How to Know if You’re Burnt Out
And what you can do about it.
It was only seven-thirty and I was exhausted. Lying on the couch, muscles sore and aching, I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt my eyelids fluttering shut, my head nodding off against the arm of the chair. I snuggled deeper beneath the blanket and gave myself permission to rest.
There were a hundred different things vying for my attention. My dog wanted to play and my mother chattered to me happily across the room like she couldn’t see me drifting away.
There were blog posts to be written, emails I should have returned hours ago. Part of me felt like I should still be reaching out to clients, that I should be on Twitter or LinkedIn marketing myself or looking for jobs.
A big part of me was so eager, so in a hurry to jump-start my writing career that it screamed at the rest of me to stay awake. It ignored my mind’s desperate need to power down and my body’s raging immune response. There wasn’t time to rest when there was so much work to be done.
I knew I was right on the cusp of burn out. I knew the symptoms. I’d experienced them and ignored them before.
But this time, I told myself, this time, it would be different. I wouldn’t ignore my body desperately screaming out for a chance to just be. I wouldn’t push my…
