{"id":4785,"date":"2011-11-29T19:34:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=4785"},"modified":"2015-03-04T21:13:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T21:13:31","slug":"what-is-burnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/sole-significance\/what-is-burnout\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Burnout?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"\"It was a season of a lot going on.  New projects, lots of pressure.  I was off balance in almost every area of my life.  Working 14 hour days, 7 days a week with no down time with constant demands from many different directions – it was a stressful season to say the least.   The way I dealt with the stress was to work harder, to attempt to alleviate that which was causing the stress.  I was tense, irritable often and aware that I was falling short of what my wife and kids needed.  I felt guilty about that.  Very guilty in fact, and soothed the guilt with the platitude of “I was doing it for them” or “I will get through this and then things will be different.”  This went on sometime.  The classic signs of stress were showing.  I longed for relief, to be able to just run away from it all but that wasn’t really an option.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI woke up one morning and instead of hopping out of bed and hitting the floor running,  I didn't feel like it.  I couldn't.  Oh, I knew all the things that had to be done and while I felt the sense of obligation and anxiety – it was very different this morning.   While being aware of all the pressure and demands they felt like a detached part of me. It was like instead of in my face to get going, it was like it was screaming at me through a bucket of petroleum jelly.  As I laid there, I became aware that I didn’t feel the stress, nor could not feel much of anything else.  Pink Floyd has a song called “Comfortably Numb” and a portion of the song goes:\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is no pain you are receding
\n\tA distant ship’s smoke on the horizon
\n\tYou are only coming through in waves
\n\tYour lips move but I can’t hear what you say….\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI have become comfortably numb*\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBurnout is the place of exhaustion.  Exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally, and is caused by prolonged excessive stress.  The stress mercilessly pummels you and you feel overwhelmed and unable to keep up with everything going on in life and not really sure if you really care.  Burnout inhibits your ability to work well.  You find any obligatory task increasingly draining and this impacts your motivation.  As this progresses, you begin to feel a deepening sense of futility as you feel helpless and like you just can’t keep up the pace.  This often takes one to a place where one feels like they have nothing left to offer, and this leads to feelings of resentment, hopelessness and helplessness.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe insidious thing about burnout is, for many, we’ve all experienced seasons of these feelings.  When getting out of bed and off to work takes every ounce of energy we can muster.  It’s true, however if you have more days like this than good days, there is a good chance you are on the way to burn out.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Warning Signs<\/strong><\/span>\n<\/p>\n