Passion, Work, Survival, Stress, Burnout & Resilience.
Over the many years, I have coached and mentored many individuals and self-employed clients, who come to me barely keeping it together or holding on due to extreme stress, burdensome and unreasonable demands and overall exhaustion.
With these symptoms, they are clearly heading towards burnout and it’s JUST a question of time before it happens.
The American Psychological Association’s David Ballard, PsyD, describes job burnout as
“an extended period of time where someone experiences exhaustion and a lack of interest in things, resulting in a decline in their job performance.”
Burnout can be caused by a variety of factors, ranging from working long hours regularly, being “connected” 24/7, and the frustration that comes when you don’t have the income you need to keep your business moving in the right direction.
It’s often been said that resilience is a high form of intelligence because if you have it, it’s clear that you have had to adapt and change to life’s complexities, and more importantly, that you have had to let go of some of your more cherished and rotten beliefs along the way.
Whatever the case, resilience is a significant key to overcoming stress and burnout.
Now Resilience is not about being able to power through the challenges and keep going. This, Penny Power in her Book, Business is Personal, describes as the Curse of the Strong.
True resilience is about developing the skills to adapt, recover, and recharge ourselves so we can be productive and satisfied in our careers and lives.
There are a few things that can help you be more resilient:
1. Self -Love/Self-Acceptance, focusing on taking care of yourself physically, emotionally and mentally although these three cannot be separated. If your life has a spiritual component (that can mean many things to many people), this can be a real blessing.
2. Self- Awareness, which said another way, can mean defining what is going to fulfill you at the deepest level, at your core. It can also mean, finding out what’s left after you peel all the layers of the onion. Many Entrepreneurs think that like Tony Robbins, “touching people’s lives,” is going to do the trick, when all that really means is being known, liked and followed on Social Media and then perhaps making a ton of money from that “touching people’s lives,” strategy.
If you’re really touching people’s lives, great but you’re going to be really stressed if you’re making that a strategy AND it’s clearly not working for many like we see so often on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. And these are the people that burn out. So, understand why you’re really trying to “help” people before in fact you have even solved your own problems.
3. Focus On Your Strengths. Are you using your strengths in your career and your personal life, or are you constantly trying to do everything for everyone? Take an honest look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and see how you can leverage your strengths more effectively and minimize your weaknesses. Trying to become GREAT at what you’re weak has mostly proved a disaster for Entrepreneurs. What do you really LOVE doing and would you do it if you were never paid?
4. Avoid Isolation. Connection is about cultivating relationships because strong relationships are a vital part of life and career/job satisfaction, so don’t try to go it alone, (especially in Business), unless you want a very unsatisfying experience. Limit time with people who seem to drain you of all your energy (energy vampires) and mix with those friends and people who, after parting ways, leave you feeling inspired, uplifted and accepted.
5. Alone Time. Most of us will do anything at all to avoid spending time with ourselves, including but not limited to social reformation, concern with politics, going to the club, ramming our religious and political beliefs down people’s throats, “touching people’s lives,” going to the movies, watching TV endlessly, helping people become “financially free,” and all sorts of other time-wasting crap.
And to some degree or other, we are or have all been guilty of that. Doing all these things is just another strategy to never, ever come to our own Aloneness and experience the incredible deep relaxation that follows.
6. Trying Something New. If what you’re doing is becoming increasingly boring and soul-less, try something else before it’s too late. INNOVATE. I’m not going to tell you how to juggle your passion with money and survival, that’s your job. What do you love doing, reading, listening to, watching, participating in, talking about? Keep exploring new possibilities and see what REALLY lights your fire.
Here’s to YOUR fire!!
Chris Borrett
0410 473 068