What is burnout? How does burnout happen in the first place?
Burnout is a multi-dimensional experience of exhaustion — emotional, physical, and mental — caused by excessive and prolonged stress. The excessive stress caused by high-achieving career professionals, including those seeking or maintaining a student or pro athlete position can bring you closer to your dreams while putting you at higher risk of burnout. My clients experiencing burnout often express feeling symptoms of anxiety or depression while at the cusp of some of their greatest career highs. For someone whose success depends on continual hard work and perseverance, this can feel threatening to both your success and wellbeing.
Burnout happens when:
- You place more demands on your mental, emotional, and energy resources than you can reasonably manage.
- You experience excessive or prolonged stress, without adequate time for leisure and stress relief.
- You have competing pressures from work or family or a combination of both.
- You have difficulty juggling conflicting demands for your time and attention, especially when many of the demands feel both urgent and unrelenting.
In some cases, the emotional strain of major life stressors causes burnout. Losing a loved one, going through a divorce, or experiencing a difficult breakup can drain you in ways that leave you without the internal resources to cope.
