Averting Burnout This Year: The 4 Biggest Myths — #1
For a time, I crashed down into a full-on burnout once every ten years: three times in three ways — once through tragedy, once as a student pushing too hard, and once as a leader and a professional without useful boundaries. Each time I put in my time as the empty pitcher — trying and wanting to pour out as designed but with nothing left inside to give, and without good systems in place to refill me. Now I’ve got a really good eye for this kind of thing — seeing whose strategies are good for the long haul and whose are full of holes. And the main strategies that won’t hold up? Let’s start to take a good look at the four big ones.
The hearts of each of these myths seem like really good things, and I’m not saying that they’re bad things. What I am saying is that when I am helping someone pick him or herself out of the debris of a really impressive burnout, these are easy candidates for what I find among the shrapnel on the floor. If any of these is your primary strategy for long-term career resilience — loving what you do, growing in it, and being plain awesome at it in new ways every year — then here are some things for you to think about.
Myth #1 1. “I just need to work out a more balanced life.”
Next up: Myth #2: “I will evade burnout with careful time management.”