Building Your Legacy Together

The 6 steps of burnout recovery

According to a commonly cited article in Work and Stress, there are six consecutive steps a person needs to take when recovering from burnout:

1. Admitting you’re burned out. You can’t get better if you don’t acknowledge that your current situation needs to change. This can be difficult, especially if the thing that’s burning you out — parenting or a job you love, for example — is important to you.

2. Putting distance between yourself and your stressors, if possible. What that means will vary based on your situation and resources. “Distance” could be as significant as quitting your job or taking a leave of absence from work. Or it could be as small as — or even smaller than — taking a mental health day. Or taking some child-free time for self-care.

3. Focusing on your health. You’ve been running on empty for a while, so it’s time to refill your tank. That may mean getting an extra hour of sleep at night, cooking your favorite food instead of grabbing takeout or going out dancing with your friends. Whatever helps you feel like yourself again.

4. Re-evaluating your goals and values. As your health starts to improve, it’s time to use those resources to do some thinking about the situation that led you to burnout. What are you not getting that you need to be happy? Is your mindset helping or hurting you? Are your priorities in sync with your values? What’s most important to you and why?

5. Explore alternative paths and opportunities. Once you have a sense of what needs are being unmet in your life, it’s time to do something about it. What concrete change(s) could you make to improve your situation? Maybe you need to leave a relationship that’s no longer serving you … or maybe you just need to get a night to yourself once a week. The changes don’t necessarily have to be big to make a meaningful difference in your daily life.

6. Take a break and/or make a change. Once you’ve figured out what you need, you have to actually do it. That’s not always easy, but it is vital to the recovery process.

This program changed my life!

J. Smith

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At legacy.360liferenewal.com, we empower you with tools to grow wealth and mindset.

Shelley's stresses at work pushed her past the point of caring

I was lucky enough to be offered my ‘dream job’ soon after I qualified. I knew it would be a difficult role, but I was enthusiastic about doing a job that mattered to me.

As I expected, work was tough from the start. I had to help lots of people each day, which meant I had to stay in the office late into the evening, catching up on paperwork. I was so worried about making mistakes that I did everything as thoroughly as possible. What surprised me was how unhappy my team was: they weren’t very welcoming and always complained about their jobs. I tried to keep my distance so the negativity wouldn’t rub off on me.

A few months after I joined the service, my team leader resigned. I was asked to step into his role, which seemed like a great opportunity. Looking back, I can see it was a big mistake. Being a ‘lead’ was very different from the work I’d done before. I still needed to do my usual tasks, but I also had to manage everybody else in the team – I was completely new to that. My co-workers became hostile towards me because they didn’t want to be managed by someone so ‘new’, and every day I felt like I was under attack. What made it worse was how little support I was given. As a senior team member, I didn’t receive any kind of supervision or mentoring. I felt like a pilot flying through a fog, desperately trying to do a good job but with no idea of what direction to go in.

As time went on, work started to take over my life. My responsibilities increased, so I had to work harder and longer to keep up. I stopped taking breaks and spent my evenings preparing for the day. I also started drinking after work, which probably made my already poor sleep even worse. When the weekend arrived, all I wanted to do was rest and cut myself off from everything else.

Slowly, my stress turned to exhaustion. I felt like I couldn’t keep up anymore, as if the job had defeated me. It’s hard to explain how tired and empty I felt. My attitude towards work also changed. I used to feel passionate about helping people, but by this point, I was past the point of caring. Nothing I did seemed to matter. The problems with my team got worse as well. I avoided interacting with them as much as possible, and whenever I did, I behaved dismissively. I didn’t like the person I’d become.

When I spoke to my GP about my recurrent stomach aches, the idea of ‘burnout’ came up. I thought I might be depressed or just not suited to the job, but my doctor explained that it was a common problem in professions like mine. I hope I can find my enthusiasm for work again.