Are You Stressed or Burned Out?

“Stress is the trash of modern life. We all generate it, but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.” ~ Danzae Pace

In today’s busy, challenging lifestyles, stress seems unavoidable. Stress can be very damaging in the long term if it is not nipped in the bud, while burnout is more detrimental to the inner spark of motivation that gives life meaning. Over time, much like stress, burnout can cause a catastrophic loss of passion, and may ultimately lead to depression.

Burnout means exhaustion over a long period of time which affects your caring about the quality of the work you’re doing. Burnout is much like clinical depression, while stress is a sense of being under a lot of strain or pressure. Stress usually comes first and then it leads to burnout if it isn’t corrected.

Given that it can be hard to determine the line between feeling stressed and being burned out, let’s take a look at and discuss the differences:

1. When you over-plan, over-analyze, and over-extend yourself, this leads to stress. After a prolonged period of this type of behavior, you will burn out and emotionally detach from the source that once caused such urgency.

2. Stress makes us feel hyper-emotional, makes us push to exert ourselves physically, while burnout merely dulls emotions which then leaves us mentally drained.

3. Stress is anxiety-fueled; burnout causes depression and discouragement.

4. A sense of powerlessness or futility is the result of burnout.

5. The chaos of stress is eclipsed by the flattened state that burnout causes. Stress distinguishes dreams, and deadens a sense of hope for the future.

6. Stress takes a physical toll, while burnout is mental depletion.

7. Stress strips away vitality, and once that source is exhausted, burnout saps our sense of purpose.

Can you think of anything good about stress? It certainly does keep us on our toes and fully alert, doesn’t it? Becoming hyper-aware can help us to stay out of danger. Those two might be useful, certainly, but if we allow stress to push us too far beyond what is rational, we can take ourselves into a perpetually depleted state of burnout, and that’s just not healthy.

Men and women handle stress differently. While men let off steam with some activity like mowing the lawn, playing tennis, or finally fixing that burning toaster, women turn to their girlfriends for a friendly chat. Or women might take a bubble bath or fix a new recipe they’ve been wanting to try for a while.

It would be wise for you to find ways to restore yourself back to whatever your norm is so that burnout doesn’t take permanent hold. Here are a few ideas for restoring your norm:

- Clear out the clutter in your home and office
- Eat fresh, healthy meals
= Get some form of movement into your life
- Do a new, fun thing once a week

Although most people accept that their lives in this busy world are somewhat stressful, it is dangerous to simply grit one’s teeth and continue to live with this as an acceptable norm.

Effective, personally meaningful stress management and insight into one’s emotional and physical resources can effectively buffer the fallout that could inevitably occur due to an unchecked, stressful lifestyle. Invest some amount of time in yourself this month, and you will be more likely to maintain the level of motivation and stamina you desire.