks itself.
Find one simple thing you can do that requires next to no mental strain and make it a habit. For me, it’s sitting in an armchair whilst drinking a cup of coffee in silence. No distractions, just me and the sensory experience of drinking that coffee — taking in the smell and taste of it. I do it every morning, giving my mind time to rest, preparing me for the mental burdens that lay ahead.
What your simple habit that you can implement to give your mind some rest?
Emotional
If you’re burnt out, your ability to feel emotions can significantly reduce. You may have numbed yourself to a broad spectrum of emotions to protect yourself from the strain that led you to burn out, but we can’t stay in this place.
Rather than trying to force feeling emotions again, it might be helpful to start writing down your experiences. Through the written expression of your experiences, you may start to identify the emotions you are experiencing.
Too often we let life go by so quickly then we end up in places like burnout wondering how we got there. By writing down our experiences we can start to see trends and patterns in our lives, making our emotional experience clearer than we thought.
Take some time out at the end of each day to write down anything of note in the day just gone. It can be as brief or as detailed as you require. You might be surprised about what you notice.
Spiritual
Whether or not you associate with a form of organised religion, spirituality is a part of who you are to some degree. Where we seek meaning in life and it’s experiences speaks to a form of spirituality.
In a place of burn out, our life may seem void of meaning, yet it is meaning that makes life all that more bearable.
Spirituality is a highly subjective and personal experience, so I’m hesitant to give direct advice on the matter, but consider this question when you’re in a place of burnout.
Why did you start?
Deeply contemplating the reason you started a role, a task, a project, could help remind you of the meaning to what you’re doing. A gentle reminder of why you started may give deeper meaning to your experiences.
Your Burn-Off Plan
Carefully consider each of these factors of burnout and come up with your personal Burn-Off Plan. Burn-off the things that are contributing to your declining state. Find what works for you and implement it.
Remember, burnout can become a lifelong problem that can derail you and your dreams. When you find yourself teetering on the edge of burnout, this is a healthy thing. Many people don’t realise it and before they know it, they are completely burnout. Acknowledging that you’re on the brink is an important step, now you must do something about it.
Reduce the fuel for burnout by burning it off in a controlled and carefully planned manner.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go and do the same.
