Overcome Burnout With These 6 Steps

Almost exactly two years ago at a conference for my medical residency program, I gave a presentation on burnout. What a topic to address in my state of life at that time. I was eight months pregnant, sore all over, and only 4 months into my post-grad training… and I was experiencing burnout.

I remember starting the presentation with the phrase “I get a sense that some people in this room are tired.” Flashforward a couple years, one pregnancy, and a global pandemic, and I still get that sense. Burnout is rearing its ugly face.

Thankfully, there are things we can do to overcome it. Afterall, a lot of people who are burnt out emerge again happy and healthy. Burnout does not have to be a never-ending state of existence. Thank goodness!

What is burnout

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines burnout this way: “Exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration”.²

I think this definition does a good job of pointing out that burnout can be a physical or emotional state but it can also be a mental or spiritual state as well. The “why” people get burnt out I’ll address when I discuss how to overcome burnout.

Energy account

Another definition that explains the concept of being burnt out is given by Dr. Drummond who likens it to an energy account¹. There is no “zero” in this account; it can go either positive or negative. Different activities of life, our work, relationships, and more require us to withdraw from this account. How do we deposit back into it? With activities and relationships that foster intentional & purposeful rest.

If we get into a mode of life where we keep withdrawing from this account without depositing back into it, we eventually go from a positive account balance to a negative one. The thing about some accounts is that you can keep withdrawing from them even when there are no funds. It’s the same with our energy account. Sometimes, we keep withdrawing when the account is depleted of funds, going more and more into the red.

This leads to burnout.

Let me say it again

If we don’t spend the time depositing back into our energy accounts physically (example: rest, exercise, nutrition), emotionally (example: healthy relationships, social supports), mentally (example: mental breaks, reflection, counseling), and spiritually (example: prayer, connecting with our values, meditating on Truth), burnout is likely to occur.

Use my FREE Pause & Recharge Daily Planner Worksheet to help you overcome and prevent burnout by intentionally depositing back into your energy account!

Know the signs

You might be reading this thinking, “I can’t be burnt out. I’m still living my life and getting stuff done.”

But are you joyfully living your life? Are you really feeling full and free right now as you go about your day-to-day?

Your daily life may already be indicating that you’re burnt out. Burnout has signs that fall into two main categories.

Exhaustion¹

When I have felt burnt out, there is no amount of sleep I can get that makes me feel rested. Most people feel this way – TIRED. There is this fatigue that settles in. And exhaustion doesn’t have to be physical; it can be emotional, mental, and spiritual too. People who are burnt out may feel physically overtired or suffer from insomnia (inability to fall asleep or stay asleep). Emotionally they may experience a depressed mood, anxiety, apathy, anger, or irritability. The mental impacts might include lack of motivation, inability to focus or concentrate. Spiritually, some people may find it difficult to pray or meditate, or experience challenges with maintaining boundaries that protect their core values.

Withdrawal¹

Burnout can be a sign of social disconnection, which can progress to social isolation (read more about that here). Take it from someone with experience being burnt out – if not dealt with right away, you can start to lose connections you have with people, both in your work and personal life. The loss of connection can be so bad that that a person can lose connection to their life and become suicidal.

Burnout causes people to become unavailable emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically.

The way out of burnout

Maybe you’re thinking this post is all doom and gloom… it’s not. I just wanted to lay the foundation of what burnout is and its signs, to help you understand why it’s so important to tackle this issue for yourself. Because guess what? There are things you can do to overcome and prevent burnout!

To triumph over being burnt out, you’re going to have to address the root cause of your stressors and frustrations that can lead to burnout. You’re going to have to tackle why your energy account is in the red and figure out ways to get it in the black.

#1 – Determine your core values

What’s one of the top reasons people feel burnt out?

They feel like they’re not living a life that’s true to them. They feel their life is disconnected from who they really are.

This can be overcome with knowing your “why” and connecting every aspect of your life to it. Enter in the term “core values”.

Of all the steps, this is the most important! Your core values are your “why” – why you do what you do. Why you think the way you think. The reason you feel the way you feel. And why you say what you say. I mentioned what values are and their significance in a previous post about considering your will and ability before saying yes or no to a request. But I’ll go into it again here.

Your core values are what you treasure and what you use to deem important in life. Where your values lie is where your heart is drawn to. If you know your core values, then you can center your actions, pursuits, passions, thoughts, feelings – basically your life – around them. When your life is centered around your values, you are able to express yourself more completely. You live more fully and freely.

Maybe you’re feeling burnt out right now because you’re doing things in your life that aren’t connected to your “why”. Or is it possible you don’t know what your core values are? If you need help discovering what you treasure in life, check out my FREE e-book Completely You: The Workbook to determine your core values and how to protect them.

#2 – Establish healthy boundaries

It’s one thing to know your core values and why your heart is drawn to certain things in life, but if you don’t protect those values, you’ll still end up doing things that withdraw from your energy account more than deposit back into it.

Hence, boundaries are super important for preventing and overcoming burnout.

Personal boundaries outline your passions, thoughts, behaviours – who you are – and separate your heart from things you don’t want to influence it. Boundaries can help you triumph over being burnt out by keeping you focused on your “why” instead of spending energy on things and people that don’t align with your core values.

If you’re feeling the consequences of burnout, start building some strong boundaries. Whether that means saying no to more things (find out how with this blog post) or totally revamping your personal boundaries (learn how with my FREE e-book), establishing healthy boundaries is worth it for your overall wellbeing and tackling burnout.

#3 – Regularly check in with yourself

Have you ever created a budget and then proceeded to never keep tabs on how you were spending your money? No? I didn’t think so.

Remember, burnout happens because we spend more energy than we have, not depositing enough into our energy accounts. Checking the balance of our accounts more regularly would help avoid burnout.

You can do all this great work of determining your values and creating strong boundaries, but if you don’t examine your life once in a while and see if its actually in line with your values and boundaries, burnout can still happen.

It’s important that you watch out for the consequences of burnout by analyzing your life on a regular basis. Use my FREE Self Check-in Checklist (located in my resource library) to do just that!

#4 – Take every thought captive

Burnout can take a real toll on people’s mental, emotional, and spiritual health. It can wreak havoc on their thought life. What is a “thought life”? It’s what you think about on a regular basis and how you think about things. The affect of burnout on your thoughts is dangerous because your thoughts impact what you feel, and your feelings motivate your actions. Burnout usually negatively influences people’s thoughts, which means it can produce harmful emotions, actions, and behaviours.

How do you overcome this? By taking every thought captive!

Sometimes you literally have to say aloud “I refuse to think this way” and cast down every negative thought in your mind. Replace those negative thoughts with thoughts that are based on the Truth, honourable, uplifting, kind, and enriching. Speak life over yourself and your situation. Tell yourself that you are important, you are loved, you cannot be replaced, you are enough. Intentionally change your perspective, reminding yourself that this too shall pass, before taking action.

#5 – Tell someone

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this whole post it’s this: you are not alone. It’s a taboo in society to not have it all together. Can I be honest with you? I’m still figuring out my life. And I have a husband and toddler along for the ride.

No one is perfect and we all have our weaknesses. Thinking you need to do everything alone and that you need to be perfect while you do it is where burnout wins.

Change that today! Realize everything does not depend on you. It’s okay and healthy to reach out for supports and find strength outside yourself. For me, my strength is founded on my faith in God and bolstered by my friends and loved ones. The moment I start to feel weak and things get tough, I pray about it and let someone I trust know what I’m going through.

What about you?

You can overcome burnout by speaking up about it. Even better, have a trusted person in your life that will check in on you regularly and help you spot the effects of burnout before it’s too late.

#6 – Pause and recharge

Do you remember the Merriam-Webster definition of burnout I mentioned earlier? It has something to do with prolonged frustration and stress.

Taking regular breaks to do something connected to your core values breaks the cycle of prolonged frustration and stress, and hopefully stops it from even starting. These breaks make deposits into your energy account and help keep you in the black, away from a state of burnout.

What does this actually look like? Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly carving out time to do something related to your “why”. You can use my FREE Pause & Recharge Daily Planner Worksheet to help prevent burnout by making consistent positive contributions to your energy account that keep you connected to your core values.

I hope this was helpful! If you have any more tips, let me know in the comments below. And please share this post with your friends!