3 Signs Of Deep Burnout That Tend To Sneak Up On High-Functioning People
Dean Drobot | CanvaEven powerful, accomplished, and brilliant professionals admit they're struggling to stay productive and confident. They're accustomed to high achievement and control. Many interpret this failing through their well-honed lens of self-criticism. "Why can’t I focus? Why can’t I get as much done as usual? Why can’t I shake this mood? What’s wrong with me?!"
Struggling with burnout is common. The American Psychological Association said, "Nearly 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress, including lack of interest, motivation, or energy, and lack of effort at work."
We're all expending far more energy just coping with processing negative and confusing news, uncertainty in every arena, and worrying about the future. We're grieving a wide variety of losses, from daily disappointments to major loss of purpose.
Your brain’s job is to take this constant stream of inputs — constant changes, losses, threats, conflicts, fears, etc. — and process them in a way to make meaning and keep you safe. And unless you live under a rock, your brain has been in overdrive, and it’s really, really tired. When your brain is tired, it doesn’t work as efficiently.
In its safety-first design, your frontal lobe — the part of the brain that handles your best thinking, planning, mood regulation, perspective-setting, creating, and self-monitoring — is the first to go offline under stress or duress. Research has explained how this saves energy for lower-brain survival reactions. It's the perfect design for reacting to acute danger, but not an advantage when the crisis drags on, and you need access to your better thinking.
Here are 3 signs of deep burnout that tend to sneak up on high-functioning people:
1. People who are burnt out tend to get a little more judgmental
When I'm not feeling my best or most confident, I'm more critical of myself and others. I see this in my clients, as well. And thanks to a divisive culture, we're swimming in a sea of judgey humans. (As if judging others or ourselves makes us any more right?)
True, mindful discernment is always important, but snap judgments rarely serve your better thinking or the world. What if you notice when you're judging more and ask what you need to feel compassionate and collaborative? What form of energy do you need right now?
A study of the relationship between self-compassion and burnout explored how being kind to yourself leads to higher job satisfaction, largely because it helps prevent burnout. The study also showed that workers who are newer to the job (under 10 years) are generally kinder to themselves than those who have been working for a long time.
2. They tend to be indecisive
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Maybe you are managing a few big decisions, but wind up scarfing chips because you just can’t decide what to have for dinner, or waste half your evening deciding what to watch? Your frontal lobe is your decision-making apparatus, and when its energy is challenged, you conserve by handling some decisions, then getting stuck on others.
Research has found that burnout is strongly tied to higher levels of depression and anxiety. Employees with high burnout scored lower on tests for memory, attention, and executive functions. Yet, people with stronger family support reported less burnout. However, family support did not prevent the cognitive decline associated with burnout.
What if you simply use the stuck feeling as a metric? Do you need a reboot of some kind? Walk away, figure out what fuel you need — whether it's rest, nutrition, hydration, or connection — and come back with your smarter brain.
3. People who are burnt out start seeing everything in black and white
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who feels stuck between two choices, when you so easily see they're missing a whole range of other possibilities? We’ve all been that person, right? It’s often the meat of coaching.
By design, stress or fatigue narrows your perspective, making the world more yes/no, good/bad, research has shown. Your brain is trying to keep you safe by quickly judging inputs as threat/non-threat. What’s lost is your frontal lobe’s creative capacity and its ability to see the connections between and find solutions.
- What if you start to notice when you feel stuck and ask yourself if you have your frontal lobe fully charged and on board?
- What do you need to fuel your creativity and bring back your ability to see the whole system?
- What are the subtle cues that you need a recharge?
- What can you do?
Instead of pushing yourself harder (our cultural norm), you can learn to work with your brain. Recognize the subtle signs of brain fatigue and, instead of judging yourself for them, use them as data. Like the power indicator on your phone, these are the cues you need to recharge. Start with a little self-awareness exercise.
- How can you regularly incorporate more energy recharges in your day? Your year?
- How can you renew your physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual energy so you have more capacity to wisely handle the ongoing challenges?
- Who are you when you're not at 100 percent capacity?
Most of us know when we get to the extremes of overtired and overwhelmed, but we often miss the more subtle shifts of off-peak performance. Not sure? Ask your family, friends, or co-workers. They are the professionals of reading your subtle shifts.
When you start to pay as much non-judgmental attention to these as you do your phone battery, you open up the opportunity to work with your brain and keep it fully charged. Then you can be your happiest, healthiest, most productive, and creative self.
Cynthia Ackrill leads stress and leadership workshops in many settings, from coaching and leadership programs to women's conferences.
