I hope this finds you incredibly well and getting ready to enjoy a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Please take a few minutes to enjoy our video and read the informative articles below:
The Perils of Burnout
You fall violently ill one day and there are two physicians who are available to treat you. To your right is Dr. Black, who has no experience whatsoever in the disease that ails you. To your left is Dr. White, who is expert on the diagnosis and treatment of your disease, but really doesn’t care about patients, medicine or healing the sick at all. You are really stuck like Buridan’s ass, aren’t you?
Burnout, while not a clinical diagnosis, is a psychological term for long-term exhaustion, coupled with a lack of interest or motivation. Persons who are burned out exhibit signs of exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. It is quite common among professionals. Estimates as to the number of practicing physicians who experience burnout run as high as 60%.
Burnout, unlike disorders such as depression, can be temporary. But if the burned-out professional does not take significant steps to ameliorate the causes of burnout, the effect will remain.
So, what are some of the signs of burnout?
1. Bleak Outlook
When you are experiencing burnout, it is harder to get excited about life, expect the best, let things roll off your back, and to be positive in general. Optimism is a great antidote to stress. But if you suffer from burnout, optimism is not part of your daily outlook. Instead, the bleak outlook feeds into the stress, which in turn creates a bleaker outlook, and pretty soon you feel like a character in a Charles Dickens novel.
2. Lack of Physical Energy
Prolonged stress is physically draining. Moreover, if you are stressed you tend to have difficulty sleeping, will often not eat right, will not be motivated to exercise or do pleasurable activities, and again wind up in a situation cause and effect become one and the same.
3. Emotional exhaustion
As if being physically tired and lacking in energy isn’t bad enough, you are often emotionally “tired” as well. What does this look like? It can vary depending upon your personality, but you may find yourself impatient, irritable, moody, or uncharacteristically quiet. You may find the skills that you use to cope with day-to-day life are impaired.
4. Lowered immunity
Now that we have you physically and emotionally drained, let’s make you sick as well! Overloading of a body with stress can create prolonged periods of “fight or flight” response, leading to an overdose of certain of your body’s chemicals that in turn compromise your immune system. So you may get the flu or the common cold easier, or some studies suggest even more virulent diseases can arise.
5. Impaired Performance at Work (other areas)
Remember Suck-a-metrics from our introduction? Is it hard to get out of bed to go to the office three out of five days of the week? Are you finding yourself engaged in more battles with your staff, your peers, or even your clients? Do you find yourself making more errors? Is it hard to concentrate? Is the picture on the calendar of a remote desert island more enticing than reviewing your client’s will that you just drafted?
6. No Time for You or Your Family
Are you spending less time with the kids? Are you getting more complaints from your spouse about your absences or your distant affect at home? Has the 60 hour work week (unfortunately the norm for most professionals) becomes the 80 hour work week? This can lead you to eat poorly, skip exercise, sleep less, and feed back into physical and emotional exhaustion.
7. Interpersonal Relationship Issues
Instead of battling with your spouse, are you withdrawn? If you have no spouse or significant other, are you at the point where you have given up even trying to establish a relationship with someone? Did the Saturday night poker game with your buddies go away? The football game at the sports bar?
As you look over the list of signs of burnout, one thing you will notice is that they are all interrelated. And, most likely if you nod your head yes to one of these, you are probably nodding your head to more. Can you exhibit one or two signs and not be burned out? Of course. Most professionals have poor balance between work and home. It comes with the territory. But as you look through the signs, dig deep into and ponder the issues that each of the seven presents. A little introspection here may go a long way towards an understanding of yourself.
Take Our Free Stress Assessment
Is stress contributing to a loss of engagement in your business or even your life?
Stress impacts you more than you realize. If unchecked, it leads to tension, loss of engagement and finally burnout (see above article).
I introduce my Workplace Stress Assessment. This diagnostic tool examines your stress levels. Developed by the world leader in validated, patented assessment products, it will inform and support you. Your assessment report will be delivered to you automatically within a few minutes of completion.
Best of all, through May 31, 2015, the assessment is FREE! Simply click this link: http://www.ttisurvey.com///273263VWE. The code will expire at the end of May, so don’t delay!
And through May 31, 2015, I am offering a debriefing and coaching session based on the Workplace Stress Assessment and your individual needs at a special rate (please email me at ann@annbabiarz.com for details). You must schedule your session before the end of May in order to get the special rate!
Feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone who may be interested in evaluating their stress levels.
Join a Mastermind Group
We are forming mastermind groups. Like-minded entrepreneurs will gather twice monthly via conference call to discuss common concerns and brainstorm ideas to more effectively run their businesses. We have formed the following groups:
- Attorneys
- Creativity/Breaking out of Your Comfort Zone
- Construction Company Owners (Full)
- Musicians
- Non-Profit Organization Leaders
- Traders
My husband and I will host these meetings for 60 days on a no-cost, no-obligation basis (note: if you are a current client, there will continue to be no charge for participation after 60 days). Groups are forming now. Please e-mail me at ann@annbabiarz.com to join. What are you waiting for?
Ann Babiarz & Associates, LLC Website
I’ve also made exciting changes to our website. Check them out, and be sure to sign up for your free tools: www.annbabiarz.com