5 Warning Signs Of Burnout

Through my work I often meet people who stayed far too long in their jobs feeling unhappy, stressed, frustrated, undervalued and overwhelmed. Bringing their work troubles home to their partners and friends. Ultimately affecting their overall wellbeing. 

The thing is, Its hard to recognize the signs sometimes, I know, I've been there before.  Often we think - It'll get better soon, once X happens it won't be so bad.  Its easy for a few more months to roll by and then a few more. After all its comfortable, its our security and we are too busy to look for something else anyway or maybe we don't feel ready yet - we need more experience. In other words, we are letting our fears drive our behavior, rather than being led by our values and our dreams for the life we actually want to live. Lets face it we spend more time at work than anything else, life is too short to settle.

So what can we do? 

The first step in making a change is recognizing whats really going on.  Knowing the difference between feeling stressed and feeling burnt out.  You can have a job thats quite stressful at times and you actually enjoy that spark of energy that comes from the pressure.  Stress can be positive if its linked to work you feel ownership over and its something you feel proud of.  You can also have a job were you feel deflated, tired, undervalued, less confident and in the end it affects your health.  You can't sleep, you stop exercising, maybe turn to your vices.  This is burn out.

Heres a quick reality check you can use to see if you are at risk: 

1. You feel that your work and efforts are not valued

2. You don’t see hope that your situation will improve in the long term 

3. You’re losing motivation to show up with your best effort

4. You don’t feel as though your effort makes any difference to the outcome

5. You have felt like this for more than 3 months

If you answer yes to these 5 questions, its likely you are on your way to burn out or you are already there. So its time to take action!

For further resources and info on coaching packages go to www.toshacc.com