Are You Afraid of Burnout?

We need to talk about it

For someone who is all about getting sh*t done, I can’t help noticing that there is an emerging theme over on the blog area of my website: rest and stopping more.

There is a reason for that and it’s the quickest topic for getting heads nodding in a room:?BURNOUT.

Or rather fear of burnout, that murky place beyond stress.

Once visited, it’s a place that nobody wants to return to, which ironically, adds a spiky layer of stress into already stressful periods of life.

There is a lot to unpack. I’ll be doing a follow up article looking at research into burnout, including 'The Burnout Report', published in January 2024 by Mental Health UK.

The World Health Organisation defines ‘burnout’ as being work place based, but it is more than that.

There are three aspects to burnout:

• Exhaustion
• Increased mental distance & numbing in relation to work, often with increased negativity & cynicism
• Reduced work speed & efficiency

To these, I’d add another. The inevitable way it will show up in the overwhelmed and exhausted body – increased acute infections, gradually getting more severe, with the emergence of chronic conditions. This is one of the reasons why I advocate stopping every hour, and not saving up the aaaaall the stopping for major illness and the inevitable months of recovery, like I had to do in 2018, that time I got pneumonia.

I first heard about burnout years ago. It was from a high flying city type who had cooked themselves being a yuppie working as a City trader. They had written an article about how they had had to go home to their parents and were unable to work or do anything meaningful for nine months. Living and working in the Oxford scientific research community, I was aware of similar experiences from Oxford students, fatigued from the stress of essay crises during their short eight week terms. This was clearly something for ‘those’ privileged, high flyer types. It seemed to particularly affect hard working women, the strivers and perfectionists striking out in a man’s world, underappreciated for their efforts.

Except it isn’t about gender, or privilege. It’s about lack of agency and lack of appreciation. In the less privileged, it shows up as people working themselves into an early grave, doing long hours in harsh working conditions for little pay. It’s not reported in the same way as this group are less likely to have friends who edit broadsheets.

Trauma plays a role too, especially if it is fresh, because it destroys resilience.

I came across a vivid metaphor the other day (a meme on Instagram, probably). Rather than pouring from an empty cup, try boiling an empty kettle - the stakes are so much higher! A wrecked kettle, cooker and a burnt down house. Pressing on regardless when experiencing unwelcome and unanticipated life events could burn you out. I know this from experience.

I got a sharp reminder recently when I was asked to help out with the immediate aftermath of my next door neighbour’s sudden death. It’s the flipside of being part of a community – the unquestionable stepping up to help those around us in their time of need. But there is a price to pay. Within a few seconds, my ability to sit down and work, or to sit and focus, became impossible. I had no choice but to stop. My training, personal practises and community of fellow embodiment coaches were all invaluable. But even with all of that, my capacity was non-existent, then minimal for several weeks.

Reflecting on this, and looking at The Vitality Triangle?it is so obvious. With the ‘capacity’ corner of the triangle rubbed out, regardless of how purpose inspired any of us might be, or how well connected and supported we are, vitality is impossible.

How can we insure against burnout? Especially when the possibility of it is there, lurking in the background, because last time we worked hard like this, 'it' with all the associated pain and anguish, feelings of shame, guilt & failure etc happened…

Well, we could buy insurance (and yes, as a self-employed person, you should definitely have a chat with a suitably qualified personal finance person for income replacement cover).

That aside, we could get real. What is the truth of it?

• What was going on last time for you?
• What was your environment like? (discussed in my article published on 8th September 2024)
• Were you working for someone?
• What was the culture like?
• Was it toxic capitalism of ‘go go go' / 'sleep is for losers’ etc?
• Did you take proper breaks?
• Did you receive appreciation for our efforts? How often?
• How were the people around you – supportive or back biting?

And are you still in that sort of environment? Run back through the list of questions to see how your current situation compares.

Let’s look back at the vitality triangle and consider this from the other end of the telescope:

With vitality and vibrancy, what you have instead is resilient productivity, and burn out becomes impossible.

Vitality and burnout are mutually exclusive

Given your lived experience, it is entirely reasonable and understandable if you are fearful that if you enthusiastically immerse yourself in this awesome, purpose-inspired project that is your business, burnout might happen again.

But you are not where you were back then. You have left that slow death ‘lifestyle’ behind.

Take heart that if you foster your vitality, you will not be on the path to burnout; instead you will be on the lighter and brighter path to resilient productivity.

If you would like to talk more about this, please DM me, I'd love to hear from you.

I'm all about supporting (lightly frazzled) purpose-inspired business owners so they are working well and contributing their thing into the world, with clarity and confidence.

If you want to work with me, I've got coworking, planning & coaching and it's all on my website, together with some free resources www.smartprospects.co.uk