Here's a hot take I heard from a CEO coach last year. She thought burnout was the bodies response of saying that you are literally going to die if you keep working
Burnout here years ago. Accompanying depression and anxiety disorders.
It's not about what you actually do or don't do, it's more about how you manage your life and what your view of everything is. I haven't really been the hardest working or the most productive.
I feel like people who say that, it's like a way to compensate for that failure by projecting an image of super hard working people who have reached exhaustion or great competitive athletes who have reached failure. And I think that no, you can get burnout with a bad management of your life, your way of thinking, and with some really bad habits, and above all "stress that has not been successfully managed" [0].
I have recovered (or so I think) but I can't make as much mental effort as before, I feel that I reach my "limit" earlier, and that if I continue I can end up the same as before. But I can work on long term projects being constant. But I feel that I can't push myself like before.
Also we need to remember that the body response is the correct response in all such situations. We need to trust our bodies more, they encompass all the data from millions of years of evolution.
Trapped between a rock and a hard place. You can't keep working because you are burnt out, but you can't stop working because there are bills to pay.
Obviously not a problem exclusive to people living paycheck to paycheck, but it certainly would be easier to deal with if you could take some time to recover without financially ruining yourself or worse.
I'm taking plenty of multi-month brakes, but they don't feel like recovery. As soon as I'm back to work, after the initial honeymoon that lasts maybe 3-5 weeks, I'm already contemplating quiting the job again.
3 months wasn't enough for me to be fair, I did half capacity freelancing remotely for about two years and that was what allowed me to re-engage with work in a healthy manner. I learned a lot about my limits, how to work within them and how to spot when I'm draining my bucket so to speak.
I've been doing the dame every year for years. I'm not sure how to get out of this cycle. I will try some meditation and some healthier lifestyle and hopefully it'll help but I can't be sure.
When was a time that life wasn't a pay-to-play game? I'd argue that today, the "pay-to-play" cost is the cheapest it has ever been for the largest number of people on earth.
All until the last 100 years or so. Back when you could still reasonably survive on sustenance farming in the middle of nowhere. Today, there is no middle of nowhere anymore - wherever you go, there are people there, and an economy, and taxes to pay.
It's not about what you actually do or don't do, it's more about how you manage your life and what your view of everything is. I haven't really been the hardest working or the most productive.
I feel like people who say that, it's like a way to compensate for that failure by projecting an image of super hard working people who have reached exhaustion or great competitive athletes who have reached failure. And I think that no, you can get burnout with a bad management of your life, your way of thinking, and with some really bad habits, and above all "stress that has not been successfully managed" [0].
I have recovered (or so I think) but I can't make as much mental effort as before, I feel that I reach my "limit" earlier, and that if I continue I can end up the same as before. But I can work on long term projects being constant. But I feel that I can't push myself like before.
[0] https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupat...