Tackling Burnout
As the leader of a company or the leader of the team, one of the biggest challenges we have is to keep that energy going - energy going through those obstacles, energy going to reach those opportunities - because if we lose that energy, it cascades down to the rest of our team, growth stops, and we quit. The biggest challenge we have, the biggest danger we have, is getting burnt out.
Dr. Christina Maslach at UC Berkeley, who is the expert on burnout, describes burnout as the combination of three things:
Emotional exhaustion
Cynicism
A sense of personal ineffectiveness
When we have a combination of those three things, growth stops and we quit. It certainly causes things like low productivity, but even more serious than that, it causes high blood pressure, it causes substance abuse, and even suicidal thoughts. For me, burnout simply means the fire has gone out.
To move forward with the energy we need to drive our businesses, we need that fire in our belly. It reminds me of a story.
People have often asked me about this sign behind me that says Hester Street. Hester Street is where my grandfather grew up in Manhattan. I just called him “pop”. Pop was the best man I ever knew. He was a hard worker, he was incredibly proud of his family, incredibly strong, and at 82 years old, pop was driving a cab. He had no business driving a cab. He couldn't see very well, he got into a number of accidents and one day he was fired from the cab company. Now, he didn't tell us he was fired but my grandmother did because he was too proud, and although pop at 82 lived another three years to 85, I feel like that was the last day, I really saw my grandfather. Because that day, the fire went out of his eyes. He felt like the best years of his life were behind him and he had nothing to live for. The fire went out. He had no more dragons to slay.
My question for you is: what's the next dragon that you're going to slay to keep that fire burning? We need to find the next dragon.
· What's something you've always been afraid to do?
· What's something you've always wanted to learn?
· What dream do you have that you haven't moved forward on?
· What's the next level in your business?
· What's the next level in your life?
· Who do you want to meet?
· Who do you want to build a stronger relationship with?
· Who do you want to become?
What is that next dragon you're going to slay? How are you going to keep the fire burning?
I'd love to hear what your next dragon is in the comments below.