The term burnout evokes the
image of a rocket that having consumed all of its fuel before breaking free of the
earth’s gravitational pull slowly loses forward momentum, eventually stalls, and
then begins a destructive, irreversible plummet into the earth’s card crust.
That image – of a helplessly falling empty rocket – seems apropos to
people who suffer from burnout: driven to achieve, working continuously, and
then reaching the point of exhaustion, unable to do more. In a previous post, I
addressed the issue of Clergy
Burnout. Burnout, however, can happen to anyone who fails to exercise
proper self-care.
Burnout differs from workaholism, a term pioneering pastoral counselor Wayne
Oates coined in the 1960s to describe a person who used work as an excuse to
avoid relationships, i.e., work as a form of unhealthy addiction.
Verne Harnish, an executive educator, has identified five important ways
to avoid burnout (“Burning Out?” Fortune, October 8, 2012, p. 44):
1.
Get away
and review: intentionally schedule time to assess your life and work
2.
Schedule
regular small breaks, e.g., a weekly meeting with friends for coffee or a weekly
sports night
3.
Hang
out with family: spend time doing family stuff such as taking care of the
children or grandchildren while turning off your smart phone
4.
Take an
annual vacation
5.
Do
something outrageous, e.g., go mountain climbing or attend a seminar on nature
preservation held in the wild
Reflecting on the nature of burnout and Harnish’s prescriptions underscored,
for me, that burnout is fundamentally a spiritual problem. A necessary
condition for burnout to occur is presuming that one is indispensable, a
presumption of ultimate hubris. If one were to die suddenly, no matter who one
is, or what one does or may achieve, the world would not end. The world would
be different, but that is true whenever anyone dies. Furthermore, behaviors
that lead to burnout are ultimately self-defeating.
Similarly, Harnish’s prescriptions for self-care are spiritual propositions
cloaked in secular terms:
1.
Get
away and review is simply an alternative way of speaking about a retreat. This
principle also reminds us of the importance of finding work that affords the
opportunity for genuine satisfaction. A job or career that diminishes or
deadens one’s life may be difficult to change, but making the change is
essential for moving in the direction of the abundant life
2.
Schedule
regular small breaks resembles Sabbath keeping, i.e., setting aside a day per week
for renewal. Henry Ford discovered that when he shortened the workweek from six
to five days for his assembly line employees that they were more productive and
turnover fell substantially.
3.
Hang
out with family rephrases Jesus’ teaching about adhering to the right set of
values (your treasure is where your heart is, he said).
4.
Take an
annual vacation acknowledges the importance of the jubilee principle of fallow
ground (fallow spaces) in our lives for renewing creativity and productivity.
5.
Do
something outrageous is another way of encouraging people to live boldly into
the unknown future that God intends for us.
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