Burnout

Burnout – a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. (www.psychologytoday.com)

Most often burnout is an internal issue of how you are reacting to and dealing with external stressors.

When you’re burnt out a good first step is to take a meta-view of your life.

Put pen to paper.

– What stressors are you currently dealing with?

– How are you handling these stressors?

– What are you doing for emotional, mental, and physical recreation, recovery, and rest?

– Why did you start doing the thing that you now think you are burned out on?

– Are you confusing burnout for resistance? (per the War of Art) (FYI one of my favorite tools is Scribd)

– What part of the thing you are burned out on is really causing the issue? How can you fix the one flat tire and keep on speeding down the highway?

Chet Holmes, a brilliant businessman said this…

“Any area of achievement in your life required you to stick with the basics until you became great…Becoming a master of karate was not about learning 4,000 moves but about doing just a handful of moves 4,000 times.”

Most will reach burnout performing a handful of moves 4,000 times so what is the secret of the masters?

He followed up with…

“No one gets good at anything without repetition. Karate requires tremendous discipline. You’re just repeating moves over and over. This is true of tennis, golf, or any other sport. Practice, practice, practice and then, when you’ve begun to master your moves so that you know what to do automatically, it gets exciting. But pigheaded discipline comes first.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on burnout, how to prevent it, and how to fix it if you are currently feeling it.

Brett Denton