Some years ago good friend of mine pointed out some signs of erosion or warning signs on the pathway to burn out, pointed them out to me and a number of leaders. It really resonated with me. I actually taught them at a conference I was at recently. I shared with a group of leaders those same warning signs and it resonated with them. I think they will resonate with you and I want to cover three of them that are indicators that you may be drifting toward burnout.
Burnout Warning Signs – Transcribed
Some years ago good friend of mine pointed out some signs of erosion or warning signs on the pathway to burn out, pointed them out to me and a number of leaders. It really resonated with me. I actually taught them at a conference I was at recently. I shared with a group of leaders those same warning signs and it resonated with them. I think they will resonate with you and I want to cover three of them that are indicators that you may be drifting toward burnout. The first one is words without action. “Hey let’s do lunch we will have to get together on that.” “Hey, I will call you next week.” “My team will have to get together and discuss that.” “You know someone needs to put a strategy retreat together or a planning session.” “Yeah, we’ll do that; I’ll get back to you on that.” All of this sort of activity in words and clichés with no action behind and no follow-through is an indicator that maybe your filling space with words and avoiding true meaningful conversation where there’s real dialogue and real engagement. And I think you gotta pay attention to that. Sometimes it’s better not to say anything there’s an old Jewish proverb that says, “Even a fool, when he’s silent, is thought to be wise.” So pay attention to how you’re using words. Are you creating a lot of space that’s filled with words and clichés and da, da da da? People are like. “Whoa, you know she talks a good talk or he talks a good talk but there’s walk there. There’s no follow through, your integrity will be compromised. A second one is busyness without purpose. Shuffling the papers on the desk again, reorganizing the files, doing yet another search checking, did I get liked on Facebook, who’s looking at my profile on LinkedIn? After all it has been three minutes since I checked. This sense of I need to constantly be active and busy in finding out information. Researchers at Purdue did a study of television watching in light of the proliferation of tablets, mobile devices, the internet; they expected to find a drop in television watching as we spend more time looking at these other screens. Just the opposite happened. Television watching increased during the proliferation of all these devices. And they made this comment; People are spending more time looking at screens than they are into one another’s faces. Instead of doing meaningful relationships, instead of having purpose to our activity, we’re filling it with distractions. And it’s something to be aware of, the more and more you do that the more it says there’s something breaking down here, just busyness for the sake of busyness will lead to burn out. A third thing, there’s relationships without reciprocity or relationships without a return. I give, I teach, I serve, I help, I care … I never get back. So to have relationships where you’re always on the giving side of the equation and never on the receiving side is going to lead you to emotional breakdown. You need to be filled up in relationship you need mentors and friends and others to speak into your life not just for you to serve and teach and help others. So how you use your words, how you spend your time, just busyness for the sake of busyness and how you connect in relationship are three factors to pay attention to help avoid a drift toward burnout.
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