BURNOUT TANGO PART 1

In this write up and in some of the post that will follow, I will be dealing with burnout and stress. Many do confuse burnout with stress but they are actually different from each other thought somewhat related.

Let me ask you some pertinent questions before going further –

- Are you feeling disappointed or dissatisfied with yourself and your work that it is not all that good as it has seemed disillusioned?

- Is there a feeling of helplessness around you?

- Are you frustrated?

- Are you always chronically feeling exhausted?

- And there is this feeling of powerlessness around you?

If you can answer yes to all or most of these questions, there is the tendency that you are burning out or on the way to burnout. Constant feeling of disillusionment, helplessness, sapped out completely may be pointer to burnout. Challenges looked invincible or unbeatable; everything looks lugubrious, gloomy and morbid. The motivational desire to harness your strength to do something will be gone. The moodiness, melancholic aloofness caused by burnout can cause you your work, relationship, happiness, joy and your health. The good news however, is that healing is available for it.

WHAT IS BURNOUT?

Merriam-Webster defined burnout in two ways:

1. To drive out or destroy the property of, by fire.

2. To cause to fail, wear out, or become exhausted especially from overwork or overuse.

These two definitions apply to what we are discussing here. Burnout is when you drive out, destroy that spark in you, when the energy that spurs you on is drained and you always become tired easily – man, you are on the way to burnout square. It also means to overwork or even overuse oneself to the point of becoming exhausted, worn out, and one begins to fail. Merriam-Webster has this boatload of synonyms to describe it. Included are; break, exhaust, burst, do in, do up, drain, fag, fatigue, frazzle, harass, kill, knock out, out-wear, tire, tucker (out), wash out, wear, wear out, weary.

Quite a list!

It is the term used to explain the physical, mental, emotional exhaustion induced by protracted and inordinate work or study related stress. Burnout can effects serious damage to the spiritual, psychological, emotional and physical make up of people. It eats up the energy, rendering one to become unproductive and ineffective. At the end, you may feel useless, having nothing more to give.