Panache

“Burn Out” is a common term among the new generations. GenZ are known for their demanding and non-compromising attitudes at work. But even if you are doing your dream job and following your passions, you can still experience burnout.

Want to know more about it? Read on!

Three major symptoms of Burn Out

According to Harvard Business Review, if you are experiencing the following symptoms in your lifestyle or work routine. There are serious chances that you are experiencing an acute case of IDC-11 or Burnout.

1. Feelings of Energy Depletion or Exhaustion

Everyone starts their passion project with a certain kind of enthusiasm and zeal. They want to make it work and they are persevered for it. But after spending a longer period invested in it. They realize they do not feel that initial energy emotionally, mentally, or physically.

The continuous flood of challenges at the initial stage of starting a project could not be the only reason for that. Most probably, you are burnt out!

2. Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s work

You do not want to look at the screen anymore. You do not want to open the folder or the website that you have been working on. There are times when people feel like burning everything and leaving the work as it is.

Yes, this is not just your negative thoughts talking out loud. This is pure madness and the only reason could be that you are too exhausted because of everything.

3. Reduced professional efficiency

You used to pride yourself on writing thousands of words per minute. But ever since you started your freelance business. The client orders from the new ones make you dizzy. You have lost your professionalism in dealing with the new customers. And you may have started giving a second thought about your business.

The decrease in professional efficiency, when there is no external factor involved, is a big sign that you might be burnt out and not just disinterested in your newfound passion.

Causes of Burnout

Though there could be multiple causes of burnout. But when you are working on your dream project. The situation changes slightly. These could be the factors why:

Workload

When you are working on your dream project. You might be the only person responsible for everything. Most probably, you give yourself a timeline. A sort of small milestone to achieve and smaller plans for a big dream project.

But things seldom work out the way we want them to. Regular challenges and facing bottlenecks, either at one point or multiple stages can lead to more stress than you would have imagined.

But the deadlines never shift. You want to launch the website by then. Hence, you take matters into your own hands. No wonder you are meant to exhaust yourself.

Lack of Support

Following your passion is a tough job. It is of you, by you, and for you. So, the only person who puts effort towards the goal is you. The problem arises when no one around you understands that. However, understanding goes on multiple levels in some cases.

Sometimes, no one would understand the emotional and mental turmoil you go through when you work on your passion. On the other hand, you might have a strong network of support but what you don’t have is anyone who might understand the technical challenges that you have been facing all that long.

No matter, what situation you may find yourself in. Mental and Emotional exhaustion is definite.

Social Isolation

Entrepreneurship is a lonely path. Linked In is full of people telling each other, how they had to cancel their family vacation and have not been attending friends’ parties because they have been working on their passion project. But isn’t it energy-draining?

Humans are social beings. We can rarely thrive on our energy for very long. We need that social connection now and then to keep our minds off of things. When you live in your world for too long, it gets heavier and heavier on you.

Also, scrolling through social media and telling people all about your passions can be defined as promotion and not socialization.

Discord groups are also not good enough. When you are socially isolated or feel lonely. In such cases, finding people in real life can be extremely challenging.

Absence of Reward

Yes, I am aware. Everyone told you and told you that it would take too long for any profits to roll in. It would take too long for any appreciation or recognition to come. It would also take too long for people to recognize how much talent you have.

However, this absence of reward can be lethal for you. We, humans, run on reward systems and need some kind of prize after every milestone we achieve. I am aware that stepping out of your comfort zone, an inch every day is reward enough. But for a longer period, it won’t be. And that would become a major cause of burnout.

Emotional Exhaustion

This is hard to figure out. Because it is hard to catch. You may feel drained and unmotivated at times. You might feel anxious in the surroundings you used to feel happy in. And you may think, it could be because of lack of sleep or some health conditions.

But it could most probably be emotional exhaustion. When you follow your passions, you shoulder a lot of responsibility and hope for yourself. Unaware of your resources and abilities, you set out on a journey to make your dreams come true.

However, constant challenges and lack of support can make you doubt and question, both your dreams and your abilities. That becomes the main cause of emotional exhaustion and ultimately burnout.

Monotonous Lifestyle

If you want to make your dream, come true, you have to follow a routine and follow it diligently. And thus, we need to challenge ourselves to go through the same thing to make it our lifestyle. We want to be more disciplined to make things work out in our favour.

But we seldom recognize our other needs like creative needs, social needs, or physical needs. It seems easy to sit in front of the screen and work for hours but soon your body starts to show the side effects of your routine here and there. And that monotonous lifestyle that you opted for does not look as interesting as you thought it would be.

Your Environment participates equally.

Most of the factors listed above are personal and hence, can be managed by taking a little break or introducing a little lifestyle change. But what if your burnout is caused by external factors instead of internal factors?

Work Place Conflicts

Not everyone’s passion is to work all on their own. Some people’s favourite thing to do is to work with a team. A team that has been uniformly created to meet every objective and every facet of the project or task.

But what about behavioural management? People often fail to manage the behavioural aspects of the team and thus, not only does the work suffer but the performance of other people also suffers. Hence, come the irresponsible activities and blame game.

Workplace conflicts and politics are some of the major reasons that are often overlooked in case of burnout. But it could be a root cause of a lot of stress and sometimes prolonged stress.

Lack of available resources

Even though we are passionate about results when we start working on a plan. However, we often forget that other things are barely in our hands. And one of those many things is resources. It could be in the form of financial resources, operational resources, or lack of human resources.

Since passion projects are often very personal to the people. They could not imagine delegating a part of a project to any third party.

And often end up burdening themselves with too much responsibility and skill work that they barely could handle themselves. Thus, leading to major burnout.

Non–effective management of the staff

They say a good team working in harmony can accomplish any goal. But that is only true if each team member can work at their full potential to get the desired results. If that does not happen. Not only does the manager of the team get frustrated but team member often ends up experiencing monotony and a sense of non-accomplishment at their work.

A person is made of multiple facets and all of them need to be utilized in the kind of work they are doing. This might not be an individual choice. But it majorly depends on the people you are working with. Hence, the manager or team leader must make sure to use the full potential of a person so that they do not end up burning out from their regular work.

Ambience

This is the most ignored factor when someone looks for the reasons for burnout. But as humans, we are influenced by our environment. So much so, that working in a dark corner for a long period can lead to depression and irritation.

Ambient factors include noise, temperature, and odour. That is why it is ensured that ideal working conditions are offered to the employees. But if proper care is not followed, it could lead to major burnout.

Stressful life events

Other people might underestimate or overestimate your emotional or mental health. But it is only you, who can realize the impact of something that you might have experienced or things that have been going on in your life. This is something that you might not be responsible for or have any control over.

Yet it can have the ability to change the trajectory of your everyday life. Such life-changing events might require a lot of time to process. But we keep running and are in a hurry to get to things. So much so, that we rarely give any time to such events to process.

They can be buried deep inside you and you might not even realize that you never gave a chance to process that. It can be another reason for experiencing burnout.

How to Save Yourself!

There are multiple ways through which you can save yourself from burning out. A slight change would be more than enough. Here are some ways.

Attend events related to your passion.

It is easier nowadays. You can join a group or attend a meet-up. You can find new ideas about your work and network more effectively with others.

Try any other related activity.

If you are passionate about painting, try another creative field. If you are a school coach and tired of training kids. Why not step out on a hike one day? That would give you a well-deserved break.

Talk to someone who is not in that niche.

Judy (Name changed on request) is a ceramic artist. She considers her work studio, her altar. But she talks about spending time with her techie husband. She says, “It feels like leaving my world behind and getting into a new dimension altogether.”

Plan other things with your partner and kids and you would be emotionally refreshed.

Try to change your routine after every few weeks/ months

I know you have challenged yourself continuously for a few days. And you do not want to break your streak. But why not change the timings. Why not schedule it in any other part of the day? It has the power to change your monotonous routine.

Give yourself tiny rewards for every little milestone reached

Working alone and not getting any rewards is naturally frustrating. So, why not treat yourself? It is the best way to self-motivate. Get out for a coffee or ice cream date just because you completed a quarter of your thesis.

Take time to process things.

It keeps building up inside if you do not take the time to process things. And can lead to a sudden blast of emotions. Instead, give yourself time to process sensitive matters. Other people might not understand that. But you can make a request and excuse yourself. Self-care is a must.

Try to customize your work environment.

Add your favourite colour to the wallpaper. Or hang a picture you hand painted cause you felt like it. What about buying a special piece from a flea market to remind you of your achieved streak? It can add a lot of substance to your work environment.

Change your place every few weeks and take care of lighting, sound, and smell in your surroundings.

Try to understand the people you work with to avoid any conflicts.

Any conflict can be resolved only if we can earnestly listen to each other. If you are facing external issues. Sit and talk it out. You can involve a third party for conflict management.

Talk to your manager/ team leader about other ways you can contribute.

If your responsibilities are getting one-dimensional at your workplace for a while. Talk to your leader about your other interests and different ways you can contribute to your work.

Deliberately Seek help

It is hard to accept the fact that you need help. But sometimes, our goals are not synchronized to take emotional, mental, or physical health. If you find yourself burnt out. Never hesitate to ask for help and consult a medical practitioner.