Burnt out? Try redefining success

Chances are, you’re working hard, hustling along, and doing your best to stay ahead of things. But when you strive for success, you can risk burnout by concentrating on a limited definition of success. It’s possible, however, to reduce the likelihood you’ll burn out and ensure you stay energized by redefining what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’re making the effort.

Burnout is especially prevalent. According to Gallup, three out of four employees experience burnout. If you experience it, you’re likely to have more sick days, feel less confident, and be looking for another job. In addition, if you’re feeling burned out, you may also experience exhaustion or depression.

But it’s possible to rethink and reassess your goals, so you can avoid burnout in the first place.

FOCUS ON PROGRESS

One of the hallmarks of burnout is feeling ineffective. You feel like no matter what you do, it’s not good enough or that you just can’t do anything up to your standards.

One of the biggest things you can do to combat this feeling is change your mindset and focus on small wins. Often, we feel like we have to do big things to have successful days or weeks, but a study of 12,000 people from Harvard found something different.

Researchers asked people what constituted their best days at work and their worst days. The single most important factor that drove the good days was feeling they were making progress. It was small steps and the feeling of moving things forward each day that mattered most.

A survey by Woohoo reinforced the idea, finding that people’s best days included advancing goals, doing meaningful work, and making a difference.

Redefine your success to making progress rather than hitting the one big win. Know that each day you may not accomplish the big objectives, but you can make a difference with incremental, consistent effort.

FOCUS ON LEARNING

Another attribute of burnout is feeling trapped. You may be unfulfilled and feel as though you have nowhere to go in your job, your career, or your future.

For this reason, when you focus on learning you can make a big difference in reducing your feelings of burnout. We tend to assume success is about reaching the milestone, making it to the top of the mountain, planting the flag, and sitting down to rest.

But even before you reach the summit, learning creates its own rewards because we crave growth and development. 

Seek challenges and look for places where you can do new things. Offer to work on a project that requires new skills or new knowledge. Take a class or seek opportunities that expose you to things you don’t already know. Get to know a colleague and ask them to share advice or expertise.

Redefine success by focusing on seeking to learn something new each week. This learning will help you avoid burnout and also build your resilience so you can get to what’s next.

FOCUS ON PEOPLE

Our instinct is that success comes from working on our individual projects, focusing on our deliverables, and owning our outcomes. These things are true, but an underrated element of feeling good about your accomplishments is helping others.

In fact demonstrating pro-social behavior like helping others, empathizing, connecting and sharing is correlated with both emotional and physical wellbeing. Research published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that helping others reduces depression, anxiety, and loneliness. It also improves satisfaction and physical health.

Another aspect of helping others is greater happiness, and this helps with the third characteristic of burnout, which is feeling negative or cynical. With burnout, you’re annoyed by things that wouldn’t normally bug you. Or you are more upset by small things than you would be typically. But when you feel connected with others through offering support, you boost your positive emotions, according to research in the World Happiness Report.

Redefine success to include helping others. Stay in tune with your coworkers and check in to see how they’re doing. Offer to help on a project or contribute toward their efforts

FOCUS ON PERSPECTIVE

Another unexpected way to redefine success is to look outside of work. We all know that your satisfaction at work spills over to your life outside of work. But the opposite is also true. When you’re happier outside of work, you tend to perceive greater happiness within work as well.  

In this way, success is also dictated by your experience in life. Focus on doing things you love in your free time or tune into your feelings of satisfaction as you enjoy parenting, supporting your partner, or enjoying time with friends. Also consider volunteering in your community to feel success through other avenues to express your talents and skills.

Redefine success to go beyond work to all of the opportunities in your life where you’re contributing. This broadened perspective can help you alleviate the three characteristics of burnout: You’ll feel less trapped because you express yourself beyond work. You’ll avoid feelings of ineffectiveness as you know you’re making a difference with family, friends, or within your community. And you’ll reduce cynicism as you enjoy life and boost your positive feelings.

It’s possible to energize and engage with new metrics that avoid the demands or pressure that can lead to burnout. You can find ways to fire up rather than fizzle.

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