If you are burned out, you can work through burnout without quitting your job or leaving your business.
I am going to share a shocking truth about burnout: you don’t always burnout because of your job.
I also don’t think you should look to your employer to solve your burnout. You should make them aware of it and ask for their support, but you shouldn’t expect them to have the antidote for the chronic stress raging through your body every day.
In fact, the only person who can get you out of your burned-out state is… you.
I know. This is a harsh truth. When you are burned out, you are cynical, angry, exhausted, at the end of your rope, and you feel stuck.
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When stress is in control of your brain and body, you aren’t always making great decisions or thinking with a clear mind. You’re heavily influenced by your low or bad mood, lack of energy, and negative attitude.
Let’s be honest: you are mostly focused on the negative aspects of pretty much everything. Everything and everyone sucks.
This is why I always advise people to hold off on quitting their job when they are burned out, and business owners shouldn’t make drastic business decisions. Your negative perspective can make your job seem more frustrating, managing others an inconvenience, bosses more difficult, and the work overwhelming.
Let’s Talk About Why Your Boss Won’t Have The Answer
Burnout is complicated. This is why I tell people not to expect their employer to have the answer, but rather to seek their support through your recovery journey.
There are a thousand reasons you can burnout. (I’ll dive into this more in a minute.) Yes, your job could be part of the reason, but your job usually isn’t the soul offender. With the vast majority of my clients, it has been a combination of habits, mindset, perspective, responsibility, and personality traits that lead them to burnout.
To further complicate your burnout journey, everyone handles and responds to stress differently.
Then, mix in mental health, physical health, and the unpredictability of life. Talk about a perfect storm…
You should talk to your boss about your feelings of burnout. They do need to know so they can support you. They can’t help you manage what they don’t know about, right?
Here’s what you can and should talk with your boss about:
- Feelings of overwhelm due to your workload – Your boss can help you figure out priorities, remove responsibilities, and figure out a schedule or routine that is productive but less stressful.
- Toxic work environment – If there is an expectation that seems unrealistic or you work in an office with poor communication, talk to your boss. They can’t solve these problems overnight or in every department within the company, but they can help you figure out a better way navigate and/or clear up misunderstandings.
- Factors affecting your performance – If you work in a loud office, an office with an open-plan that doesn’t provide privacy, constantly get interrupted, need training or to brush up your skills, or you are bored – these are all very stressful things that can impact your performance. And, these are all things your boss can help you find solutions for.
If you are self-employed or you own your own business, this is the time to approach your support network. Your support network, a business mentor, or fellow business owners can be a great resource for helping you find solutions for job-related burnout. They can help you find a different way to work, figure out easier or less stressful solutions to business problems, and shed some light on a different perspective.
What to Do First When You Need to Work Through Your Burnout
The first thing I advise anyone to do when they are burned out is to figure out the actual root cause their burnout. While your job or business can be a contributing factor, the root cause of your burnout more likely has something to do with:
- Personality traits (like being a high-achiever, a perfectionist, a people pleaser)
- Negative attitude or mindset (having a natural tendency toward a pessimistic attitude)
- Limiting beliefs (a belief about yourself that restricts you in some way; like not being talented enough to master a skill)
- An easily triggered stress response
- A lack of boundaries
I believe these are chronic stress drivers that get in the way of having a healthy mindset and seeing the world from a realistic perspective. They also create numerous other problems that can also lead you to burnout.
In the spirit of transparency, I had no idea I was a perfectionist or people pleaser until my burnout left me unable to function. It was the CliftonStrengths assessment that not only pointed out my strengths, but why I was focused on my weaknesses. My perfectionism and people pleasing tendencies were telling me it wasn’t okay to have weaknesses and that I needed to meet higher standards.
In my case, I had unrealistic expectations and standards for myself and for my business. These unrealistic expectations and standards drove both me and my business into the ground.
I thought these unrealistic expectations were perfectly normal and that I was a failure for not achieving the perfection that I believed was required to make me successful. When I tackled my perfectionism and people pleasing tendencies, my stress levels lowered tremendously, my perspective changed, and I enjoyed owning a business again.
Most of us have no idea what makes us tick. Maybe we don’t want to know, maybe it seems to hard to acknowledge, or maybe you have no idea there is anything wrong. But, this is usually why people jump to blaming their job as the cause of their burnout. It’s a lot easier to point the finger at someone else or something else than take accountability for our role in burning out.
The Stuckness
Most people describe feeling stuck when they are burned out. This stuckness feels like a dead weight that drowns you and seems impossible to get rid of. The stuckness is made up of feelings of burden, being overwhelmed by responsibility, and guilt for wanting to give up.
It’s this stuckness that becomes a seemingly impossible obstacle for many experiencing burnout. It blinds you to the fact that you do have options and you can make different choices.
Yes, choices. You have choices.
You can fight me on this all day long – I’ll meet you in the parking lot if you want – but you do choose your perspective. You choose your mindset. And, you choose your work and responsibilities.
It is very hard to see this and feel that it is possible for you to make different choices that are aligned with your priorities and allow you to be happier.
The first choice most of us need to make to recover from burnout is that we need to change because what we’re doing isn’t working.
How to Work Through Burnout
So, maybe I have convinced you to hold off on quitting your job – now what?
You need a plan to work through burnout, so let’s make one.
Step 1: You need to find the root cause of your burnout. There are all kinds of personality assessments available (although I prefer CliftonStrengths), work with a therapist, or start by doing a task and responsibility inventory. Explore what makes you tick. Figure out what motivates you or blows the wind out of your sails. The question to ask yourself is “What might I be doing that is contributing to my burnout?” Take accountability for your own behavior first, then look at how external forces are influencing you.
I’ll tell you a secret: knowing the root cause of your burnout will also help you recover from burnout faster.
Step 2: Show yourself compassion. Our natural tendency to engage in negative self-talk drives a lot of our stress. Negative self-talk is like rocket fuel for stress and anxiety cycles. Find a few phrases or mantras that help break those cycles. Something simple like “It’s a tough day, but I am strong enough to get through it.” Or, “I am grateful I get to do XYZ today…”
When you are able to show yourself compassion and not be so hard on yourself, you make it easier to open your mind to different choices, opportunities, and solutions.
Step 3: Talk it out and ask for help. Schedule time with your boss, colleagues, someone in your support network, a mentor, a friend, or attend a professional workshop to share your difficulties. They may not be able to offer advice – and you may not want them to – but their empathy and support can do wonders for your spirit. If you believe someone is in a position to help you, be direct when you ask them. Listen with an open mind when someone feels they can offer a solution.
Step 4: Focus less on work and more on recharging: Find activities and experiences that recharge you. Chronic stress is an energy killer. So, you need to find ways to replenish your energy. These energy boosters don’t have to last for hours. In fact, 15 minutes of a personally satisfying activity can power you through an afternoon. Get up from your desk and go to a quiet spot to stretch, drink a cold glass of water, or read a chapter of a book – these are all things that can boost your mood and your energy.
Step 5: Set boundaries. Prioritize your needs and create boundaries to protect your time and energy. Sure, you might have to be selfish for a little while until you get your chronic stress managed. Boundaries will give you space to change your mindset, work on your negative self-talk, and keep you focused on becoming more resilient.
Please don’t mistake this advice and my perspective as me thinking burning out is all your fault. It’s not. Burnout doesn’t make you a failure and it certainly takes time to mend. It’s important to me that you know there are a lot of reasons we burnout and find ourselves battling chronic stress – not just limiting it to a stupid boss, impossible deadlines, or annoying colleagues.
We are more than the jobs we have and the work we do.
