Professional burnout

in #blog7 years ago


By the end of last year, I was exhausted to such an extent by juggling with the roles of a professional, mother, wife and mistress of real estate, which on one very fine day could not get off the couch in the literal sense of the word. As I noted above, this happened already in the n-th time. Every time I made conclusions, but life threw new challenges to my ambitions, and I again ended up where I swore it would not happen again. On the couch. A great place to disassemble life as a Lego constructor and then reassemble.
Now I calmly discuss this, but in fact, burnout is a hard experience. It makes me reconsider the approach to different things, including those that I should not be forced to do, and I am ready to deal with them around the clock.
For example, I like to be aware of all the most relevant in the sphere of my professional interests, so I read, listen and watch a lot. I also like writing very much, I like to collect letters in words and express myself in them. In the state of nailing to the couch, I could not even do this. Not only did I sink to the most emotional bottom, there I was also torn. On the one hand, from the fear that I will never again be the same as before, that my source of creativity, thoughts and topics for communication has dried up. On the other hand, from self-flagellation, they say, I'm a limp, I can not bring myself to open a book, or squeeze out a line. I was already feeling bad, but I was even stronger than I was.
Let's add to this that, due to my profession, I'm moving in a certain information environment, and I read social media professionals who are afraid that it is necessary to fight for the readers' attention, give comments on current topics, post regularly, do not disappear from their tapes, and then ...

But the fact that? Will everyone run away from the sandbox and do not want to play with me anymore?

I did not get a clear answer to this question, but the neurosis intensified.
At some point, I was tired of experiencing, took my disassembled state and allowed myself to just be. Well, it is not readable, it is not written and does not fast, OK, we lie further, we wait, while again it will want. And do you know what happened? Nothing. No one from me massively unsubscribed, the dialogue with readers continued from the place where it ceased. Someone, of course, "fell off", but it's clearly not those whose absence I noticed, so is it worth worrying about them?
Then gradually everything returned to normal: I rested, cleaned up the "tails", re-entered the information flow, a fountain of ideas was scored, a new notebook for their recording appeared on the table.
The conclusion to which I came this time: if "covered", do not want to consume anything and nothing to share - and do not, it is better to send this energy inside on your own recovery. Burnout - a red light bulb and a stop sign, the brain signal that he has indigestion, he can no longer, he needs peace and quiet. If you try to force yourself to continue in the same spirit, then the next step is already depression, getting out of it will be much more difficult than if you stop in time and give yourself a rest. I know myself, I was there.

I write for microentrepreneurs who spend a lot of time searching for ideas to promote their business, write a lot, talk about themselves, share insights and findings. The main source of information now, the place of professional hangouts and social networks. They give us a lot of food for the mind, most of which, unfortunately, is unhealthy fast food. They also frustrate us: if we do not consume and report tons of information every day, oh God, let's "fall out" of the tape, do not post and not answer, then we feel like something not so. We are terribly behind others. "But here I just turned away for a minute, as during this time there were blockades, chat bots and others like them," you will say. And when we begin to compare ourselves with others, then at least hang, because they a priori look more successful and smarter than us. This, too, sucks up already scarce energy.
In order not to finish the year nailed to the couch seriously and for a long time, as I did a couple of months ago, you still need to periodically organize for yourself a space of silence. In this silence, energy is restored, the information is compacted and ideas are born. The question is how to do this, when if you do not work, then the family wants something from you urgently, if not the family, then the tenants, but that's another story. When I tell clients that I am the same as they are with a lot of unresolved problems, for some reason it immediately relaxes and disposes to a productive dialogue.
"Listen, it feels like I've been complaining about your life for a whole hour now, how complicated and confusing everything is," this year it was already heard at several virtual meetings with different people.

So I for this purpose also sit on other side of the screen, without a crown on a head and with the same bruises under eyes. And I like listening and helping to solve this problem, I have a lot of knowledge in marketing for this, from which I'm bursting, and a great desire to reach out through the screen and provide support to those who, like me many times already, have reached to the point of assembling yourself on the couch. It's normal, really. We were all there, even those who do not talk about it.

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