Part III: Reducing & Recovering from Burnout

Burnout affects your work performance, job satisfaction, and home life.  Burnout can lead to impairment in your social and interpersonal relationships if left untreated.  The sad part is that many people do not have enough self-awareness to realize they are burned out!  If you took the quiz in Part II and had a high level of burnout, here are some tips for how you can get back on track and demolish your burnout.

Since burnout stems from mainly 3 areas: personal, environmental, and organizational, the first step to combat burnout is to identify where your burnout is coming from our if it is balanced equally between these facets of your work life.  After you have identified what is draining your energy, you can see about making a change in that area.  At this time you may also want to become aware of your values and beliefs to make sure they are aligned with your goals.  This is when some "soul searching" may be beneficial to assess whether or not you are in the right job or career path.  After you have re-aligned yourself, you need to use SMART goals to make changes in your life. (See chart for creating SMART goals)

By creating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, you will be able to set yourself up for achievable success instead of disappointing failure.  Through achieving goals, your confidence should pick up and you should be headed on the path to recovery from burnout. In addition to making changes in your life, you should seek out some self-care activities to give yourself the time and space necessary to heal and recover.  Self-care techniques include exercise, meditation / relaxation exercises, walking the dog, hot bubble bath, etc.  So often when you are burned out, you do not take care of yourself and you are just taking care of everyone else which creates a vicious cycle that must be broken by healing from within first.

Other Tips:

• If you can delegate responsibilities or advocate for help within your field, now is the time to do it! Don't make yourself a martyr to your workplace.
• Take a break during your work day.  It's important to get up and move around, take a 5 minute walk around the building or do some stretches in your cubicle to get the blood flowing.
• Schedule time for co-workers, family, and friends who can help support you through a difficult time.
• If your burnout is particularly surrounding your job, it may be time to look for something else more fulfilling or a similar position with a different company.
• Finally, anyone who is suffering from burnout might find it beneficial to seek professional help where they can explore the root causes of burnout with a counselor and practice new coping strategies to utilize when these feelings persist in the future.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.