What is up, everyone?
Welcome back to my channel.
In today's video, we will be talking about a really important subject, and that is burnout.
Now, I have a confession to make, and my confession is that I used to be a workaholic.
I feel like everyone kind of calls them a workaholic, so I use that work really loosely
just because there are people out there who have a serious addiction to work.
Mine wasn't so much of an addiction, but it was really bad habits that formed because
of my insecurities.
Let me explain.
Now, as someone who felt like I was never the smartest in the room or the most talented
in the room, I always thought that if I could be the most hardest working in the room, that
I could get a seat at any table.
Growing up, this was kind of my mentality because every time I worked hard for something,
I would receive it.
But a part of me felt like if I didn't work hard, then I would be found out and people
would figure out that I wasn't smart or I wasn't talented.
That's why, as I grew up, working hard was kind of my way of getting anything that I
wanted in life.
But the problem is, is that the more I worked hard and the more things came to me, I kind
of conditioned myself to think that the only pathway to success was to work hard.
That created a lot of problems later on in my life.
Things really did get worse the moment that I got my dream Fortune 500 job after I graduated.
That job was so important to me and therefore, I worked extremely hard at that job to prove
my worth to the company and to myself and to my peers.
Unfortunately, this came in the form of working really late at the office, sometimes I would
be there until the late hours, I don't even want to say it on YouTube because it's really
embarrassing how late I would work.
That meant taking work home every day, that meant never saying no to projects, that meant
feeling like I needed to go above and beyond on everything that I did.
This also meant working on weekends.
To be fair, I did work at a company that had that type of culture of not really have a
lot of work-life balance, but I feel like with the actions that I was doing, it just
made it a lot worse for me.
But as I kept going, I realized that it actually wasn't a habit that was sustainable.
What ended up happening is that my health started to deteriorate.
Because I care about every single person that watches my videos who are, most likely, millennials
just like me who have maybe started off in the workforce or are maybe a couple years
in, I really want to share this story with you, and also talk about this topic because
it is something that is so important, and especially for millennials who are high potential,
high performing, it's something that is very dangerous.
It's something that needs to be talked about.
That's why in today's video, I'm going to go over the major signs of burnout that I
went through, and also some tips and tricks to maybe avoid burnout in the future in order
for you to not only be happier and healthier, but also create more space to have better
job satisfaction.
Now, for me, the first major sign that something was wrong was when I caught myself crying
about work a lot, and also feeling a strong sense of hopelessness.
Now, this crying is very different from crying because of stress.
I know when I first started my job, there was a huge learning curve and sometimes, I
would cry here and there because I was overwhelmed or I would feel really stressed out because
I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.
This crying is incredibly different.
The crying that I'm talking about is when you are one or two years into your job, and
you come home one day and you just burst out in tears because you are so exhausted and
you are so tired, so fatigued, and feeling so lost and hopeless that you can't help but
just burst into tears.
That's when you have a very different problems in your hands.
That is a good indicator that you are headed towards the road of burnout.
The second sign that I had was when I would wake up in the middle of the night, being
so stressed or so anxious or so nervous because I thought that I might have forgotten something
for work or that I didn't do something.
Not only this, I would also have a really heavy feeling in my chest whenever I thought
about work.
Now, this feeling would follow me around at work, after work, before work, at night, on
the weekends, and it was just a feeling that I couldn't shake off.
How I could best describe this feeling is it's heavy and it literally feels like you're
internally drowning in overwhelm and sadness.
The third sign that I had is that every morning, I would have extreme difficulty in waking
up.
Not only this, on the weekends, I would oversleep to the point where my bones would ache because
I was in bed for so long.
Now, looking back, the reason why I slept so much during that period of my life is because
I use sleeping as a coping mechanism.
It was a way for me to avoid all the things that were going on in my life and to provide
an escape for me.
But the problem was, is that when I was oversleeping, it ended up really hurting my body.
Whenever I would wake up, my body would literally be in so much pain, I was just so lethargic
and so tired, which is really ironic because you would think that if you were sleeping
a lot, that you would be more energized when you wake up.
But the issue is, is that when you oversleep, you actually get even more tired.
Therefore, that just drained me even more and it was just a problem that snowballed
into something bigger.
Now, with that being said, if you are someone who is watching this video and one of the
symptoms that I went through is something that you're going through, or maybe you're
going through all of them, here are my recommendations on how to make your situation better.
The first advice I have is to talk to your manager and learn to set boundaries.
Now, coming from personal experience, I know it's really hard to admit that you don't have
the capacity to do it all, but trust me, people actually respect you more when you are honest
and when you are realistic about what you can actually deliver.
This shows that you not only know how to prioritize, but it also shows that you know how to work
efficiently and effectively.
A mistake that I made is that I never really told my managers what I was going through.
At this point in my life, I truly feel that if I was more transparent about what I was
going through, I would have received 10 times more support in my work and it would have
made my life a lot easier because, let's be real, people don't know what you're going
through unless you tell them.
A lot of people probably didn't even know I was going through any of this stuff, but
if I had only let them know, I would have received the support back.
Especially if you are hiding the fact that you're struggling, then at the end of the
day, no one can really help you because they don't know what's going on.
Also, please, please, please don't take this advice as a sign of weakness.
It really isn't.
In the workforce, people actually admire people that aren't doormats, that can actually say
no.
Not only does doing this make you seem like a person that is strategic, that knows how
to be effective, but it also shows that you know how to prioritize tasks that are actually
going to contribute to the bottom line instead of working on meaningless things that aren't
going to move the needle in the company.
The second advice that I have is to simply disconnect.
Now, the one thing that really helped me was when I started to leave my laptop at work.
I know that if you're that type of person that's really anxious to let go of that control,
then what you can simply do is choose one day of the week, just one day, where you consciously
leave your laptop at work and you leave work at work, so that you can go home and focus
on yourself and have that reset day where you can actually unwind.
Maybe it's every Friday where you have your no laptop day, and you just leave your laptop
at work, so that you can enjoy your weekend without stressing so much about the computer.
Or maybe, if that's too much for you, you can choose Monday or Wednesday, just as long
as you consciously choose one day of the week where you actively do not bring work at home,
so that you have that time for yourself.
Another thing that you can actually disconnect from is inefficient meetings.
I find that, especially if you work at a big corporate company, that there are so many
inefficient meetings that you are actually invited to.
But sometimes, you really need to ask yourself, "Do I really need to be there?"
For me, especially when I was starting out, I used to attend every single meeting that
I was invited to.
If you are just starting out in your job, I highly recommend that you do that because
you can learn from others and that's a great way to learn.
but, if you are one or two years into your job and you already know what needs to be
done, there is a power in saying no to meetings that you really don't need to be at physically.
Near the end of my corporate career, I learned to say no, and what I actually ended up doing
is actually contacting the host of those meetings and asking them, "What is my role in the meeting
and what am I supposed to contribute?"
In order to gauge if I really needed to be there.
If it turns out that I don't need to be there, then I'll just kindly ask for a recap because
I have my own work that I need to prioritize, and I need to make sure that that work is
done to contribute to the bottom line of the company.
Last but not least, the third and last advice that I have for you is to learn to do deep
breathing exercises.
Now, learning to do deep breathing exercises isn't something that I necessarily mastered
during that time when I was working in corporate, but it is something that I've mastered now.
Now, whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed or feeling like I'm on the verge of burning out again,
I literally learned to close my eyes, take a deep breath in, and just tell myself that
there are bigger problems in this world.
Now, you can totally use a different mantra, but for me, I like to use 'there are bigger
problems in this world' because it grounds me and it reminds me that there are bigger
problems in the this world and the situation that I'm facing is not life or death.
What I eventually learned is that adding stress, anxiety, sadness to a problem is not going
to make it better and it's totally okay to feel those feelings 'cause you can't help
it to feel anxious, sad, or angry whenever something happens.
But what you can do is just acknowledge that feeling and let it go.
A great app that taught me this is the app called Headspace.
I love Headspace because they have these singles packs that are specifically for certain situations
that are in your life, maybe you have anxiety before an interview or maybe you are feeling
overwhelmed or you feel anxious.
You can choose these single packs and it'll just take one minute to two minutes or even
three minutes, you can choose the duration, and it just helps you breathe and it helps
you calm down.
I really like that app, I'll put the link in the description if you're interested.
But yeah, those are the advices that I have for you if you are feeling on the verge of
burnout.
These are the things that have really helped me.
Also, before I forget, I also have started a new Facebook group called The Fearless Boss
Network.
If you are someone that has a dream or has a huge goal in mind and you want to support
yourself by surrounding yourself with like-minded people that are going to lift you up on your
journey, then I highly recommend that you join the group.
I'll put the link in the description box below and also in the comment section.
Every week, I'll also be hopping on there to drop free content just like this that's
more personalized to the people in the group and I'll also do free business trainings as
well.
I highly, highly, highly recommend that you join, and I can't wait to see you inside the
group.
Anyways, guys, thank you so much, as always, for watching the video.
I really, truly hope that you found it helpful.
I can't wait to see you in the next one, so I hope you have a great day, I hope you have
a great week, and I hope you have a great life.
Yeah.
Peace out.