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Avoiding
Burnout
Three
Ways to Fan Your Flame and Avoid Burn-out
By John Maxwell
A few years ago, I
was considering a crazy idea.
I was thinking about
retirement.
I was in my late
sixties, and things were going well. It was the right time for my team and
myself to think about the future and what it was going to look like.
As we talked, it
seemed like the future was going to look like I wasn’t around.
I even went so far
as to put a jar of marbles on my CEO’s desk — Mark Cole literally pulled out a
marble every day to help him and the team keep count of the number of days I
had left until retirement. I thought it was a brilliant idea.
Then,
a friend of mine asked me one day, “John, do you still love what you
do?”
“Of
course,” I answered. “I would never do anything else.”
“Then
why would you quit?” he asked. “Why not keep doing what you love?”
After some
reflection and soul-searching, after discussions with Margaret and Mark and the
rest of my team, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to retire.
I was going to stay
in the game — I was going to keep teaching and mentoring and adding value to
people until the day I die.
I
had Mark dump out the jar of marbles and tell the team, “Let’s keep
going.”
I told this story on
stage a few months ago at Live2Lead,
and I had a big jar of marbles with me.
When I got to the
part about dumping out the marbles, I literally turned the jar upside down and
emptied hundreds of marbles onto the stage.
It was loud. It was
messy. But it made my point.
I love what I do,
and I love who I get to do it with, and those two factors more than anything
else are how I stay energized for the work we do.
We’re in more places
now than ever before, chasing a bigger vision than ever before, and I wake up
every day knowing that what we get to do together will transform the world.
But I’m increasingly
aware of just how many people don’t wake up with that feeling.
There are hundreds
of thousands of people who wake up every morning feeling burnt out. And that
number is only increasing.
In fact, the number
of people experiencing burn-out is so significant that the World Health
Organization released a
statement earlier this year that “burn-out” is now an official
medical diagnosis.
Just this
week, Harvard
Business Review published an article citing six common causes
of burn-out and how to avoid them.
I looked up the
origin of the phrase burn-out and found that it has a few different definitions
that all boil down to one commonality.
Whether you’re
talking about a fire that burns every available source of fuel, a rocket that
runs out of propellant, or the breakdown of an electrical device because of too
much current, burn-out happens when energy fails.
People world-wide
are experiencing burn-out because they’re running out of energy for their work.
While in some cases
that’s a sign that people need to find a new job, I believe that in many cases
it’s a sign that people need to find a new source of energy.
Or, perhaps more
accurately, rediscover their energy.
I’ve taught for a
long time that there are three places to find energy that are available to
anyone:
· Purpose —
this is your “why,” the reason you exist, that thing you were made to do. It’s
the intersection of your imagination, joy and pain.
· Passion —
this is your “what,” those strengths and skills that make you unique. Passion
is fueled by purpose, but it is more than purpose; it’s the action you’re
willing to take daily in order to bring that purpose to fruition.
· People —
this is your “who,” the faces of people familiar and unmet, the men and women
who will benefit from the work you do with your life. People are the reason
behind your purpose and passion; they are the ends, and everything else is the
means.
Burn-out isn’t to be
taken lightly, but it’s also not a hopeless situation.
If you feel like
your fire is getting dim, taking time to fan the flame can go a long way to
extending your work life.
Find a book to
rekindle your passion or attend a
conference that can turn up the heat on your purpose.
Spend time around
people who remind you of the value you add to others.
We need leaders who
can burn bright without burning out. Stoke the
fires of passion, purpose and people, and wake up each day loving what we do
and who we get to do it with.
John C. Maxwell
Every year I have the opportunity to speak to
people around the world about the life-changing principles and defining moments
that have impacted my life. There’s nothing like making the human connection
and forming new relationships and bonds.
Speaking is really my first passion. I love
challenging and motivating audiences with real-life stories and timeless
principles that I always back with actionable steps.
I’ve spent the last 40 years inspiring and
challenging people from numerous Fortune 500 companies, national trade
associations, nonprofits, and educational institutions to grow, change, and
find their passion. Connect with me at one of my upcoming events this
year.
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