Share This Article
Even if you enjoy your work, you can get burnout, because burnout is often mainly related to the question of whether you take good enough care of yourself. There is often a lack of balance between what you put into something and what you get out of it.
People who burn out are often hard workers with a great sense of responsibility. In addition, they are very good at self-effacing and putting themselves last. Working hard (even if you like your job) and not taking good care of yourself are the most important ingredients for burnout.
Prevention is better than cure, because once burnout is difficult to recover. It is a grueling process that requires a lot of patience. That is why below you will see 10 warning signs that indicate that a burnout is lurking for you:
1. Health problems
Burnout has a huge negative impact on your physical and mental health. Whether you experience pain in your back, feel depressed or suffer from obesity, breathing problems, migraine attacks, nausea or catch every virus that is flying around: you should think carefully about whether this might be because you have too much on your plate and you is on the verge of burnout. Your body wants to protect you and tries very hard to slow you down with various signals.
2. Cognitive difficulties
Research shows that stress affects the part of your brain responsible for decision making, your memory, control over your emotions and your ability to concentrate.
If you notice that you make ‘stupid’ mistakes, forget important things, have emotional outbursts or make bad decisions, there is a good chance that you may be on the verge of burnout.
Also Read: Back in the office after your burnout, what now?
3. Relationships at both work and personal level are difficult.
Stress affects everything you do and especially the way you interact with others. Even if you feel like you can handle the stress at work, it can manifest itself in ugly ways when you’re at home. Then it is the home situation that suffers.
Stress makes us more likely to snap, be moody and have arguments. It may also be that you are withdrawing from the people you love.
4. Taking your work home with you
Do you know that bad feeling you have when you lie in bed thinking about all the things you still have to do for work?
Yes? Then this is a bad sign. If you cannot let go of your work when you are at home, this is a clear signal that you need to change something.
5. Fatigue
Burnout often leads to exhaustion because stress takes a huge toll on your body and mind. Symptoms of burnout include waking up and still feeling exhausted, needing a lot of sugar or caffeine to get you through the day, or having trouble staying awake during the day.
6. Negativity
A burnout can turn you into a pessimist, even if you were always a huge optimist before. If you notice that you are becoming more and more negative, judging others and cynical, this is a sign that something is not going well.
Also Read: 4 inspiring quotes that helped me through my burnout
7. Less satisfied
Burnout leads to an irritatingly dissatisfied, gnawing dissatisfied feeling. You no longer care about projects and people you liked before. This dip makes it difficult to work, because whatever you put into your job, you don’t feel like you’re getting much in return.
8. Losing motivation
If you are close to burnout, one of the signs is that you are very unable to motivate yourself to perform your job well. You eventually complete projects, but the motivation you previously had to complete something successfully has completely disappeared.
9. You perform less well.
People who burn out are often people who do very well at their work. So if you perform less well, no one will notice. But even take a critical look at your work. Do you notice that you are performing less well than 6 months ago? If you notice that you are functioning less well, it is good to find out whether this is because you are close to burnout.
Also Read: 3 ways to convert self-criticism into self-love
10. Poor self-care
When you are close to burnout, you may find it harder to resist temptations. You no longer have the energy to take good care of yourself and it is easier to let things go to waste. This is because stress reduces your ability to make good choices and probably makes you feel completely exhausted.
When I look at myself, I recognize (in retrospect) all the above signals before I burned out. Unfortunately, I also completely ignored them all, which caused me to burn out and be much further away from home. Which signals did you ignore in retrospect? Share them with us on Facebook and who knows, you might be able to help other people.
P.S. Are you already following Gistinger.com on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter?
