How To Beat 3 Kinds Of Life Sapping Burnout


By Ange Fonce


Many men and women can suffer from “burn out” and burn out is not only a business or work problem... it goes way beyond that... I will share with you how to take down all three kinds of burn out. 

Exhaustion
 
Plain and simple... feeling wiped out wondering if the dead have it easier and better.. .wondering what you are doing HERE... wanting that someone would come in... scream and yell to break the monotony... wondering if your brain will ever get back in its body.

It is hard to give a dictionary definition to "burnout"...  yet most men and women recognizes it when they feel it and NO ONE needs to suffer from burn out any more... there seem to be three basic kinds of burnout and there are very different considerations for the solutions to all three... which type of burnout you have will determine your path out of the misery. 

The first kind of burnout is one of I have written about before... it happens when someone is working hard at something they do not believe in or even like... it is... 




Living The Ethical Dilemma


I talk to a lot of people who tell me that they are not happy doing what they do for a living and then they go on to talk about their discontent and I find out that it is not just one thing or one problem that is easily fixed... almost always... the problem is at more than one level a lot of these men and women are in high pressure... high stress jobs and careers which makes it doubly hard.... take for instance sales men and women suffering from Living the Ethical Dilemma... see people in administration or customer service who do not have to actually sell an inferior product or service...then they watch those other employees go home able to sleep at night...content to return to work yet another day....while they themselves go home after watching customers or clients go home with an inferior service or product. 

Those who are living the Ethical Dilemma though.... are obligated to sell the product or service and not only pay for their own salary... also for those in administration and that causes poor to mediocre performance in all but the most jaded of the individuals I have talked with in this position. 

If you are a sales manager reading this and you see this in your employees and your people have a misperception of your product or service... fix it NOW. 

The resentment toward the company can easily cause self and other sabotage... the resentment toward the non salespeople can also cause significant divisions in the company... here my suggestion has always been to ask for a transfer to another division where they would be selling something they were more on board with or simply leave the company and take their talent somewhere they can stand themselves and here is where Living the Ethical Dilemma comes in... it is not quite that easy. 

What often happens is that in this case... the salesperson is faced with leaving a job that is paying very well even at minimum quota... trying to replace that income starting from scratch is going to be difficult... so they though the emotional and psychological aspects produce at the bare minimum....often pumping up for the first week of the month and closing their eyes the last week of the month... it is not long before the person is burned out. 

Living the Ethical Dilemma is whether to take care of your family or let them down and go to work with significantly lower pay... not an easy dilemma and yet there is no long term alternative... eventually the person with a conscience must leave... the person without conscience develops a psychopathology where they are unfazed by their actions... little can be worse... prospective clients and existing clients just become targets to milk over and over again.

A second type of burnout does not happen for reasons of conscience and for reasons of fulfillment... we often do things that have some reward and little fulfillment. 

For example...

A Psychologist might be rewarded by the therapy she does every day and leaving the office after 9 hours of coping with depression is not fulfilling... it hurts... I can assure you from personal experience... yes I am a Coach and therapist... that is my profession and I am also still a Human Being!

That all can accumulate to what is called... 





The Reward Energy Dilemma


The Reward Energy Dilemma leaves the person rewarded in some way at the end of the day and drained of all energy and a mid afternoon nap is not going to cut it in energizing the person... because this is about desires... motivations and fulfillment... the psychologist might want to be writing books or riding horses for her livelihood when instead she does something she is good at and ends up out of energy at the end of the day. 

Here is a not on the job and back in school example that you may remember as well... 

I remember being in English Lit or related classes from year 6 through school.... years of English and Literature were required to get a Good A level to get into college so you took English Lit whether you liked it or not... your reward? 

Getting into college of course... I did not like English Lit... did not care about Shakespeare then or Voltaire or any of the dead guys... Gullivers Travels... Dantes Inferno and a couple others excepted... although it very different now... I love Shakespeare and have read the rest.

I remember spending what were big bucks in those days on Cliffs Notes which were summaries of the various books that had an anesthetic like effect on my brain... without Cliffs Notes I never would have made it into college... I recently unpacked some old Cliffs Notes and the faded yellow and black booklets brought back memories for this article... 

Sitting in class... the various teachers of this stuff had a similar pattern... they would ask questions about the story line which I could fudge when answering because of Cliffs Notes and questions about style which I simply said...

"I do not have a clue how to describe...."

I worked as hard as I could to read the books and my brain would often force me to read the same paragraph 10 times or more because the information simply would not register or enter my brain.... 6 consecutive years of English Literature and I do not recall one teacher... their names... faces... nothing... I had burned out and early and yet I remember the names of my Art teachers.... Miss Cliton and Miss Dibble as I loved Art with a passion and still do... yet my true love has grown to be the Art of Science.

I did not like what I was doing... trying to learn and I saw no reason or logical value in the classes... it made little sense to me why reading 400 year old books would be relevant to just about any career I might find myself in when I grew up. 





STOP! 


Read that again... I did not like what I was doing... trying... I saw no reason... no logical value... made little sense... irrelevant. 

That is the Reward Energy Dilemma. 

If you hear yourself or someone you care about using those phrases... they are in a spin cycle that does NOT go up or recover on it is own... make sense? 

Those are the code phrases and code words... so listen for them in yourself and in everyone around you... my personal pain mirrored many others... it seemed like an exercise in futility to label various parts of sentences and paragraphs we would write subjects... predicates and then gerunds... direct objects and participles that dangled and yes I am still confused about them? 

I wondered as early as junior high how any of these things ever could come into play in any part of life... not only did I not like any of it... there was no meaning... context or purpose in it for me... I did not like weeding the yard... yet I could see a purpose to it.... I did not like shoveling the driveway... yet I could see a purpose to it. 

I sat there for hours... for what seemed a decade doing work I absolutely abhorred and for what was almost certainly a total waste of life time... burned out at 12 years old... many people experience this in their work and become burned out. 

There is a reward... money perhaps or maybe the person likes the people in the office and they are not being fulfilled... and feeling good about their life... the solution is for the person to eventually move into work that they like without creating a bridge that takes them out too quickly to destabilize their life or too slowly to continue the burnout as it burns their life out... then there is a 3rd type of burnout...




Burnout Syndrome


Burnout Syndrome was named by Gail North and Herbert Freudenberger... I swear that is the mans name! 

Here the person can be burned out even when they find their work fulfilling and they love to do it... over time this person willingly puts in more hours... more time... more work... becomes better at the job and loves the work... the perfect employee. 

Unfortunately this person leaves no time for anything except work... this causes cognitive dissonance where the brain says it needs to have the family back or be doing yoga and the body is working and working. 

A revision of values takes place and working becomes the sole criteria for fulfillment... the person becomes isolated from friends... family and they become cynical and aggressive toward those in their environment. 

This person becomes fearful... shy and apathetic on the inside... they feel worthless... their work after all serves no significant purpose at this point... they ultimately become depressed... maybe after seeking out addictions or wild behaviour to solve the emptiness they feel inside... there are a few ways to rise from burnout according to Grit Vollmer. 

First... simple things like eating well and getting enough rest go a long way... so often the burned out person does not take time for sleep or naps. 

Second... a hobby or activity is a must... running... music... yoga... etc... anything is better than the single focus life that leads to depression. 

Third... the person should attempt to bring a person or people into their life again... the burned out person needs to connect or reconnect with friends. 

Finally... the ability to engage in self Love and meditation for things like progressive muscle relaxation can be very helpful. 

Regardless of which of the three types of burn out you or someone you care about has... it is worth remembering that life is short and as John Lennon said... 

"This ain't no dress rehearsal." 

And he was right. 

Fix it now... eat well and get plenty of rest... develop a Hobby or regular enjoyable activity... connect... reconnect with people... engage in self love for relaxation.

And that concludes my conversation with you for this article.

Have you any thoughts or comments you would like to share with me on what I have written?

I would love to hear from you.

Thank you and may you enjoy a Prosperous and Dynamic day!

Yours Sincerely




Intellectual Badass... noun

1... A person with a penchant for Science... creativity... books... writing... communication... fitness... women... sexing... sexuality... human relationships... psychology... physiology and any other area involving heavy use of the Intellect.

2... A bright kick arse person and glamorously Intelligent!

3... Ange is an Author... Speaker and Dynamic Peak Performance Personal Development Consultant... and Humanistic Counselling Psychologist and Sexologist... who works with those men and women who desire to personally develop themselves and their relationships to become Dynamic Lifers... creators of their own life... relationships and wealth! 

4... If you are Happy and you Know it... you are becoming a Dynamic Lifer!


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