How Do You Know You Are Close to Burn Out?

This newsletter is for you, particularly if you fit any of the 8 points below or you know someone who does. Do you:-

1.?????Work in a high-pressured environment?

2.?????Have a lot of responsibilities to juggle?

3.?????Focus on getting on and performing at your best all the time?

4.?????Work long hours and still don’t feel there are enough hours in the day?

5.?????Find it difficult to relax or quieten your mind?

6.?????Have good intentions but often feel that work dictates your life?

7.?????Feel that you don’t have a choice?

8.?????Want to find another way of living and working?

?Maybe you’re a perfectionist and people pleaser, or possibly you suffer from imposter syndrome – you know, that feeling you have in the pit of your stomach because your brain is continuously thinking you might be found out.

Does any of this sound familiar??If so, you are in the right place.

This newsletter is designed to help you recognise the warning signs of burnout, what can happen if you ignore those signs but more importantly what you can do to prevent it.?

Over the coming months I will share with you lots of practical steps you can immediately apply, to improve your current situation and help you have more success in your career, relationships, health, and wellbeing.?

You will hear about real people’s stories, who have found a sustainable way of working in very demanding corporate environments and are thriving.?You can too if you take action now.

There will also be links to conversations with people who share how they manage to thrive at the top.?If you would like to share your top tips too, please do get in touch and we can arrange a call.

This topic is important to me.?It’s so important I actually wrote a book about it, called STOP , which is an Amazon Best Seller

I wrote the book for my younger self.?It’s the book I wish I had read back when I was in my mid-thirties working for Goldman Sachs.?It’s the book that might have prevented my burnout and the significant consequences that unfolded from that.?It’s the wake-up call I wish I’d had.

I wrote it for uber busy professionals who just want some practical guidance on how reduce their stress and have a more enjoyable yet successful career/life.

The book is full of ideas that are quick and easy to do that will make a difference, and I will be sharing more excerpts from this book in future newsletters.

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The aim of this newsletter is to help busy professionals like you to: -

·???????Feel less stressed.

·???????Have more energy.

·???????Create more time.

·???????Be more productive.

·???????Feel calmer and more relaxed.

·???????Be more creative.

·???????Be better at problem solving.

·???????Create and sustain better relationships (at work and at home).

·???????Feel like you’re making a positive difference.

·???????Improve your physical and mental wellbeing.

·???????Be more successful.

·???????Earn more money.

And have more happiness and joy!

No mean feat, but I believe this is possible when you understand some basic principles and master the 5 key areas that I will share with you.

?The thing is, I’m likely to be sharing things with you that you already know on some level.?The key question is, are you doing them??If you are great!?If you’re not, ask yourself - what will be the consequences of nothing changing?

?Well, I’ll be telling you what happened to me when I ignored the signs and just kept ploughing on.

?But before I do, let me share some facts.?Are you ready??

?The Problem - What Happened To Me Can Happen To You.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

?― Henry Ford

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Organisation said, “Stress is a global health epidemic”.?Stress is THE epidemic of the 21 Century, brought on by the way we live our lives, where there are huge amounts of uncertainty, continuous change and the ‘always on’ mentality.

The speed and pace of life has exacerbated the situation and our brains are not designed for such a demanding experience.?We were designed for a slower pace and greater simplicity, where survival was key, so feeding and procreating were high on the agenda.?

?A place very far from most people’s lives these days - which are driven by a hunger for more.?More money, more responsibilities, more status, more adventures, more experiences. Bigger and better than anything that has come before us.?

?A life where success is measured in what you have, the large house, the smart car, the exotic holidays, the kids in private school, the private trainer, exclusive restaurants – and not by who you are.?

If corona virus has done anything, perhaps it has allowed people to stop and think about what’s really important to them and given them an option to create a different life.?Instead of a full life - a fulfilling life.

A Few Facts About Mental Health

1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health challenge in our lifetime.?Worse than that, a recent study about ‘Mental Health at Work’ conducted in the UK by McKenzie and Business in the Community, stated that for those under 30, the figure is 3 out of 4!

The reality is – it’s all of us.?

We all have mental health just like we all have physical health, and both go up and down with life’s events, but though they are equally important, we don’t treat them both the same.?

Health and Safety legislation is very clear that our work environments should be safe physically.?But they should be safe for our mental health too. ??

Back in 2017 Teresa May, the then UK prime minister, commissioned Lord Denis Stevenson, and Paul Farmer (CEO of Mind) to look at the state of Mental Health at Work.?In their report called, “Thriving at Work” they concluded that “the UK faces a significant mental health challenge”.

• ?15% of people at work have symptoms of an existing mental health condition.
• 300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem lost their jobs each year and at a much higher rate than those with physical health conditions.
• ?The human cost is huge, with poor mental health having an impact on the lives of many individuals and those around them.
• There is a large annual cost to employers of between ￡33 billion and ￡42 billion (with over half of the cost coming from presenteeism - when individuals are less productive due to poor mental health in work) with additional costs from sickness absence and staff turnover.
• The cost of poor mental health to Government was between ￡24-￡27 billion including benefits, fall in tax revenues and costs to the NHS.
• The cost of poor mental health to the economy was between ￡74 billion and ￡99 Billion per year.?

Globally the WHO estimates the cost of mental health is 64 trillion USD per annum.

?That’s huge!

?In a Sunday Times article in 2016 it was estimated that 3 out of 4 bankers were suffering from insomnia, panic attacks, headaches, and depression.?3 out of 4!?That is staggering and very concerning.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, mental health conditions are now the number 1 cause of sickness, and the 3 main causes of stress, anxiety, and depression were: -

?1.?????Too much to do in too tight a time frame.

2.?????Too much responsibility.

3.?????An unsupportive boss.

Are any of the above familiar to you or someone you know??

Shockingly, suicide is the leading cause of death for men between the ages of 15-49.?And men account for 4 out of 5 cases.?A terrible statistic.

I have known personally of 4 people who have lost their lives due to mental ill health in the last couple of years and this has been one of the catalysts for me to get out there and bang the drum about the issue.?

The thing is that work seems to be taking over our lives.

Over-extending ourselves seems to be a way of life but we are not biologically designed to be in this high stress mode all the time.?Somehow, we have got it in our heads that to be productive and successful we need to work hard and be on the go all the time, when in fact quite the opposite is true.?We are human beings not human doings after all.

How are you coping with today’s fast pace and pressure?

Are you…

·???Working longer hours?

·???Taking on more and more?

·???Sacrificing sleep to get things done?

·???Sacrificing your key relationships to pay the mortgage??

·???Putting your own health at the bottom of the pile?

Be honest with yourself. What will happen if nothing changes??What will be the consequences then?

Many people are living to work rather than working to live.?Aren’t we meant to work so that we can enjoy life? Many seem to have got things mixed up and are sacrificing enjoyment and their health for work.

Chronic stress is insidious and creeps up on you.

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The Scale of the Problem Today

What’s happening right now?

Maybe you are like many of my clients when I first meet them.?They are running around trying to do everything. They may seem on the surface to be doing really well at work, having an impressive title, being promoted often, earning lots of money, being more successful than they dreamed possible.?

And yet underneath they are running to keep up.?Trying to hold it all together and appear like a swan on the surface with their legs spinning under the water just to stay afloat.?Often, they’re worried about dropping a ball and being found out.?They have even told me that they keep expecting someone to tap them on the shoulder and say ‘you’re a fraud’ - imposter syndrome is ever present.

Potentially you’re working long hours and you know it’s not good for you, but you convince yourself it’s not for long and if you can just push through this last bit, you’ll be able to take your foot off the accelerator and relax.?

But that finish line never comes and find yourself exhausted and continuing to push through.?There is always something that needs your attention that you HAVE to do.?No let up.?Just day after day the same old grind.?

On good days you convince yourself, you’ll get to the gym, and it’s all manageable, everyone else is doing it so it must be OK.?Besides it’s just what’s expected of you in your job, working in this type of organisation.?If you’re going to do well, then it must be done, and if you don’t keep up and pull your weight, you’ll be the first for the chop when redundancies come, and you can’t afford for that to happen.?

You have commitments, a mortgage, bills to pay, credit card debt to pay off, holidays you’ve promised your other half, that car you’ve set your heart on, that wedding or special occasion you’re saving up for.?You can’t afford to lose your job because all this would disappear, and you couldn’t face that.

And so, you’re up early every day and from the moment you wake you’re on it.?Busy. Processing emails, juggling tasks at home and at work, multitasking every moment and trying to claim back every minute that feels like its slipping through your fingers.?

You hate it. You know you can’t be doing your best work.?

On bad days it feels hopeless. You’re just not up to it.?Not clever enough, not smart enough.?It’s not possible to do everything.?There must be something wrong with you as others seem to be able to.?You’re stupid. Pathetic. A waste of space.

Then you give yourself a talking to and you’re on it again, taking more on.?You’re good at problem solving and besides, you want to prove yourself. What do they say, ‘If you want to get a job done, give it to a busy person”??

But inside you are thinking, ‘Why did I do that??I am drowning here.’?You just have to get on and get through this.?Head down.

Maybe it hasn't even occurred to you that you can say NO or ask for help.?You’ve been a self-sufficient insecure over-achiever since your time began on this earth.

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It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way?

If any of this sounds familiar – then please know you’re not alone.?There are plenty of people out there doing the same.??It’s normal today, right??I did it too and I’ll tell you more about that another time. ?

But what I want to point out to you is that it doesn’t have to be that way. ?

Have you noticed that there are people out there who seem to be able to take things in their stride??When things go wrong, they may have a short term set back but they soon find a way of getting back on track.

Just imagine what that’s like.?It’s not a pipe dream.?It IS achievable, and over the coming weeks and months, I’d love to show you how.

Next time, I will be sharing what you can do to be one of those people who manage to balance this precarious energy battle.?

Please do message me or email me on [email protected] if you have any questions, or if you would like to know more about the work that I do.

Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to this newsletter, otherwise the good ‘ol algorithm may never show you this newsletter again.?Don’t you just love that.

Here’s to your thriving!!

Sarah Sparks

www.sarahsparks.co.uk [email protected]

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