How do you prevent burnout?
World Health Organization defines burnout as “stress that has not been successfully managed.” Let’s unpack both:
- the external contributors to stress at work
- stress and energy management around the tasks
Roadblocks to workload management
Our inability to adequately respond to overtasking is largely caused by our internal issues. We cannot say “no”, properly prioritize, establish scope boundaries, or delegate. Our dysfunctional beliefs interfere with our ability to define an acceptable and effective workload. Our choice of jobs, tasks, and interactions is compromised by both obvious emotions and underlying biases.
We inadvertently allow others to manipulate us. We deceive ourselves into unbalanced choices. End up spending our energy on the wrong things. Quietly or explicitly disengage, exacerbating the energy drain.
How do you get the internal freedom to choose a meaningful career and maintain a healthy work-life balance? You need to start clearing limiting beliefs, and unproductive habits. Achieve accurate awareness, and self-mastery, — practical skills that can be learned via mind training.
Energy management and emotions
The tasks we miss, cannot deliver, or do not like cannot drain our energy. But our uncontrolled mental activity can easily turn these neutral events into energy black holes. We are not overwhelmed by unanswered emails, but by coinciding fears of doing a bad job or getting fired.
The spirals of underlying worries, microaggressions, and rumination consume a tremendous amount of energy. Once triggered, cortisol, the stress hormone levels remain elevated for hours. We fight or flight through the work day, instead of spending our energy reasonably. If unchecked and carried on, day-to-day emotional undercurrents may lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Emotional Hygiene is how you monitor and prevent emotions that drain you. Reframe their root causes, the outdated beliefs. So they can no longer be triggered by your work situations and exhaust you. Your engagement with tasks and people becomes rewarding and energy efficient.
Resulting balance, a clear internal horizon also helps you recharge easily. A simple break to stabilize your state starts replenishing your battery. Sometimes, if the problem is too big and draining reactions persist, you may need a recharge and reframing weekend or a full retreat.
To recap
- Improve your awareness and self-mastery to make educated, and balanced work-life choices
- Prevent draining reactions via Emotional Hygiene and reframing
- Learn how to recharge organically and sustain your energy levels
- Achieve and maintain the desired well-being baseline