Is your everyday life draining your energy, your emotions and your motivation? Whether you’re working in an office, on a degree or through addiction Recovery, sometimes your professional and personal life can take everything out of you.
Burnout can happen to anyone — but you don’t want to let your drained energy distract you from achieving your goals. If you’re low on fuel, we’re here to fill your tank. Here’s everything you need to know about beating that burnout.
What Is Burnout?
“Burnout” is a term most frequently used to refer to the workplace — but it can apply to any life situation. Defined as a lack of motivation, incentive or energy toward a goal, it’s typically characterized by these three reactions to intense stress:
- Exhaustion: You may feel constant physical and mental fatigue that makes work or progress extremely difficult.
- Cynicism: You may feel bitter, negative or unconvinced of your progress.
- Lack of resolve in your abilities: You may no longer feel capable or worthy of achieving your goals.
Symptoms of Burnout
In addition to the mental fatigue and frustration you feel on a daily basis, burnout often leads to other difficulties at home or at work. The most common burnout symptoms include:
- Emotional exhaustion: When you’re burnt out, you’ll feel emotionally tired as well as mentally tired. You may feel unable to cope with everyday situations, unwilling to contribute to your relationships and incapable of expending emotional energy on anything.
- Reduced progress or performance: Burnout can affect both your everyday tasks and your most important goals. From doing chores to completing tasks at work, even the smallest mental effort can leave you feeling exhausted. You’ll also have difficulty concentrating, lack motivation and feel negative about everything you must do.
- Social alienation: Burnout makes everything seem stressful and not worth the effort — which means people with burnout begin to withdraw from their professional lives, social circles, activities and even families. Burnout can make you feel numb.
- Physical symptoms: When it becomes really bad, the chronic stress of burnout can manifest in physical symptoms like stomach issues, headaches and physical fatigue.
Tips on How to Avoid Burnout
No one wants to succumb to burnout — in fact, you probably want to stop it in its tracks before you feel its full effects. Here are a few strategies for avoiding burnout in the first place:
- Believe in yourself: Practicing self-efficacy is essential to staying motivated. When you believe in your own ability to accomplish your goals, you’ll feel less stressed and more capable of tackling any challenge.
- Practice self-care: It’s crucial to work hard in your career and on your goals, but you can’t work all the time. Take time to take care of yourself — whether that means finding a relaxing, distracting activity or forgiving yourself when you fall short. Before focusing on your work, make sure to focus on your personal needs. Your goals and your sanity go hand-in-hand.
- Get creative: Burnout keeps you from self-motivating, problem-solving and performing well — but creativity does the opposite. Find a creative outlet at work or at home. Flexing your creative muscles in your spare time will help you feel refreshed and recharged when you return to your goal.
- Find support: No one is an island. Finding a supportive network of friends, family members, colleagues or fellow goal-chasers will help reinforce your motivation — and give you a soft place to land.
Recovering From Burnout
Burnout leaves you feeling emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted and frustrated all the time. It can also lead to an intense sense of disillusionment, and you may feel like you’ll never get back on track. Fortunately, with self-care, support and self-efficacy, you can find your way back to believing in your goals.
If you’re struggling with addiction Recovery burnout, know you’re not alone — and your journey is not hopeless. With customized personal plans designed by expert medical professionals, 7 Summit Pathways is here to help. Contact us or schedule an appointment to learn more about your personal Recovery path today.