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143. Burning Out Your Impact · Impact Ready

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  Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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  your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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  Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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  energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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  make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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  Hello. Hey, everyone.
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  Hope you're having an awesome day today.
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  In this episode, I'm going to talk about one of the quickest
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  ways that we can minimize or derail our impact, and that's
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  letting ourselves burnout. Burnout is a huge topic in the
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  world right now. You've probably heard a variety
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  of discussion around it on podcasts or news or articles.
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  It's a big deal, and it's because it's become a major
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  problem in the modern workforce. I'm sure that you know somebody
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  who's been dealing with burnout. People are taking extensive
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  amounts of time off of work and off of their life because
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  they're suffering. They're struggling from extreme
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  exhaustion and apathy, and they really don't feel like they can
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  show up well in these areas. There's a book that I've read
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  recently called Slow Productivity.
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  It's by Cal Newport. He's the author who wrote Deep
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  Work, which is another awesome book that I've referenced on
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  this podcast before, Slow Productivity, The Lost Art of
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  Accomplishment Without Burnout. It addresses exactly that.
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  How does society go back to accomplishment and achievement
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  without having all the fallout of the burnout symptoms?
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  In the 1990s, there was the arrival of networked computers
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  in the office, and then later came e-mail and then tools like
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  Slack and Boxer and WhatsApp and Teams and all that stuff.
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  And it spurred on this kind of pseudo productivity, people
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  being visibly active and calling that productivity.
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  And that eventually has led to higher incidences of burnout
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  because people never get to turn it off.
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  I have clients who spend on average 10 hours a day on Zoom,
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  10 hours a day on Zoom, and that doesn't even account what they
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  spend on e-mail or different apps on their phone.
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  The technology that we have now, it allows us to be connected to
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  everyone and everything all the time.
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  And it's certainly a huge contributor to people feeling
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  burnout, and it goes hand in hand with how people are
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  defining achievement these days. We know that we live in a
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  culture of busyness, especially when it comes to work, and we
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  know that busyness doesn't always equate to quality work or
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  experiences. Sometimes it's just having a lot
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  to do. In the book Slow Productivity,
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  Newport surveyed all of his readers about the topic of
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  productivity. The first question that he asked
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  people was in your particular professional field, how would
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  most people define productivity or being productive?
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  And what he found was that there was no clear common answer from
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  anyone. Most people answered with the
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  types of things that they did in their specific job, for example,
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  attending meetings or producing peer reviewed articles, doing
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  what you said you would do. So his take away was that for
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  all the time spent talking about the term productivity and asking
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  for it and putting it on a pedestal, nobody could really
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  agree upon the definition of what it actually was.
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  Nobody even knows what productivity is for their
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  specific business industry. And this is important because if
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  you're a knowledge worker, somebody who's not doing the
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  work of physical labor, where you can quantify the outcomes
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  very clearly, people don't know how to quantify their work.
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  And so it's so easy to succumb to this idea that visible
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  activity could equate to actual productivity.
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  Meaning if you can see me in the office, or if you can see my
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  e-mail replies and my chat messages arriving regularly
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  throughout the day, then I'm productive and I'm doing
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  something. And So what happens?
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  People are always on their computers, their phones, their
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  emails, they're always on Slack channels, they're checking their
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  WhatsApp Voxer, they're always in their CRM, we are always in
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  it and it's burning people out. It's a huge problem.
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  So what actually is burnout? Basically it's a state of
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  emotional, physical and mental exhaustion, all three.
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  It's usually caused by prolonged stress, long time stress, and it
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  can lead to feelings of helplessness or cynicism.
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  It can cause a lack of motivation.
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  When it happens, it touches every area of that person's
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  life, including their personal relationships, obviously their
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  work, but also their personal motivation.
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  When someone is in burnout, they talk about things like fatigue,
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  irritability, and of course decreased productivity.
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  That old productivity word again.
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  The feeling of burnout is so typically attached to something
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  specific and it's usually work, but you can see it happen in
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  people who are caretaking for aging parents.
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  It can even happen in parenting or just managing a long term
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  stressful event. I've had a patient in the past
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  who was experiencing burnout as a result of trying to manage
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  their health because they had so many complicated issues going
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  on. So burnout can happen anytime,
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  anywhere that there is long term prolonged stress and there are
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  signs of burnout. Sometimes they're hard to catch
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  because they can look like a lot of other things, especially
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  things like depression, even though depression and burnout
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  are very, very different. But with patients who've been in
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  burnout, it can look like fatigue.
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  Oftentimes people have headaches.
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  They always talk about apathy, so lack of motivation or not
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  caring about what you're doing or work.
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  It looks like changes in sleep or appetite.
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  A lot of times people have insomnia or they want to sleep
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  all the time. It looks like negative thinking,
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  especially negative thinking about oneself.
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  Essentially, people are physically and emotionally
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  exhausted. And what do you do about it?
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  What can people do to alleviate a sense of burnout in their
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  life? There's so many ways to care for
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  yourself if burnout is happening.
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  For example, exercise, movement is crucial.
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  Building routines, just daily routines, getting a hobby that's
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  meaningful to you, taking time away from the source of burnout,
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  of course, getting good sleep, etcetera.
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  All that stuff is very important.
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  But the thing that tends to be at the root of the burnout is
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  boundaries. And this is something that I've
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  seen in my patients and my clients so often.
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  I would say boundaries is the number one thing that is missing
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  for people. And this is because they don't
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  feel like they can say no. They don't feel like they can
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  look at their boss and say I can't take that on.
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  Or if they're on a team, they don't feel like they can let
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  their teammates down. Whatever projects come to that
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  team, they just have to do them. They feel like there's no sense
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  of agency and they really struggle with saying no.
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  They continuously say yes to everything that's asked of them,
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  often begrudgingly, or they just don't feel like they have a
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  voice at all. There's so many people who are
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  in work environments where they feel like I don't have a choice.
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  I have to do this or my job's at risk.
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  So you can see how this would be a big contributor to long term
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  chronic stress, especially with the technology that is so deeply
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  enmeshed in the work field today.
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  We are accessible 24 hours a day, truly, and especially now
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  with things like Zoom and Teams and Slack and all the virtual
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  platforms, it takes away our ability to truly disconnect from
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  work. People just find it so
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  difficult. And so they're essentially
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  running constantly in order to address work responsibilities.
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  And I see people across all stages of their career who are
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  saying, God, I just need to do a better job finding balance in
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  order to preserve my health, my physical, my emotional health.
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  So if we come back to this boundaries issue, it becomes
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  about emotional boundaries, practicing the ability to say
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  no, practicing not thinking or talking about work all the time
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  when you get home, looking at your relationship with your
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  stress and examining what is really yours to own, what is
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  really yours to have stress over.
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  But it's also about physical boundaries, being really mindful
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  of what apps you have on your phone, how much time you're
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  spending on your phone, on your screen.
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  I've had clients who've had to take Slack off their phone
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  because they couldn't not check it when a message came through.
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  I've asked clients to take their work e-mail off their personal
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  phone because it was consuming them.
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  Putting time limits on things or setting time boundaries on when
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  you're allowed to check e-mail in the morning or in the
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  evening. Setting physical boundaries
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  around your work. It's so important.
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  And this boundary stuff is the big needle mover for people
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  because otherwise it's too easy to be consumed by it all.
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  We have to find a way to carve out space for ourselves.
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  We have to carve out space for our health, for the people we
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  love. We have to carve out space for
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  the life that we want because if we don't, we don't get to have
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  the impact that we want to have because we're too damn tired.
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  We're totally checked out. People in burnout feel
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  apathetic, meaning they don't care about the things in front
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  of them. That's a problem.
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  We don't have the impact that we want to have when we're in that
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  state, and we certainly don't have the energy.
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  We don't have the energy to play with our kids.
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  We don't have the energy to exercise, which can spiral and
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  lead to a bunch of other problems down the road.
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  You know, I always think about what it would feel like for me
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  to look back on my life when I'm sort of near end of life.
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  And in this situation, it's no different because the last thing
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  you want to do is be looking back when you're older and you
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  don't have many years left and all you're thinking is, God, I
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  wish I wouldn't have worked so much.
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  I mean, the last thing you'd want is to look back and say, I
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  was so tired all the time. I spent so many years in stress,
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  in frustration, in resentment. I allowed work to steal all this
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  time and energy from me for years.
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  We can't do that. We don't want to do that.
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  Life is so much bigger than that.
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  Life is amazing. There's so many people to meet,
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  there's so many opportunities to find.
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  There's so many experiences and countries and cities to travel
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  to. There's just so much that we
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  want to be able to do. The last thing we would want is
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  for burnout to define our existence.
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  You know, my dad died of leukemia when I was 7 years old.
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  And he worked a lot when he was in his early 30s, as most people
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  do. But when he passed away, he was
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  replaced at work. His position was filled.
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  And that's not a bad thing. That's just the way of life.
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  But it's such a good reminder. And my mom talked to me about
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  this from a very early age, this idea that you can easily be
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  replaced in your place of work, but you cannot be replaced in
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  your family. You can't be replaced in your
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  inner circle of friends, in your community.
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  Those are the places where you can have tremendous impact.
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  And not to say that you aren't having impact at work, that
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  you're not working on incredible projects and making a
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  difference, but if you are in a place of burnout, you're not
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  even able to be that person. And so we have to be able to
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  find that balance. We have to be able to create
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  those boundaries so that we can be who we want to be in those
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  situations. So my challenge to you this week
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  is to just do a little audit of where you might be feeling
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  chronic long term stress because those are the places that can be
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  the weak links. Those are the places where
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  burnout can slip in. And so if you have any of those
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  places, what can you do about it?
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  You know, all those things that I mentioned, sleep, exercise,
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  hobbies, building routines, all those things are great.
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  But also, what boundaries can you create for yourself around
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  this area of stress? Does it need to be time
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  boundaries? Does it need to be physical
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  boundaries? Does it need to be emotional
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  boundaries? Or all of them?
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  My guess is it's probably all of them because it usually is.
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  And it might be a little challenging in the beginning,
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  especially if it's something like changing the way that you
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  are at work with your boss, with your team, sending boundaries
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  around your workload. I know that it's easier said
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  than done, but we have to zoom out sometimes and see the big
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  picture and have the perspective that our time here is finite and
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  we want to be able to use it well and feel great while we're
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  doing it. So I hope this helps today.
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  I hope this spurs on some insights for you or maybe
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  somebody that you love. Thank you for being here.
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  I appreciate you listening. I hope you have a great week.
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  And as always, thank you for being ready to Impact.
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  Thanks for listening to Impact Ready.
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  I hope today's episode inspired you to own your impact and
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  recognize that you are powerful. By elevating our energy and
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  awareness, we can create exponential change in this life.
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  If you enjoyed today's insights, share them with a friend and
• 12:57
  subscribe to the show for more. I truly appreciate you.
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  Thanks again for being here.