3 Radical Strategies to Avoid Burnout

You chose the quality of every aspect of your life. Your career, your business, your work environment, your income, your influence, your impact, your friends, your family (kinda sorta), your health, all of it.

If you are overwhelmed by work to the point of burnout, something needs to change. And you are the only person that can change it.

Here are three strategies to void burnout and start loving your work.

1.Change Your Commitment

Change your workload (do less, or different), change your work time investment (part-time, fewer days in the week), or even change careers (to something less stressful) to reduce the level of complexity, responsibility, and stress you have to bear.

Whether professionally, or personally, sometimes all it takes is change of pace and space for your mind to relax, your emotions to reenergize, and your body to adopt a kinder rhythm.

Ask Yourself:

Where am I giving beyond my current capacity?

Is it a specific pursuit, or is it the sum of my pursuits that is burning me out?

What can I change to stop burnout?

How else can I contribute without working myself to burnout?

How else can I find fulfilment outside of work performance?

If you are burnout, but "work is life" at work and at home, consider changing pace to stop the burnout.

“Friendly reminder that "doing your best" does not mean working yourself to the point of a mental breakdown.”

-Author Unknown.

2.Quit

Burnout comes from engaging your mind, will, emotions, and body in work activities that cause undue and prolonged stress and anxiety.

If you are engaged in activities that are causing you burnout, stop doing them. If you work in a place that keeps you in burnout, leave.

To know whether you need to stop or leave, to avoid burnout, ask yourself:

• What 1-3 things specifically do I need to stop doing today to avoid burnout?

• What should I do instead?

• What will I need to do to fully commit to stopping doing it?

• Who can I enlist as an accountability partner to make sure I can do so effectively?

• When will I start?

If you're burning out, you need to get out. There will always be other opportunities, but not if you cut your life short. Learn to say, "No!".

“Burnout is due to a lack of respect for your personal boundaries.”

-Author Unknown.

3.Reclaim Your Power

As a driven performer, for lack of a kinder description, I have for too long embraced the "go get it" mantra, pushing myself beyond human limits.

I regret to say I have burned out more times than I would like to admit; compromising my health and that of the people that have either had to deal with my demands, or take on more than their fair share of the load, to help me when exhaustion left me incapable of carrying any.

I have now chosen 360º leadership success as a life philosophy. There is no point in excelling in some areas, and completely falling apart in the most important.

Your and my quality of life are 100% in our hands. Whilst ambition and hard work are applaudable, we must not let them rob us of our well-being, relationships, or very lives.

I remember an incident, over two decades ago, when my father was hospitalized due to stress and burnout. I called him and reminded him that the grave is full of "indispensable people", who thought they were too critical at their workplaces to slow down.

My point is, jobs and businesses are replaceable, but people, you, are not.

As a 360º leader, if you have been compromising your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being in the name of service, or in pursuit of success, I urge you to use this weekend to reevaluate what is most important, then make radical decisions to avoid burnout, and create greater work-life alignment.

“If you feel burnout setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.”

-Dalai Lama.