Many of us would rather overextend ourselves to make more money than enjoy a balanced, fulfilling life. When we are constantly working like crazy to reach unrealistic expectations, we eventually have to pay for it. The price we pay is burnout. All-work-and-no-play not only makes us dull, it also burns out our passion, wears out our souls and leaves us with a sense of disillusionment that cannot be cured by simply resting.

So why do we work so incessantly? How can we attained a work-life balance? How do we know if we are suffering from burnout?

Through the burnout process we learn that people are not superhuman and that hard work does not cure all ills. We learn that by identifying and accomodating our own goals and values, we can heal our souls.

What is burnout?

• Definition: Burnout is essentially the decay of one's spiritual core, one's values, sense of meaning, purpose in life, a loss of beliefs and dreams. This leaves a vacuum which is filled by despair, bitterness and fear toward life itself.
• Individual: Everyone has an individual set of needs and preferences, from which one derive immense satisfaction, such as having goals, having alone time, or working in a quiet environment. When these needs aren't met, and one's rights are violated on a regular basis, it will suck the life out of one, burning one out.
• Symptoms: Here are the symptoms and warning signs of burnout
  • Emptiness: A feeling of inner emptiness, as if everything except one's visible exterior has been burnt out.
  • Exhaustion: Burnout is accompanied by chronic fatigue, a sense of being physically run down. Many describe it as feeling depleted, weary or having flat batteries that won't charge, no matter how much juice is put into them.
  • No joy: One can't smile or laugh on the inside, but only sport a feigned smile or a cursory laugh when social expectations require it.
  • Bad days and moods: One only have bad days and moods, oscillating between very bad and mildly bad ones - not responding to variations in external circumstances.
  • Anger: One feels angry and bitter all the time at those making demands and self-criticism for putting up with the demands - exploding easily at seemingly inconsequential things.
  • Cynicism: Cynicism seeps in, despair, chronic negativity, irritability, feelings of helplessness, depression, a sense failure and being besieged.
  • Unhealthy: Frequent headaches, shortness of breath, trembling hands, sleeplessness, gastrointestinal disturbances, weight loss or gain.
  • Disconnected: Feel disconnect from others, a loneliness that is impervious to interpersonal contact. Becoming withdrawn or belligerent.
• Stressed: Stressed out and burnt out are not the same thing. One can recover from stress after rest, renewal, recharge with sufficient sleep, exercise, sound nutrition, deep breathing, massages or relaxing days at the beach.
• Ineffective: One can't arrest burnout with the above mentioned cures for stress.
• Doing nothing: When you accept burnout and do nothing about it, you risk becoming bitter and angry as opportunities pass you by. Your may be regarded as dead wood at work and may be doomed to a gradual or sudden decline. You need to do something about it.

Causes of burnout

• Job dissatisfaction: When one no longer get anything of emotional value from your job, and are just going through the motions for the money.
• Over-work: When one work very long hours, under pressure, leading to an unbalanced life, not consisting of activities which are fulfilling to you.
• Mind grinders: Some companies fully intend that their star-employees would flare briefly and brightly before being discarded after they burn out.
• Top-dog: Many people slave for years in a tunnel vision quest to reach top-dog-status, fearing to eventually fade away into a has-been.
• Learned: We could have learned by example from our overworked and frenetically busy parents how to overwork ourselves.
• Self-destructive: Burnout may stem from self-destructive behaviour.
• Hardship: Prolonged, unremitting stress and suffering.

How to fight burnout!

• What Happened?: A starting point in dealing with burnout is to take a long, rational, dispassionate look at the circumstances leading up to the burnout. Make sure that you understand what lead you to burnout - this will also prevent history from repeating itself.
• Spiritual: To heal from burnout we need to rebuild from inside - we need to go on a spiritual quest, not a psychological one, which is distinct for each individual.
• Human soul : Humans have fragile souls. Each of our soul-tools must be used for what it was designed to do, then it will last indefinitely or else it will eventually break.
• Fundamental changes: To recover you would be required to fundamentally change your consciousness and your way of life. There are many books that can provide helpful insight into this subject.
• Personal growth: Talk the situation through with a trusted friend or career coach, looking at circumstances and demands of yourself and others involved.
• Design: It is essential that you find out what you are naturally motivated toward and what you where designed to do! A career coach can do assessments to determine your design.
• Evaluate: Use it as a wake-up call to evaluate how you want to live and what short term and long term goals you want to achieve.
• Action plan: Create a well balanced plan for how to achieve your goals and start working on them right away!
• Employers: Being an employer, one must be willing to change the job content to fit the design of employees. Interviewees can be tested to ensure that you employ the right person for the job.
• Scale down workload: Assist your valuable employees in scaling down their work overloads by employing sufficient staff, improving systems and workflow, or creating partnerships with other companies.
• Create a balance: Provide yourself and your employees with ways to offset the energy drain from intense labour with a comparable degree of energy renewal.
• Checklist: Check that you give due weight to relaxation and healthy lifestyle issues and social activities that will help to protect you against burnout in the future.
• Exploit passions: Leisurely exploit your own passions and intrinsic motivations, allowing generous time for creative pursuits which you enjoy.
• Changing jobs: When you are disillusioned with the company you work for, rather than in your career, find a new job in the same line. In a new job you can re-dedicate yourself to your original values and goals, its a refreshing new start in a new environment, without painful reminders.
• Changing career: If you lost interest in the values that led you into your current career, a career change may be the best option.
• Commitment: If you tend to become very loyal to your job, first make sure it is the right job for you and re-evaluate regularly whether it still meets your needs.