Workaholic attitude: Avoid burnout by knowing when to stop

Burnout literally means extreme exertion due to overuse of one’s energies. Burnout has recently come under the radar but is in existence since ancient times. Burnout is a feeling of physical and emotional exhaustion, usually caused by stress from working with self and people under difficult or demanding conditions. Amanpreet Nagpal, counseling psychologist and Motivational Coach shares three main categories under which burnout can be classified.

Workaholic

Under this category, people pressurize themselves to work harder for extended hours, in order to keep bettering their performance. They get restless without the workload and are not able to derive deeper meanings of their life if not in a work environment.  This is mainly due to their work has become their identity, the moment they're ready to shred this identity they will be able to connect with their real self. But for them to have this realisation takes an ample amount of awareness and courage to take actions accordingly. Their workaholic attitude has been rewarding in many ways hence the awareness about the burnout comes very late. They need to learn to see themselves and work as separate entities.

People pleaser

This category has been there since human civilisation. It's now that people have realised how much energy they are draining in order to please others. Which may or may not be helpful for them to get the approval they are seeking from people. They seek constant approval of others due to low self-esteem since early childhood. They hope that saying yes to everything asked of them will help them feel accepted and liked without realising the burnout it cause later in their life. People-pleasers have a history of maltreatment, and somewhere along the way, they decided that their best hope for better treatment was to try to please the people who mistreated them. Over time, for them, people-pleasing has become an acceptable norm. This way of life requires them to be constantly on their toes with best of behaviour and suppression of their uniqueness hence triggering burnout for the longest time of their lives.

Perfectionist

This category includes people who like to be in-charge and later on develop unnerving drive for control.  They keep on pushing themselves to get an ideological perfection in their lives, causing them burnout. These days perfectionist are looking for soundness and high performance standards, which is accompanied by critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others' evaluations. Perfectionists are people with great potential. They achieve most of the milestones in their lives with ease, this makes them confident and without any realisation they start to use their skill to cause them burnout instead of comfort. Perfectionism is a trait that makes life an endless report card on accomplishments or looks. It’s fast and enduring track to burnout. Perfection, of course, is an abstract thought. Demanding perfection and striving for excellence are two different things. It’s important to realise this difference for them to function in productively rather than destructively. Burnout itself means using your own resources against yourself.

All the above-mentioned categories are highly productive and result oriented strategies when one begins but loss of guidance, identity misplacement, need for approval and demand takes over instigating burnout. There is always a way out to enjoy both the worlds. We just need to be aware and willing to make a choice. The healthiest way to deal with burnout is setting healthy boundaries. Healthy boundaries mean, knowing when to say ‘Yes’ and when to say ‘No’. It’s an important display of self- love and respect. We overdo anything because at the core we are looking for love, approval and respect, with this realisation setting healthy boundaries is vital to ease the burnout.