BURNOUT

These days it's so common to hear somebody say that they feel burnt out. And it's not something you hear from 40 somethings that have spent the past 15 years grinding away and spending their soul at an insurance company.
No...
More and more you hear it from people that only recently had their 25th birthday. People who barely have earned their masters degree. They say they are burnt out and do not enjoy work anymore, they can't keep their relationships together and the hobbies they had, hold nothing dear to them anymore...

So are they just misusing the word? Is it another way the new generation is borrowing the words from their parents to gain some attention?

I believe in most cases that is not true. I think it's the same old case where parents are telling their kids that they are too young to have depression because they completely lack the the understanding and perspective.

WHY?

I sure as hell can't hope to name all the reasons but here are some of my guesses.

War on all fronts

Be strong.
Never give up.
Achieve your goals.
Nothing worth achieving is achieved without sacrifice. Work hard. Become successful. Give it your best.

Good phrases that help us to push that extra mile and achieve the success we think we need.
How ever what might been a good idea 25 years ago, now should be viewed in a bit different light.

The thing is - today our lives are exposed in multiple fronts. We cannot hide our faults anymore... And more often than not we willingly chose to conform to the society's requirements to look great, be successful professionally, be great partners and have a vivid social media life. Just in recent history you did not have to worry about how your github history will look to your new potential employer, you did not have to worry about looking good in social media, you did not have to work your ass off to build a credit rating so one day you can afford to buy a living space on your own all while keeping up with all the things your ancestors were required to do. These are just a few bad examples.

My main point here is that we try to excel at so many directions the cumulative effort is what just burns us out.

Overindulgence

The burnout often starts with a spark of excitement

We as people have never in human history been so overstimulated with information and experiences. We are exposed to so much stimuli that we build up a tolerance. So when something does excite us we cling to it and try to get every drop of fun and excitement out of it.
But doing so can lead to over stimulation, exhaustion, numbness... burnout.

When I was introduced to steem (by @josie2214) I overindulged... I was very excited about this platform and the potential it could have. I poured my every free hour I had from work into it. I began developing a chrome plugin for steemit and I believe quite successfully so. This went on for a few moths, I slept 3-5 hours on average. On top of that I had lot's of stress going on at work.
But it all led to a point I could not force myself to even open the steemit feed and read the posts from my recently gained friends. I just could not force to write a single word.

Expectations are the fun police

Ever felt that fantastic relief when a friend cancels your planned night out and you can just sit at home and do nothing?
Well it may be the case that your friend is an asshole, or you are...
or it could be that the expectation of having to go out and force yourself to have fun is exhausting on it's own.

We like new experiences, we like surprises and we like to impress people. But when we are robbed of the ability to impress people with the thing we enjoy, when we ourselves tell ourselves that it's time to go and have fun because we worked so hard so it's the "Scheduled fun time" , when before you is an endless list of internal and external expectations you are on your way to burnout.

SO THEN WHAT?

Don't let your fire burn too bright and run too wild as it will consume all the oxygen around itself and smother itself out leaving you in a dark place.

But if you already feel burnt out -
Cool off... dare to tell internal and external expectations to fuck off for a while. Stop trying your best for a little while.

Let the winds of change bring some fresh air so a new flame may burn again.

_source

Now look at that, isn't that some new age inspirational bullshit... Honestly, if this manages to make even one person to be more mindful about their own potential burnout I have achieved my goal. I believe that understanding how it works is the first step to avoid it or postpone it at least. I am a few beers in so idk... might regret it in the morning

Happy steeming,
@beercake out!