7. Resist Burnout

you're listening to seven keys toreclaiming your time, energy and productivity, a Himalaya learning audiocourse. Be sure to check out all of the other exclusive courses in the Himalayaapp or on himalaya.com. All right friends. We've made it to key number seven,and I'm very excited to wrap this project up with you.

[00:00:38] Um, thank you for coming alongfor the ride. I hope it's been helpful. Please do reach out. If you have anyquestions, you can contact me@jeremyatgoburrows.com or reach out to me onLinkedIn, uh, Instagram, et cetera. I am here to help and I want to address anyquestions you have. And I would also love to hear feedback.

[00:01:06] So please reach out to me atJeremy at  dot com. Even just to say,thank you. If this was helpful and let me know that it was helpful. Um, I'dlove to hear from you. All right. So we're going to talk about burnout. Keyseven is resisting burnout. So I used to say that avoiding burnout was the key,and I used to talk about how to avoid burnout, but over time I realized thatthere's no way to avoid burnout.

[00:01:39] Everyone in their career andtheir life, at some point is going to burn out. There's no way to avoid it, butthe question is how can we limit the damage that burnout has on our careers andon our life. So instead of thinking, how do I avoid this burnout? We need tothink how. Can we resist it? How can we fight back against burnout?

[00:02:14] Burnout is the enemy ofproductivity in case you're wondering why we're talking about burnout in aproductivity time and energy course productivity requires energy and time andburnout. Will destroy your productivity. So in my last role, I worked too much,too hard. Didn't take care of myself. I didn't, I did not develop my energy andI did not restore my energy.

[00:02:52] So I ended up burning out and myexecutive did the same. He worked too hard. He was not good at takingvacations. Um, and his burnout ended up really culminating in a decision thatwas poor on his part, a few decisions. Um, and he ended up getting fired and soburnout destroyed his career and burnout really impacted my family life and mymarriage.

[00:03:25] Um, my wife. She can tell youall the stories about how irritable I was, um, how difficult I was to deal withand live with throughout that time. But you might have to buy her a drink firstbecause it was not a pleasant time to be married to me to say the least. Soagain, burnout is the enemy of productivity.

[00:03:51] So I'm going to talk about thesigns. Of burnout. So once I burned out, I took some time off. We sold ourhouse, we traveled the country. Um, I probably took six months off or so, andreally tried to figure out what went wrong. I looked back, went to counselorwith my wife and we just really wrestled with everything, trying to figure outand assess where did I go wrong?

[00:04:21] And how could I avoid making thesame mistakes? And. So we figured out that there were these signs of burnoutthat my wife saw, but I failed to see I was not self-aware. Um, and then wekind of learned over the last several years that there are certain things thatwe can do to fight back against burnout, certain things we can do to resist theburnout creep, um, cause burnout likes to creep up on us and unless we areactively.

[00:04:54] Resisting it it's going to catchup to us. All right. So let's start with the signs of burnout. These are thingsthat you should potentially write on your post-it note on your desk. You couldput it as a background image on your computer. Um, You might want to put itsomewhere where you can check in, maybe email it to yourself, put it on yourcalendar every couple of months.

[00:05:22] That way you kind of have areminder to check in and, um, be aware of whether or not these signs areapparent in your life and in your, in your world. So the first sign is you'resick. More often than those around you. I'm not talking about some chronicillness that you're struggling with or cancer or anything like that.

[00:05:48] I'm just talking about, youknow, a fever, a headache, or a cold. Um, are you sick more often? Do peoplesay what man, you're sick a lot or do people say, why are you sick all thetime? You seem to always be sick. Uh, this happened to me and I just thought, Idon't know. It just, maybe I have a different immune system.

[00:06:10] I don't know. Um, but now that Ilook back on it, I think, Oh, it's because I was burned out. I was, my immunesystem was weak because I'm in, this is tied into the other side is I wastired. Um, I wasn't getting enough sleep. I was not taking care of myself. Um,back to the episode six, when I talked about energy, I wasn't eating healthy.

[00:06:35] I wasn't sleeping enough and Iwasn't exercising. Um, I wasn't taking a 24 hour Sabbath, so I was just sickmore often. And, um, my body just was not in good shape. And the other sign istired. Were you, are you tired? Do you find yourself ready for a nap at 11:00AM? Are you dragging your feet throughout the day at work, this could be aresult of burnout.

[00:07:07] And again, lack of sleepcontributes to that. And you need to make sure you have enough sleep, but youcould, you could get seven hours, eight hours of sleep at night and still feeltired because you're working too hard. You're working too long. Um, and yourbody can't keep up. So, are you sick or tired and or tired all the time?

[00:07:31] That's sign number one, signnumber two is you're irritated easily. So this is what happened to me. Um, Iwould just get pissed off and mad and for, you know, little things would justdrive me crazy and make me mad. And I would just had a short fuse. Um, and mywife noticed it. Um, I didn't notice it unfortunately, but looking back now.

[00:07:56] I see how ridiculous I was andhow irritated I got over little things and this was a sign of burnout. Um, soif you're, if you've all of a sudden got a short fuse or a shorter fuse, uh,than usual, um, you're getting irritated at coworkers at your kids, um, moreoften than usual then, um, this is a, this is a sign of burnout.

[00:08:20] Also. The other thing I'll sayabout that is. If you are irritated with people, even if you don't becomeirritated toward them. In other words, if people really get on your nerves moreoften, then. Typically, you could also be burned out that could also be a signof burnout because you're just tired of everything.

[00:08:46] And, um, just, just wearing,wearing on you. Uh, and in the last sign of burnout that all address is youcan't make decisions. Do you have a really hard time figuring out what to eatfor lunch? Do you have a really hard time figuring out what shirt to wear thatday or what shoes to wear? If you have a really difficult time making decisionslike that, the smaller decisions, then it could be a sign of a bigger issuewhere you're burning out.

[00:09:16] Um, this is called decisionfatigue. And so if you, if you feel this decision fatigue setting in, uh, thatcould be a sign of burnout, for sure. All right, so sick or, and, or tired allthe time, irritated, easily. And can't make decisions. Those are signs that youare likely on your way to burn out or already burned out.

[00:09:43] So how do we resist burnout? Howdo we. Limit the effects of burnout. How do we limit the damage of burnout?Here are a few ways that have helped me since I've learned from my burnoutstory and my mistakes. Um, here are a few ways that have helped me resistburnout in an ongoing manner. Um, and then I hope they will help you as well.

[00:10:11] All right. The first step orkey. Or tactic to resisting burnout is boundaries. So these can be alldifferent types of boundaries. Um, this could be a boundary with a coworker whokeeps asking you to do their job. This could be a boundary with a friend who istaking up a ton of your time and draining you, and you need to kind of.

[00:10:45] Split that relationship up alittle bit. This could be the calendar boundary, um, where you turn off yourphone and your devices at nine o'clock at night, and you don't get them untilseven in the morning. Or this could be a boundary where, like we mentioned inthe last episode where you have a 24 hour offline Sabbath every weekend, um,this could be a boundary where okay.

[00:11:12] When you are in your home officeon Saturday mornings, um, then your kids are not allowed in or something likethat. Um, whatever boundaries help you focus, help you restore and develop yourenergy. Um, that's what I'm talking about. That's what she can do to help. Sofor me, it was talking with my. Executive my boss and said when, when I, hehired me and I said, listen, I am going to work my butt off and I'm going toget a lot done.

[00:11:53] And you're going to be verythankful that you hired me. Um, But I, I have boundaries that I need to put inplace in order for me to remain healthy, uh, S stay healthy, stay married, um,and be able to stay productive. And those are, I need to have most of my nightsoff offline. I need to have my weekends to myself and my family.

[00:12:22] And we came up with a scheduleand we said, all right, Monday and Wednesday nights. We're going to work late.Both of us are going to work late Tuesday, Thursday, Friday nights, no working.And then Saturday, Sunday, mostly off, but for sure, 24 hours straight, aSabbath and time off. So that has been a game changer for us.

[00:12:43] Both. You can set up similarboundaries with your boss or with your company and, um, yeah, just, just. Keepit simple. Um, but stay true to those boundaries that you set up. And again, ifyou make it about how you're going to. Develop and restore your energy and thenavoid burning out, which basically means that you're going to be able tosustain yourself for a long period of time.

[00:13:16] Then people will understand, andpeople won't think that you're just a jerk who doesn't want to see them, or,um, you know, lives under a rock. They're going to know that you. Care aboutyour health and your energy, and you want to be able to help people and youwant to be able to get your job done, um, but also be present with your familyand your kids and your friends.

[00:13:40] Um, so boundaries first step toresisting burnout. Second one is hobbies. So you need to have a hobby. This isI made this mistake. I had a hobby, it was playing guitar. Um, I loved playingguitar. Then I got a job playing guitar. So then my hobby kind of turned intoand it wasn't as fun. It was still fun, but it was my job.

[00:14:01] So every time I pick up myguitar, I wasn't thinking, Oh, this is restful. This is relaxing. It'scultivating my, my creativity. But I'm thinking about work because it's my worknow. So what happened is I kind of lost my hobby. And instead of replacing itwith a different hobby, I did not do that. I made the mistake of not replacingit.

[00:14:24] So what happened? I would workon my days off instead of having something to do with my hands or something todo that stimulated my brain and my mind and my creativity. Um, Netflix doesn'tcount by the way. Um, I would just work. I was like, I gotta do somethingengaging. So. Why not work. So find a hobby, put it on your calendar, buy someequipment.

[00:14:51] If you need to, if you, if youwant to become a climber rock climber or play tennis or skateboard or crochetor whatever it is you want to do find a hobby, something that you enjoy doingthat's other than work. Um, so find a hobby and then the last one. The last wayto resist burnout, um, is to ask for help.

[00:15:17] So I alluded to this in the lastepisode, but get a counselor, a therapist, life coach, career coach, um,physical trainer, whatever you need. Um, don't be afraid to ask for helpbecause we are not. Meant to figure things out our own and live an isolatedlife, trying to resist burnout. We need help and it's okay that we need help.

[00:15:47] So maybe you need apsychiatrist, a again, a therapist, a counselor, a coach, um, maybe aspecialist that will help you with certain things. Like maybe you need to hirean instructor for your hobbies so that you can. Kind of have somebody to helpyou cultivate your hobby, um, by learning how to play golf or whatever, with,you know, maybe get some piano lessons, um, don't be afraid to ask for help.

[00:16:17] That's the, that's the lastthing I want to say about resisting burnout. So to recap, the enemy ofproductivity is burnout. And the first thing to do is become self-aware andnotice the signs of burnout. Uh, the signs are being sick and or tired all thetime, getting irritated, easily and unable to make decisions, and then armyourself to fight back against burnout creep and to resist the burnout and tolimit the damage of burnout with these three things, setting boundaries,relationships, boundaries, um, schedule boundaries, et cetera.

[00:16:59] Find a hobby spend time on yourhobby and ask for help. I hope you've enjoyed this course again. Please reachout to me. I hope this has helped you reclaim your time, energy andproductivity. You can email me@jeremyatgoburroughs.com and I hope to hear fromyou. Good luck and stay. Well, what you just heard was seven keys to reclaimingyour time, energy and productivity, a Himalaya learning audio course.

[00:17:33] Be sure to check out all of theother exclusive courses in the Himalaya app for on himalaya.com.