Inspiration Corner
If you were a marathon runner, you would train by starting small. You would set goals for yourself, but know your limits and never push beyond them in case of injury or burnout. You would know when to slow down, rest, and recover, and when to pick up speed. You would run in intervals based on the peaks and dips of your energy. You would listen to your mind, body, and spirit. If your energy faltered, you would back off and slow to a walk or stop completely to stretch, take breaks, and refuel. You would know how to manage your energy efficiently.
But you’re not running a marathon, you’re living your life and working hard. Dr. Phillip C. McGraw infamously (and smartly) wrote that “life’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Effective energy management can—and should—be applied to every aspect of your life, including, and perhaps most importantly, your work.
The Importance Of Energy Management At Work (And In Life)
Energy is defined as the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity. Work often falls into one or both of those categories, depending on what you do for a living. If you look at it that way, then energy is the strength and vitality required for you to work.
Burnout. If you haven’t experienced it yet, there’s a good chance that you’ve gotten close. Workplace stress is tough to deal with at the best of times, and on top of everything, the last couple years have been some of the most stressful in recent memory!
A global pandemic, economic turmoil, and an en-masse shift towards remote work—could the world throw any more massive changes at us? For most of us, it’s been a big adjustment (understatement, much?) so it’s really not surprising that burnout is on the rise.
Burnout’s nothing new, but as we all attempt to bounce back from this period of intense change, dealing with burnout on a large scale is going to be more important than ever. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about burnout in a distributed world—what it is, why it’s rising, and how we can deal with it.
If, like us, some part of you is still dwelling back in early March 2020, these might be just the strategies you need to bring your team into a brave new distributed world. Come with us—you might find that it’s friendlier out there than it looks.
What Is Burnout? Why Does It Matter?
Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, or physical exhaustion that’s severe enough to affect your work. The term was coined in the 70s by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger, but we’re willing to bet that burnout has existed for much longer than that. After all, tilling fields or milking cows isn’t exactly a recipe for work-life balance!
How to make better choices for positive impact
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSUMAS, an independent event.
How to Stay Motivated When You’re (Still) Stuck at Home
by Elizabeth Grace Saunders January 25, 2021People from around the world are reaching out to me because they’ve reached a breaking point. They’ve simply had enough: Enough of being inside. Enough of working remotely. Enough of having businesses shut down. Enough of schools being closed. Enough of being isolated. Enough of everything.
The common message they communicate in time management consultations is, I just can’t do this anymore. Some break down in tears.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives in a multitude of ways. And after months of being stuck inside, limiting exposure to friends and family, and juggling responsibilities at home and at work, it’s no surprise that many of us are dealing with frustration, anger, and more. If you find yourself in that situation where you don’t feel like you can handle what’s happening anymore and you’ve lost motivation to even try, you’re not alone. Putting you under a tremendous amount of stress, increasing your responsibilities, and stripping you of your support networks is a recipe for burnout and breakdown.
