Many Different Forms of Burnout

There are different types of ‘burnout’. So, I’m sure at some point in everyone’s life they’ve hit one or another form.

But what happens when you hit the trifecta – mental, physical, and emotional?

The way I see it you have three options:

1. Get admitted to Betty Ford or a Mental Hospital (driven by self-medication)

2. Take a mental, physical, and emotional sabbatical from yourself

3. Leave everything behind and move to an island to live off the land

To which I might argue, the first two are the same thing.  One just comes with prescription drugs and food service. And if you’re in the LA area, you could hit up this fancy place in Malibu. (Which seems more like a five star getaway than a recovery center).

And given the new COVID environment of lock-down, I’m sure many extroverts, workaholics, almost everyone is experiencing similar symptoms.

You’re trying to keep your mind off the madness, and so you push yourself into more work as a distraction. Or you pick up an additional hobby to keep your mind off things for a while.

Either way, you dive in head first to something you think will help you, but only to bite you in the end. Because staying busy and distracted 24/7, doesn’t come without consequences.

Sharing My Story

I worked my regular day job (while watching a two and five year old – sometimes in school). I blogged. I parented. I dealt with COVID restrictions. I cleaned. I worked a second social media job. I spoke at events. I blogged for other people. I slept less and less. I never said no to new opportunities. I always pushed myself saying I’d make time to relax tomorrow.

The burnout was real.

I was down a rabbit hole, looking up. My motivation level bottomed out. I had so much I was trying to do, I didn’t realize I couldn’t do it all (without consequences).

And that’s when I realized I needed a break.  A very long break.

This is when I finally realized why certain companies give sabbaticals. Or others that have unlimited PTO (paid time off). If you want top performers who constantly push themselves to do better, you need to let them take more than just a two week break at times. Because they are bound to burn themselves out in every capacity.

So that’s why I’ve been silent for almost three months now. I didn’t want a break, I actually needed a break.

And guess what, I finally took it (and you should too!). Because slowly but surely my motivation to blog, start running in the morning, and actually enjoying my time with my kids all returned. It wasn’t with out paying a price.

But now that I’ve reset myself – all I can say is…. I’m baaaaack…. and that I’ve missed all you fabulous people!