As I explore my own journey avoiding burnout and achieving work-life balance, I invite you to come along with me. This is not a series in succession, but will be a related topic I post about in the future. For this post, I want to explore motivation as it relates to how much we “give” at our workplace.
Every job I've had that I've been excited about, I have been burnt out by. Can work be a means to an end without work being something that sucks the soul from us? Trying to not bring work home with me is a different feeling.
Hello, Cadre. Today I was. I was inclined to want to ask other people if when we think about how we receive love, do we think about how we receive praise and recognition? Because every job that I've had that I've been very excited about, I have been burnt out by. I. You know, I'm a go getter, I'm an overachiever. I really enjoy working hard, and I identify a lot with what I do for a living. But in the end, I always end up burnt out, like, emotionally fatigued, physically fatigued. Just frustrated with the way things are going and where I think things will end up.
So with this new job that I've taken in the last couple of months, one of the things that I've been trying to talk about and I've been very open with my new boss about, is trying to not care as much. And I don't mean that as, like, patient neglect, but rather trying to not let the work dictate who I am, but rather be who I am at work. And in doing that, it's really hard to sort of pull back and try to do less, because in my mind, more is more is more. And I found myself being really hypocritical because in a lot of the clients that I've done one on ones with in the past, in different roles, whether it's in person or virtual, I always end up saying to some capacity that it's okay for things to be a means to an end.
You know, I'm an overthinker, so I know that if I fixate on something, I will spiral and I will go down that rabbit hole and I will end up in all the neverlands that could possibly exist. And when I tell clients that sometimes things just happen, or sometimes feelings are just feelings, and they don't necessarily have to be overanalyzed, and we can sort of just move on from them if we have appropriate coping skills. So in this instance, in this work context, this burnout context, I realize that I feel validated and I receive recognition through reward and promotion and money and some sense of, like, external, tangible praise, for a lack of a better word.
So taking a step back and realizing that that might not happen is a really hard pill to swallow. But it's also probably the first time for an extended period of time that I've just gone home after work. Whether I'm running errands or not is different. But trying to not bring work home with me, and it is a different feeling, and I don't know how much I love that feeling yet. But it is a different feeling. So I wanted to plant that seed with all of you as we try to navigate this world where we do have to work.
But can work be a means to an end without work being something that sucks the soul from us?
