Are You at Risk of Occupational Burnout

Struggling With Burnout? READ THIS

Did you know that there are people who don’t believe you can over train, or that burnout is a real thing?

They actually believe that if those in the military can go without sleep while in active war zones, then you should not be burned out after a hard week at the office.

This is not a good argument because the military trains people to adapt to most any condition. Not many train for the stress and responsibilities of running their own business.

The modern world is so stressful that burnout is seen in every profession out there. In fact, it is so common that it has its own name: 21st Century Syndrome.

As a solopreneur, burnout is a challenge that you have to work at avoiding.

Fight or Flight

When you work from home you experience a lot of changes. Some of these affect your physical health. Most of the time your body is stuck in a fight or flight state.

This constant state or arousal is due to a rise in hormones and neurotransmitters that makes your heart beat faster and your blood actually thicken as your muscles begin to contract.

You feel like you are in constant battle mode. This is only a good thing because it allows you to focus on the job at hand.

Fight or flight hormones also work negatively on your body: your immune system and your digestive system are suppressed while in this state.

Other areas are also affected as your levels of key hormones diminish, leading to a lack of energy.

Rest and Digest

The simple way to stop the fight or flight state is to take a break from your work. During the rest and digest state your body will slowly recover from the fight or flight state.

As you rest, your body rebuilds muscle tissues, rebuilds your depleted hormone levels and helps the body get rid of harmful bacteria.

Rest and digest sounds easy. However, many people have trouble switching off at the end of the work day.

Turn to Family and Home

Family and home should consume your off hours, but you are worried about paying the bills and what to do about taxes.

You also seem to spend a lot of time chasing toddlers. It is hard to relax when your mind and body are so consumed.

Video Games

So off you go to spend time playing video games.

While this seems like it would be a relaxing activity, if you play any type of game where the object is to kill and destroy, you are not really relaxing your mind or your body.

In fact, this type of activity can hurt your physical and mental health is unexpected ways.

Learn to Relax

The trick to avoiding burnout is to actually learn to relax.

Yes, it takes training to relax fully.

First, you need to admit you have problems unwinding after work, then decide what you are going to do to change your behavior.

With some thought and some training, you will separate work and play and avoid that dreaded burnout.

A helpful tool can be found here.