Written by: Vivien Hudson, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Professionals are burning out at record rates. Doctors, health care workers, teachers, and lawyers are at the top of the list. Often individuals who embark on these professions desire to do challenging, rewarding, and meaningful work. The reality is that the long hours, work demands, perceived lack of control, and negative emotions can become a tsunami of overwhelm and exhaustion. Sometimes this can lead to burnout.
Substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and suicide are concerning outcomes if burnout is not recognized or addressed. So why are professionals at particular risk? For one, as a professional and someone who is seen to be highly successful, it's hard to ask for help.
So why don't professionals ask for help?
Fear is at the heart of not asking for help.
By asking for help, you could have your feelings discounted, mocked, ignored, or generate conflict. You could also think you look stupid or weak for needing help. Professionals are bright; the last thing you want to do is look foolish. Along with that fear comes embarrassment, guilt, and shame, with shame being one emotion that humans want to avoid at all costs.
Furthermore, as a professional, it's easy to assume that everyone else around you have their act together. If you don't, you feel like the odd one out. The reality is we don't like to bare our souls and say we are struggling. Often problems are insidious. They start small, and you think they are things you can get through, so you act like the duck swimming on the pond. For all intents and purposes, on the surface, everything looks great. Beneath the surface, the feet are frantically paddling, trying to catch up or keep up. Before you know it, your problems become so big you can't find a way out.
Problems that lead to burnout can include:
Working too much
The sheer volume of working too many hours without taking enough time to recuperate is a big one. Whether you love or hate your work, working too many hours puts you at risk of burnout by not taking enough time to recharge. Ariana Huffington learned the hard way by working consistently 15 plus hour days and then collapsing one day at her desk.
Conflicting priorities
These can be conflicting work-related priorities or the challenges of juggling home life and work life. This can be a tricky problem as it becomes hard to gain clarity – the analogy of not seeing the forest for the trees springs to mind. Overwhelm can be a common feeling where it is difficult to know where or even how to focus.
Toxic environments
We are a sum of the people with whom we spend the most time. Working in a constantly hostile environment takes its toll. Emotions are contagious, and negativity has a way of turning even the good apples bad. Some professions can even lend themselves to more negative emotions, including healthcare and the legal professions, due to the nature of their clients and issues.
Work environments can become toxic for many reasons. Command and control leaders, abrasive personalities, unchecked gossip, lack of recognition and lack of accountability to name a few.
Business challenges
Professionals are educated to do a profession, and not trained to understand the finances and logistics of running a business. One of the great rewards of being a professional is having your own business, should you desire. But with this comes untold skills that you weren't trained for. Human resources, accounting, marketing, and managing change become part of your wheelhouse.
On top of this, you are the professional, and you have all the skills needed to serve your clients. If your business suffers an unexpected downturn or rapid growth, finances can quickly become a big problem. If not promptly addressed, can lead to significant stress (and that's before taxes!).
Feeling trapped
Lack of autonomy or control over your work can make you feel stuck in a rut or trapped. If you do not choose when, where or how you do your job, this can quickly create feelings of being trapped or helpless. You lose motivation or the drive to do your best work.
Living up to the expectations of your job, the needs of your family, and the ability to service the cost of lifestyles and business can leave many people feeling trapped, particularly if you are responsible for bringing home the bacon. As salaries increase, the expectations and desire to have nice things also increase. Increased wages can correspondingly increase debt levels that need to be serviced and make taking a hiatus from work impossible.
So what can you do?
Working too hard?
Find ways to regularly charge your battery to help you cope with long work schedules. Getting enough sleep goes without saying, but it does need to said. Approximately 1 in 3 people are sleep deprived. Check out Ariana Huffington's work on sleep to learn more and see why a good 8 hours of sleep a night and the odd power nap can help.
Martin Seligman's work highlights what he calls flourishing. The idea of flourishing is it empowers us to be more resilient. Meaning we are better able to cope with adversity and recover from it. Many of the premises of flourishing are surprisingly simple and are available to any person. Two compelling areas are expressing gratitude and acts of kindness. When we feel so worn out, it seems counterintuitive – after all – aren't you the one who needs love? Numerous studies have shown that mindful gratitude and kindness can increase overall long-term happiness and mitigate burnout.
Juggling priorities?
Gaining clarity on values, creating boundaries, and self-permission are at the heart of pulling this mess apart. When decisions are hard, it can be because we have conflicting values. Do a values-based exercise that can help you determine the most important things in your life.
In her book 'Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway', Susan Jeffers talks about a life grid. This grid helps you clarify all the essential aspects of your life to find better work-life integration. A good analogy for managing these priorities is the rocks in the jar analogy. When we attend to the big priorities in our life first, it's much easier to fit the small things around it. If you have ever tried doing this with real rocks, sand, and a jar, you will quickly learn to get everything in the jar; you need to put the big rocks in before the sand and little rocks.
The Eisenhower Matrix can help identify the important and non-urgent things that you never get around to addressing. This is an excellent tool for those reluctant delegators to help you work out what to delegate and stop you from doing all the work.
Detox needed?
Hostile workplaces make it hard for everyone to do good work. Avoid the negative people in your workplace, and don't get involved in gossip. If you work with negativity from your clients, bring positivity to the conversations and avoid taking on their drama. Prepare yourself for client meetings and set boundaries on how much negativity you will tolerate. If possible, detox with some exercise or meditation afterward to avoid carrying around the baggage.
Team dynamics can also be a problem in toxic environments. If people are not in the right roles or are poorly understood or recognized, toxicity can develop. Utilize talent development tools and training to ensure people have what they need to do their job correctly and make sure their roles are aligned. Play an active role in recognizing other people in the workplace to foster a more pleasant and respectful environment. To optimize your workplace, you need six positive comments for every negative one.
Don't know it all?
Acknowledge that it is OK that you don't know it all. Don't beat yourself up. If you need help, there is always someone willing to help. The trick is to ask or seek the help you need. Establish a good network of mentors, coaches, and colleagues early. Also, know that many people have struggled silently with the same challenges you are facing.
Information is abundant online to help guide you in seeking the knowledge and support you need. However, nothing beats talking it through. Increasingly, more and more support groups are becoming available online for most any kind of challenge. Your professional society may also offer counseling or other support areas. Consultants can also be a worthwhile investment to guide you through areas of change and challenge in your career or business.
If you ask for help, you don't always want someone else to fix it. Often the act of saying things out loud has a way of helping you figure things out yourself. A dear friend and colleague of mine would say 'a problem shared is a problem halved'. Have a good support person, a coach or a counselor that is willing to, above all, listen. And to listen with your best interests at heart.
Looking to escape?
Sometimes you need to make some hard decisions. Before you throw in your profession and take a sabbatical, make time for yourself to put your own oxygen mask on first. Sometimes we trap ourselves through our thought patterns of what we think others expect of us and what we expect of ourselves. Coaches are an excellent way to unpack some of that thinking.
If your lifestyle is keeping you trapped, have an open discussion with your life partner about what is truly going on for you. Prepare yourself for this conversation with a coach or counselor first if you need to. When we are at our lowest of lows, often the love, support, and encouragement of our families is what gets us through.
Asking for help is not the worst thing in the world. Know that asking for help is strength, not weakness. Something I saw recently said, 'Be so completely yourself that everyone else feels safe to be themselves too,' Anon. If you take that first big, bold step, you make it safe for others to do the same. It may take courage, but you will also find out how strong you are.
Vivien Hudson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Vivien Hudson is a reformed pharmacist who went through her own journey of discovery when she trained as a life coach, moved hemispheres, and achieved her Masters in Business Adversity. This training enlightened her to how much change we can affect in our lives by understanding stress, the stories we tell ourselves, and how we show up in our bodies. Self-awareness, finding purpose, and living authentically are at the heart of effective change and leadership. Vivien combines her experience in health and wellbeing, business ownership, and the challenges she has faced in her own life to bring depth and diversity to her work She is trained as a life and performance ontological coach, brain fitness practitioner, on purpose presenter, speaker, and corporate trainer. Her purpose is instilling courage to help those she touches live a life well-lived.
