A burnout means exhaustion due to extreme exertion and overuse of one’s energies. Burnouts affect more people than one would think. While they have recently come into the limelight, they have been existing since ancient times. Burnout isn’t necessarily just physical. It also includes emotional exhaustion. As the stress keeps mounting with unhealthy work-life lifestyle, the possibilities of burnout have increased. Ahead are the three main categories of a burnout.
Workaholic
This category includes people who pressure themselves into working for extended hours in hopes to better their performance. They tend to get restless without work and not able to see the meaning of life beyond the work environment. They often identify themselves deeply with the work they do. Their workaholic attitude has been rewarding in many ways hence the awareness about the burnout comes very late. They need to learn to see themselves and work as separate entities.
People pleaser
This category exists for times immemorial. But it’s only now that people are starting to realise how draining pleasing people can be. While there isn’t anything wrong with helping a friend out, these people tend to seek approval from people and have low self-esteem issues, that drives them to please people so much. This way of life requires them to be constantly on their toes with best of behaviour and suppression of their uniqueness hence triggering burnout for the longest time of their life
Perfectionist
This category includes people who like to be in-charge and later on develop an unnerving drive for control. They keep on pushing themselves to get an ideological perfection in their lives, causing them burnout. Demanding perfection and striving for excellence are two different things. It’s important to realise this difference for them to function in productively rather than destructively. Burnout itself means using your resources against yourself.
All the above-mentioned categories are highly productive and result oriented strategies when one begins but the loss of guidance, identity misplacement, need for approval and demand takes over instigating burnout. There is always a way out to enjoy both the worlds. We just need to be aware and willing to make a choice. The healthiest way to deal with burnout is setting healthy boundaries. Healthy boundaries mean, knowing when to say ‘Yes’ and when to say ‘No’. It’s an important display of self- love, and respect. We overdo anything because at the core we are looking for love, approval, and respect, with this realisation setting healthy boundaries is vital to ease the burnout.
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