So, you’ve built a career on being capable, available, reliable and always a few steps ahead.
You’ve said yes to every opportunity and became the person people rely on time and time again.
You’ve delivered without drama often committing out of obligation rather than desire or priority.
You’ve put in the extra effort, over and above what is required, to pre-empt any doubt about your competence.
From the outside it looks like dedication.
From the inside, it is quiet exhaustion.
You become depleted from unsustainable self-sacrifice.
Burnout becomes real.
You probably think of burnout as a personal problem that requires one to push through, manage it privately and eventually fix it with a vacation when you can carve out some time out of your very busy schedule.
In fact, you’ve probably never thought of burnout as having a cost, as in, a financial cost.
But the truth is, burnout has a price, and a heavy one at that. It’s a compounding price because burnout does not appear suddenly…it creeps in over time.
And the price of burnout?
– You feel like your brain is in a constant fog and you’re tired all the time
– Your judgement is not as solid as has been
– You miss things that you would normally catch
– You start to make mistakes and can’t understand why
– You start to doubt yourself, your ability and your contribution
– Your team is confused as you snap and take it out on them
– You become unpredictable and your reputation suffers
– You miss out on the promotion that should have been yours
– And you’re not confident to go for the next role
And the antidote?
– You must start treating yourself, your energy and your time like an asset
– You must honour boundaries that you’ve been ignoring
– You must delay important decisions until you’re rested
– You must pull back intentionally and carve out time for a break
– You must delegate things that others can do just as well as you or even better
– You must pause and say ‘not yet’ to things that are not a priority
– You must buy yourself some time to consider a request by offering to get back once you’ve checked your capacity, availability or priorities
To avoid the cost of burnout, you have to stop saying yes out of obligation and start treating yourself, your time and your energy like an asset!