Lessons from Burnout
I remember hitting rock bottom. I was a new mom, a wife, and a traveling sales rep at one of the largest social media companies in the U.S. My days were filled with pumping, sales calls, and one-day sales trips where I would be up at 3:00 am to get to the airport and back at 12:00 am the next morning so that I wouldn’t be away from my 7 month old for longer than a day.
In hindsight, it was pretty obvious...I had been chronically stressed for so long that my body was used to being in survival mode and making me pay for the undue stress I had placed on it. My brain and body were breaking down because I was in the midst of major burnout.
Awareness of burnout is the first step to healing it. If you suffer for a long period of time, or like me, chalk it up to being a new mom, use these guidelines to help you identify and move forward.
Extreme Exhaustion: There are two things I’ve ALWAYS been consistent with: my workout regimen and my friendships. Amidst my burnout, I had absolutely no energy to do anything other than breastfeed and attempt to get myself together enough for work that it wasn’t obvious I was struggling. I came home from work, spent time with my new baby, and swiftly laid in bed until the next morning where I dragged myself out of bed and did it all over again. The things that were usually a top priority for me, took a backseat to my exhaustion.
There is no excitement at work: I loved my company and I had flourished during my time there but the excitement for my specific job was gone. I could barely muster up the energy to get out of bed, much less prepare daunting presentations that included ROI data for my deserving clients. I did the bare minimum to get by and tried to stay under the radar as long as possible. The spark that I once had was long gone and it was taking a toll on me.
Your Performance is Less than Stellar: I had built a reputation on being a top performer and an overachiever. My colleagues knew me as someone who would always go the extra mile but over time, that desire faded and my performance showed it. At the time, I felt as though I had little control over my results and I felt helpless when in reality, the amount of stress I was under totally did me in. I couldn’t catch up at work or at home and I felt like I was drowning. I missed my quota numerous quarters and that hurt my self-esteem more. I felt like I was on a never-ending hamster wheel.
If any of this sounds familiar, you may be in the midst of burnout. The greatest lesson from my experience with burnout is that burnout doesn’t get better if you keep going. I continually believed that if I just made it to the next mile marker, all would be fine but in reality, that led to more burnout. Listen to your body and intuition; if the word “burnout” comes across your mind multiple times a day and you are exhausted to the point that no amount of sleep or healthy food can solve it, you might be suffering from burnout. It can happen to anyone, especially those of us in the millennial generation who are trying to prove ourselves while climbing that corporate ladder. There is freedom in recognizing it’s happened to you and there is opportunity to lift the burden from your chest so that you can breathe with ease. You aren’t required to live in survival mode. We get one life and you owe it to yourself to live it in a way that feels good.