Good evening. Thank you for joining me tonight. I wanted to talk about Burnout. Forgive me if I keep staring at my screen. It’s because it’s got all these cracks on it. So again, I hope the video is actually working. So did you know the Burnout is actually… I just needed to find the quote, has now been included in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD11) as an occupational phenomenon. It is not classified as a medical condition. But it is a phenomenal. Doo doo doo doo doo phenomenon. Doo doo doo doo phenomenon. Okay. Sorry.Yep. Got to do something stupid while I’m sitting here with my own crazy phenomenon at the moment.
So Burnout, over the years, I think people… Evening, Johnny. I think people just go, “Oh, I’m burnt out.” If they’ve had a tough week at work. Or they’ve had a crazy time with their baby or they’ve had just something going on that’s kind of caused them a freakish week. And it’s, “I’m burnt out. I’m suffering from Burnout.” Well, you’re probably not, you probably just had a shitty week. Arianna Huffington has this great quote, “the land of Burnout is not a place I ever want to go back to.” Like it’s a real Burnout, is mental and physical. It’s a really, really big thing, and it kind of have catastrophic ramifications on your business, and your life.
So, it’s not something to take lightly. Some of the signs of Burnout are exhausted, you think every day sucks. Like what is that point? Okay. You’re conflicted internally, you got the kind of that pull up to and fro going on inside you whilst at the same time also thinking there’s no point to it. So that in itself does your head in. Or you can be really having lots of conflict with other people in the workplace or at home or somewhere in your life.
As with most things, if you have a changing sleep patterns or you’re eating hard patterns, that can be a sign starting to take solace in food, drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, any of those kinds of things. If you need that kind of thing, and you’re leaning towards it more so it can absolutely be a sign. Low immunity, like getting rundown and getting sick all the time is a definite sign of Burnout. You’re not motivated, most things you’re doing and feeling either other really dull and laborious, or really overwhelming. There’s kind of no middle ground. It’s like urg, or it’s ah, urg, ah, urg, ah.
You’ve changed your work habits. You might be procrastinating more, you might not be able to focus, they might have a lack of clarity about what you’re doing and that could come from a lack of communication in a workplace, is causing lack of clarity or it could just be your own internal lack of clarity with what you’re doing. Especially if you have your own business, not able to focus. You might feel like there’s just, as I said, no point to trying new things, doing new things, finishing things. You might start withdrawing from social activities or workplace activities, functions where you used to be a person that would put their hand up and go, “I’ll take on that task, or I’ll do that.” You might now be like, “I was going to stand by the water cooler and ignore the world.”
You can tend to feel quite empty and alone, Burnouts, quite a lonely feeling. You don’t feel where before and you completed tasks or you made it a great meal or you saw friends, you hit the sense of satisfaction. That sort of sense of satisfaction might have totally disappeared as well. Your sense of your passion for things or your drive for things and it’s a mass exhaustion, but it’s mental and physical, I guess. There’s like a zillion things that can cause it. So I’ll run through a few of them. But some of them, you can have control over as far as helping fix that cause, or remove that cause or deal with that cause. Others you might not have a lot of control over. So it’s about finding where you can control something around that cause.
If one of the causes, for example, is a toxic work environment, you might not be in a position where you can leave tomorrow, but you might be in a position where you can set up better boundaries about work or do some more work from home or speak to HR about things not being tolerated, that kind of thing. So putting a sign on your door saying, “Piss off.” Well no. Only joking. Don’t do that.
So that’s one of the things. So toxic environments can be a cause of Burnout, taking on too much responsibility, having a pessimistic outlook can cause Burnout. I know that seem silly, but if you constantly negative not see, that in itself has so many emotional and physical kind of characteristics and it drains you energetically that if you are having that, you can get burnt out quite easily, because it’s not easy to deal with stuff, because you’re in that space.
If you have perfectionistic tendencies, which I might admit to having, if you live in a lethal work in a sense of chaos, that can often cause Burnout. If you’re a bit of a control freak, she can cause it, if you work too much, you feel like you’re not getting any support work or home, if you’re not sleeping well, if you’re a massive high achiever, you can sometimes actually, you almost cause yourself Burnout, because you don’t have the right boundaries and creating the right space or doing things with the right head space or the right intent.
Definitely boundaries with work are a massive one. So some of the things you can do to help with Burnout firstly is recognizing it. Talk to someone. If you can reach out to a coach or reach out to a shrink, a psychologist, HR manager, just your direct manager, a friend, a colleague, things like The Black Dog Institute I think. I should have actually checked that before I said that. But I think some mental health websites, and things like that have tools where you can kind of have a bit of a look and see, put up some things and see if you think you’re possibly be suffering from Burnout and that’ll give you directions as to where to go or what to look at. But some of the things you can do after you recognized it. Okay. Because the first point to anything is recognizing what’s actually going on. Instead of just thinking, “I’m tired.” But recognizing that it is, or could actually be Burnout and then taking the steps that you need.
When you’re taking those steps, things you want to look at, how… Oh God. Exercise. I know you’re exhausted and you’re feeling burnt out. So the last thing you want to do is exercise. But it’s really, really, really important. Especially outdoor stuff. So you’re getting the sun, the vitamin D, the air, you’re not getting the recycled air from a gym, but you’re actually getting fresh air into your lungs and things really can help, and eating well. They are two of the big ones. And I know when we’re feeling crap and burnt out, we want to go for the sugar hit or the comfort foods of our childhood, they’re probably not going to help.
And of course if you don’t deal with Burnout, it can lead to… I know all those 21st century medical conditions like adrenal fatigue and all the stuff that people, some people say does exist. Some people say doesn’t exist. Oh, cool exercise bike. Peloton apparently really good. But I don’t know if they’re here yet, but they’re apparently really good. So you exercise. Setting up your priorities probably like what are your priorities? If you’re spending too much effort on the wrong things then you’re going to get burnt out. Setting goal setting an achievement is a big one. Even if they’re little goals, set them, have a concentrated effort rather than this overwhelm that can come with Burnout. Ask us some really deep questions about what you’re doing. Like why are you actually doing the work that you’re doing? Do you want to be doing it? How could you change it?
Gone are the days where you leave school, you go to university, you get a job and you’re in that job, you get given a watch and you retire. And that’s life. Like very few people have that kind of career path anymore. Life is an ever evolving thing as is career. So we can pick and choose and change and do different things depending on our skill sets, our passions, our interests. So what we get asked to do. So really take time to say, “Why am I doing this?” Is this what I want to… Is this what I’m on this planet to be doing? I’m not talk about that a lot, but I think it’s really, really, really fricking important. Boundaries. Another thing I talk about, tumbling advice. Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. Get better boundaries. I’ve done another live on boundaries, and I’ve done other stuff on boundaries. So let me know if you need any more information.
Take a break, have a Kit Kat, have a holiday. Like if you can take a few days off, a week off, if while you’re trying to get out of Burnout, you can get dropped to like a four hour day, a week or four days a week, three days a week, anything like that. Do more work from home. But take a break from physical environments where you are feeling burnt out it can often help. Communicate with people about what you’re going through. So really be gone. Don’t hide and pretend that it’s not going on because people do know stuff’s happening with you even if you don’t think they do know. You need to find a bit of balance. So sit down with your like my do it diet or the digit delegate it, matrix and about to pick up a book I’m reading then, and like see where you’re working out where you’re spending your time.
I’ve got lots of exercises on that and really balance your time so you’re getting you time and time with the people you love versus it all being about work or the toxic stuff that’s really causing the Burnout. Justin, I totally agree. It is incredibly, incredibly hard to be constantly giving and looking after people and you don’t look at yourself. And unfortunately that’s when bad stuff happens. Like the accident you had recently, like it’s those things I call myself analytical with a who we rising. I have to believe things like that happen sometimes to actually force us to take a break and look after ourselves or have someone look after us.
I know there’s been times in my life where I would get sick, and virtually exactly the same time every single year. When it was your mind, when it was hooping cough and I had to go, what is it about that time of year that happens like this, and it’s not the weather.
The stuff going on in my life that caused this mess, overwhelm and Burnout that led to me being so depleted and not looking after myself that I would get like a bad illness. So it’s really important. When I was care for my mother for years, six and a half years till she passed away. She lived with us and it was probably a couple of years in when I finally went, “Oh, I actually need to do these other things for myself and look after myself to be a better daughter to her and a better daughter to Eledi. As you know, I’ve taught her totally Johnny, Jason you’re not alone and neither are you Johnny. Anyone that’s connected with me, please know that you’re always in my thoughts. I care greatly about the people I know.
I’m going to get teary. Sorry, and I’m a bit woozy, still very woozy. Yeah. You have to love yourself first and you have to care for yourself first and Burnout as a prime example of you not doing that. You’re caring too much about your work tasks or other people’s expectations or other people like especially in the toxic environment thing in a workplace, when you’re letting that lead your life like no, you should be number one. You need to be number one. You need to be number one, you need to be number one.
And lastly, the thing you can do when you’re suffering from Burnout to try, and make yourself feel a little bit better. Why the accent? I don’t know. Is get creative. Like we’re all creative. I used to think I wasn’t, but I am. My creativity just doesn’t happen to be up at the draw. If you ever want a good laugh, play Pictionary with me. I’ll tell you. That’ll get anybody out of the dips of depression. Maybe don’t quote me on that.
So creativity is a really big one with Burnout. Just because we use part of our brain and not the other part of our brain when we’re in those high stress frequency kind of environment. So to help get out of that, do something creative, draw, paint, cook, dance, sing, play an instrument, write. Just say something that’s, no one’s judging you for. No one’s commenting on, no one even needs to know you’re doing it. But it’s getting your creative juices fliers. So, so, so, so, so important.
So they’re my little tips on what causes Burnout. What are the signs to look for, and some of the things you can do to help get out on the other side of it. Bottom line is Burnout… Israel, you’re not just tired and you have to, have to, have to deal with it before it does turn into serious illness for you physically or mentally, or a catastrophic thing to happen in the workplace. So yeah, look after yourselves, and I will see you all… What’s with the pen? See you all tomorrow.