If you are a highly ambitious person, getting used to high-flying life, you probably have been pushing yourself hard in reaching for your dream. It could be your career, your business, your next big deal, or it could be trying your best juggling parenting and building the next successful start-up to the best of your capability.
On a normal day, you know your strength, capability and you keep pushing your limit, assured by the knowledge that you can go faster and further. The momentum builds up and you keep pushing forward, covering new ground, celebrating new milestones along the way.
Prolonged Burnout Kills Progress
When burnout strikes
By this rate, you thought no one could stop you. You are probably right, and yet, one morning, you woke up, and you found that all the zeal, confidence, energy and excitement just fizzled out. You found the list of tasks that you would normally tackle with enthusiasm, becomes an overwhelming burden that you would gladly avoid.
Your mind is sluggish, fatigued and the burning fire that fuels your passion is nowhere to be seen. If you have experienced similar symptoms while chasing your dream, then perhaps you are suffering from a burnout. I’ve had my fair share of burnouts, and no matter how you felt, rest assured you will make a come back to your best or even better.
The thought of staying stuck at this helpless overwhelming state, deprived of motivation, may just send a wave of fear down your spine. Well, burnouts are not permanent, yet it could last for a while if you did not actively shake yourself out of it. And if a burnout does last longer than it is supposed to, it DOES cause a setback or two in your on-going plan.
Here are 3 methods on how to recover from burnout.
1. You stop doing what you are doing.
I know. The first thought that raced through your mind is, “But there’s so much to do”, “My business needs me”, “I can’t stop what I am doing now”. Well, in most circumstances, your world will not collapse if you take a day or two off from what you have been doing. If you can delegate the tasks off, do it if you can inform people you are taking a break, do it. Here’s why, the longer you allow to remain burned out, the longer it is going to take to recover from it.
Another good reason to stop what you are doing right now is that your mind is now clamping hard on the problems that you are solving right now. When energy is abundant, it becomes a strong razor-sharp focus. But void of energy, it becomes desperate clinging that drains you empty.
2. Eat, workout, and rest.
Sweating Away Stress
By the time you realized you have nothing left to offer, your body probably has been lacking proper meals, healthy workout and some good rest for God-knows-how-long. The strength, agility, and health of your mind, which provides you with the burning fire relies on a healthy body. Like it or not, it is an undeniable fact that as your body goes through a punishing period, your mind has taken its toll in an exhausting manner.
So do yourself a favor, indulge in some of your favorite food, start hitting the gym or take a jog down the park, and just for once, get enough sleep that you thought you didn’t need. You probably could recover the next day if your burnout is not severe.
If you’ve been too focused on your task recently, start connecting to people around you as you need the buzzing positive energy to refresh you. Or alternatively, you can take a stroll along with mother nature depending on how you recharge best.
3. Training The Mind
Mind conditioning
When you are going through a burnout, you are in a weakened state, physically and mentally. Left unchecked, your weakened mind allows hosts of negative thoughts to creep in, hampering any recovery progress you are to make. Doubts, fear, worries, and anxiety flooded your thought. If you found yourself overwhelmed by the negative thoughts, do remind yourself that this state is only a temporary transition, that as you rise out from this, you will be stronger and better.
When your body has got the rest and attention it needed, it’s time to invest in further developing and training your mind. It’s good to continuously increase your mental capacity the circumstances that cause your burnout will definitely happen again.
I would suggest taking up meditation program as it calms down your mind, and a mind free from anxiety and worry is what you need most recovering from burnout. Also, you probably would like to look at a few energy clearance programs that remove mental blocks so that when you are back in your best element, your mind is as sharp as ever, only with a few mental blocks removed.
When was your last time experiencing a burnout? How did you recover from it? Do share your experience.
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Just awesome post in search of peace confidence and self build up is really great to get calm and peace of mind which is important to physical and mental health together with rest, eat and workout as you suggested. Interesting.
Excellent post and one that I know many people will be able to benefit from!! Everything you said is absolutely bang on! I have crossed paths with burnout too many times in my career and it really did take a toll on me, both physically and mentally.
Something that I wish I had realized sooner was, as you mentioned, coming to terms with the fact that what I was doing WASN’T working!! It therefore needed to change and I didn’t do that for the longest time.
It seems like such a simple concept yet I found myself caught in a vicious cycle that I had a difficult time coming out of. There comes a point when you just have to say enough is enough and evaluate what’s most important in your life, and quite simply, that is yourself!!
Thanks for your wonderful advice and all the best to you,
Anna
Anna,
When we are in the pit of burning out, I would say we are half of what we are. Our thinking becomes clinging and most of our actions are based on negative emotions. Hence the vicious cycle that we are trapped in. It took great effort especially in such a state of mind, to fight off all the anxiety and stop to take a better picture of what we are doing. As with anything, it become easier with practice.
All the best to you too. Thanks for reading.
Kenny
I love your entire Website. I am studying to become a doctor and i find your Website very refreshing. I was recently told that doctors have the highest burnout rate among all the other professions out there. I especially love your mind body approach to the situation. I will be bookmarking your Website. Keep up the good work and thanks for this wonderful article.
– Crystal
Crystal,
Thank you for enjoying my website. Being a doctor is a noble career. One where your heart comes in as equally important as your intelligence. For without the former you would not be at your best. Wish you all the best in what you do. I’ve had my fair share of burnouts, we just need to learn to recover quickly enough to move on.
Kenny
Great tips!
I have never really experienced burnout but I am actively using these methods to avoid it. The human mind and the body are working together. If our mind is not healthy, it affects the body in a negative way and vice versa. But when we take good care of our mind and body, we will usually remain healthy and avoid most of the sicknesses like burnout.
Hi,
I would have to say you are doing a great job to maintain a balance of the mind and body.
Kenny
I cam across this article as this is how I feel at the moment. Everyday just pushing further and further and never actually stopping. I can almost feel that day coming when, as you say, I wake up and the enthusiasm has gone.
This article has made me think. I don’t want to get to that stage. So I am going to take your 3 steps of advice before I get there.
Thank you!
Hi
It is wise of you to see the symptom burnout coming. It is wiser to prevent it from happening than to actually recover from a burnout.
Kenny
Hey that is a great post. I did not notice that i am actually in a burnout state myself until i read it. Well i wish i could take your advice to stop doing whatever i am doing but it will take some time for me to get some or most of the work done before i can go for a holiday. Another thing is that we often use “busy chasing our dream” as an excuse of not having proper meals, not exercising, not giving enough time for our family etc. But finding a balance is also an art which not many of us have.
Hi Axton,
I understand the point that you are stating, of there is too much to do and you would have to complete most of it before you could take your time off. I have went through those and in fact going through similar situation myself. I figured out there’s no way for me to “finished off” my work, as in our responsibilities and commitment just increased. Also, sometimes some friend or families may not we there waiting for us after we have “Finished” everything. So I figured out the best way is to plan a schedule and stick to it. As hard as finding balance is, we still need to get started somewhere. All the best to you.
Kenny
I really needed this! When you’ve got big dreams that are far off, the work to get there can start to seem pointless because you aren’t seeing results. I find that setting very small goals and congratulating myself for reaching them keeps me motivated and going strong. But when all else fails, trying a new hobby breaks up the tedium for me.
Hi,
It’s a bit disheartening when we are making little progress(or so it seems). I like the way you take up new hobby to bring some freshness into the routine.
Kenny