What is Burnout?

What does burnout feel like?

Have you ever experienced burnout? Or, are you scared of them?

No, I am not here to tell the signs of Burnout… nor am I here to tell you how to find out if you have the symptoms…

Rather, I am here to share with you, how life lessons a Burnout taught me to change the course of my life for good! 

You see, I was born and brought up in a family from the service sector background hence, I was the black sheep of my family.

While they were breeding an army of engineers & doctors I wanted to construct my own path.
Yet, apart from my calling, just for the love of family, I became this little achiever. I went out, and I thought if I achieved, I’d get love and hence I went ahead and walked on the path that everyone around me was walking on.

I joined the pact & lost myself to the pact my family was part of…
I became an engineer too!

When I was 22 I got my 1st job at an amazing research lab, my boss showed he never believed in me, but just his act of hiring me up & trusting me on running experiements revealed the opposite.

I went for it for 6 months, I wasn’t really concerned about the money, I just wanted his approval. 6 months later after our ups & downs, fights and agreements when my 1st theses were signed I failed to feel content about my work.

It felt what I always chased was approval, even though it never matters or makes any difference…

Even after becoming an engineer, completing my theses when I still wasn’t fulfilled, I decided to resign.

That was my first step into the unknown.

You know everyone had thought I had totally lost it!
Coz I decided to give it all to go back to ground zero level, all of this to become an entrepreneur, that made no sense to them.

I could feel, that if I became an entrepreneur, that all of a sudden my life would change, and I would be happy as I would work on something that did lit me up. I had felt the feeling of content when I had helped my friend overcome a burning issue he had in his business to offer me an opportunity to work with him.

Hence, I started my business as a freelance marketer but it failed.
Not because I was a failure with no results for my clients on my side, rather on the contrary I was successful with results like 5k to almost 10k launches for my clients yet there was that odd feeling – the lack of connecting with my work.

It made me feel uneasy, I made myself work even harder to experience more of the content to get more hats of success…but still, I could feel the disconnect.

Resulting in the fatal, dreaded – Burnout…

It was more than just Chronic fatigue, or physically and emotionally exhausted, drained, and depleted days, I was paralyzed and lied on the bed.

I remember how it felt the first time when I was made to sit on the wheelchair, it still sends shivers down my spine. But that forced free time gave me time to do something I had not done for some time…

SELF-REFLECTION!

When I was working, on the name of calling myself a workaholic I worked 24/7 never taking time out for myself or for my partner. All I cared was about making it BIG & growing my business.

I realized all this time even with the switch in my profession I still continued to work only from my intellectual side rather than the creative & empathetic side I had, which resulted in my burnout.

I F***** Up!

I choose to work & listened to my head than my heart…

That is when I realized, I rather wanted to help other people, I was missing the emotional connection with my work and hence I decided to get into the coaching business.

Based on my life experience, and my life wisdom I built my structure to help those around me from my community.

Resulting in my today, where I help people turn their following into their loyal customer base so ultimately they do not have to chase leads to build a long-term sustainable business – via marketing their product ecosystem to the right people.

This helps me have the best of both the worlds and enjoy my work.

Hence, I always say

If you are feeling stuck, do not force yourself to work it out, as I did; rather take a step back. Reflect, analyze and if needed talk it out with friends who connect with you.

I had to learn it the hard way, but it can or should I say, it MUST be the other way around for you.

If you’re not experiencing any of these problems, that’s great! I am so happy for you.

However, you should keep these warning signs in mind, remembering that burnout is an insidious creature that creeps up on as we all are living our busy lives.

Have you too learned lessons the hard way too, just like me?

Share with me in the comments below…Looking forward to getting to know you lovely!