Thread by @PeteOlusoga

So a few days ago, I asked a question about burnout and the replies were pretty revealing - thanks to everyone who replied for their honesty in talking about this stuff.

#Burnout is much more than just feeling a bit worn out.
Settle in... 🧵

@coachblueprint1

https://twitter.com/PeteOlusoga/status/1567878650338344961

Burnout is far more than just feeling worn out, or a bit over-stressed.

It is a complex and ongoing syndrome with three major characteristics...

1. Feelings of emotional and physical exhaustion.

Often this is described as being overwhelmed by everything, not having the energy to make even the simplest of decisions.

2. Feeling like we're just treading water.

No matter how much effort we're able to muster, we can feel like we're just not achieving anything at all. Pretty demoralising, especially if we're already exhausted by life.

3. Feeling really cynical about work and the relationships that we have with other people at work... and at home, I guess!

So we throw the term burnout around quite a bit to mean tired/exhausted, when there's more to it than that.

Exhaustion is part of it, yes, but there's also this reduced sense of accomplishment and a developing cynicism as well.

And it's long lasting.

By definition, burnout is an "ongoing syndrome"

If you read through the replies to the original tweet, you'll notice that the impacts of burnout are many and varied, and can be really severe...
➡️Sleep disturbance
➡️Compromised immune function
➡️Ill health
➡️Anxiety and depression
➡️Withdrawal

Generally speaking, burnout is a response to prolonged stress. But there are a couple of other factors involved too.

So if you're stressed out, but you love your job, feel really happy in it, and want to keep doing it, you're less likely to burnout.

If you feel trapped or stuck in your job, pressured to continue (for whatever reason), and can't see the benefits... you're much more at risk.

So what can we do?

Well, prevention is obviously better than cure. So we can start at the source and attempt to address some of the stressors that we experience AND/OR work on our ability to cope with them...

We can work more on self-care (something a lot of people find really difficult, especially those in caring professions - teaching, nursing, COACHING, and so forth.

We can spend time really considering what we actually value and think about even small things we can do to work towards *those* things...

But all of this stuff, the self-care, the stress management, the coping strategies for stress... all of this places the blame for stress and burnout on the individual.

Like it's your fault for not being able to cope!

As if it's your fault for not being able to cope with a cost of living crisis, a global pandemic, an impending environmental catastrophe, all playing out 24/7 on your TVs, Radios, Phones, Facebook, twitter, Instagram...

And that's on top of your regular day-to-day stress!

So the first thing you can do... the most important thing you can do... is to give yourself a break!

And I don't mean like a holiday, I mean like practise some self-compassion here.

It's okay to be fucking stressed out to fuck at the minute! Honestly, who wouldn't be!?

And the second thing you can do... is to give yourself a break!

And I still don't mean a holiday, I mean like take minute. Take 30 seconds. Take 10 seconds, just for yourself. Just breath. Ground yourself. Notice where your feet are.

Burnout is pernicious. It creeps up on you. It's really hard to see how difficult things are when you're in the thick of it!

Get better at paying attention. Get better at noticing, so that you can notice when you're more irritable than usual, when your relationships are starting to suffer, when you're just fucking sad and pissed off all the time.

Listen to your body.

I work in sport. I research stress, burnout, and wellbeing in high-performance sport. That's a pretty tough environment.

If you're a #coach reading this, I'm putting on a free webinar next week with @coachblueprint1 to talk about burnout 👇🏿

mailchi.mp/0d8a89dc5ec1/b…

Thanks for reading the thread. If you've gotten this far and didn't read the replies to the original burnout question, take a look below, know that you're not alone.

Thanks again to everyone who replied.

https://twitter.com/PeteOlusoga/status/1567878650338344961?s=20&t=OuL2-TBDmC4CJT4E0JIBLg

Continued...

https://twitter.com/PeteOlusoga/status/1571104471203336192?s=20&t=kqxL_g5f0PLYUfu548WigA