When a Holiday is Not Enough
You’ve just had a 3-week holiday. You should be feeling rested and rejuvenated and ready to take on the world.
Instead, after just a few days (or possibly even hours) back in the saddle of your life, you are feeling weak, weary and more than a little weepy.
It is a truth not universally acknowledged that 3 weeks of holiday may be necessary but is definitely not sufficient to restore and repair the body, mind and spirit of people who are experiencing burnout. A good break is very much needed but is often not enough to get us back on the health track.
Even if the holiday you just had was idyllic, with no family dramas, no social demands, no logisitical or administrative tasks, no household drudgery…. If you are in the grips of burnout then a mere holiday will do nothing to change the conditions and reasons for you reaching that state of exhaustion and overwhelm. Sure, a change of scenery will give you a little more energy and help you to feel a little more enthusiastic for a while, but your return to normal life will see a gradual (or quick) wearing down of that energy and enthusiasm.
A holiday is not enough. You need to make changes. If you want a different experience, you need to choose different approaches. You need to understand what the underlying causes of your burnout are.
Are you doing too much?
Are you pushing yourself too hard?
Are you forcing yourself to something(s) you hate doing?
Are you unhappy at work, at home, in yourself?
Do you spend all your time meeting everybody else’s needs and none meeting your own?
Do you rush from task to task with no time to rest, or eat, or have a wee?
Whatever the causes – and there will be many because burnout is a complex condition with complicated foundations – unless you make some real and meaningful changes to how you lead your life, even a super-duper holiday of a lifetime is not going to make your burnout go away.
If you are feeling disappointed and despairing about how tired you already are, just a few days into the new year, I urge you to look at what changes you need to make in order to get your mojo back for good.
Feeling overwhelmed in your life, work or relationships?
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Tags: avoid crisis | burnout | burnout recovery | Change | energy | exhausted | exhaustion | overwhelm | resilience
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