We have so many people on our team that pour themselves into their work in our enterprise.  I read with interest about a study that recommends strategies for avoiding “burnout.”

Here they are:

1. Maintain your health. Working hard requires physical endurance.  Folks who make time for exercise and watch their diet maintain that endurance.  When I’m busy, I find myself slogging from bed to work to the couch.  I can avoid the workout.  I also enjoy my comfort food and convenience food when feeling stressed.  Both of those contribute to “burnout.”

2. Focus on what you control by figuring out what you can’t control. Worry and stress contribute to burnout.  This strategy invites you to listen to the talk in your brain and determine what is causing stress that you can’t control.  Weather, economy, moods of your colleagues, the threat of nuclear war and the outcome of global warming.  All of those things can worry you, but you have little control over any of them.  This strategy calls for an inventory and some self-talk.  This thing I can do something about.  This thing I cannot.  Set an agenda filled with strategies you can impact.  Put the others aside. If you are prone to worry, it may be easier said than done.  However, to remember to worry only hurts you, may cause the logic of that statement to breakthrough.

3. Assess your stress. What people or situations cause you stress?  In the Bible, it says that if you can name the source of your issues, you usually can do a better job of eliminating them.  If you have people or situations which habitually set you back, you will do well to avoid them.  If you can’t avoid them, you will do well to get some help on how to make them better. One of the best ways to eliminate this burnout is by fleeing the source of the stress.

4. Helpful Interpersonal Connections.  This is the opposite of #3.  If you can replace your stressful connections with those who help you, you get a double impact.  People who teach.  People who encourage.  People who have your interest at heart.  People who give you a good feeling when you see them coming.

If you are feeling burned out by your life, chances one or more of these things is robbing you of your energy and zeal.