Have you ever been burned out? Just going through the motions and not feeling completely “there.”
It’s not a good feeling.
Burnout is a topic I get asked to speak about frequently.
How do you recharge your physical, mental and emotional batteries so you can continue to perform when others may be drained?
Two important components to this:
1 – Doing things you find intrinsically enjoyable
2 – Doing things that allow you to mentally disengage from what is causing the burnout
Case in point–my brother was in town from Italy last week, and aside from random Egyptian trips, I only get to see him about once per year. I strive to be fully present as much as possible.
We packed A LOT into our week: family, friends, running, biking, beer, boating, Twins games, State Fair, church, and plenty of “games of skill.”
Playing jumbo Jenga with my brother at a brewery in Minneapolis. I lost 🙁
It's cherished time and I don't take a single second of it for granted.
Interestingly enough, I also spent very little time thinking about the busiest Sept. / Oct. / Nov. of my speaking career coming up.
THAT is what I mean about being able to mentally disengage.
If you're reading this in the States, you've probably already started your long Labor Day weekend. Good! Soak it up! You've earned it.
I'm guessing you also have a busy finish to the year and my hope is that you find something intrinsically enjoyable this weekend and allow yourself to be fully immersed in it.
One thing I've noticed about Outperformers is that they're very rarely "half on." They're either engaged or disengaged. Working hard or hardly working. Very little in between.
Managing burnout is a lot like interval training: periods of high work output, followed by strategic recovery.
Challenge yourself to operate this way--be on it or be off it--and resist the false narrative of ridiculous response times.
Emails can probably wait until Tuesday...or at least until later in the day when you have consciously decided to "engage" with them.
You'll be better, and less burned out, for it.
Keep Outperforming,
