We love hustling. We love hustling so much that we want everyone to have multiple hustles. But sometimes we tend to forget the problem of too much hustling, BURNOUT.

Bust what exactly is burnout and how can we prevent it from happening? If we have it, what can we do about it?

Burnout is a condition of severe stress that leads to serious physical, mental, and emotional weariness.

This is not like ordinary fatigue. Fatigue goes away after taking some rest. Burnout lingers even when you have enough rest and/or sleep. You might end up with various physical and psychological illnesses. Hopefully, you or someone you know won’t end up with diabetes, depression, and/or heart disease.

Here are some of the symptoms of burnout:

Change of Appetite or Sleep Habits – You may eat less or eat more with a regular problem with sleeping. You might wake up multiple times at night feeling empty and sad not wanting to wakeup up just to get to work the next day.

Loss of Motivation – Your usual motivators like family and goals aren’t so motivating anymore. Although you still want to be motivated by these, you’re not sure why you aren’t feeling the will to push yourself. 

Procrastinating – You feel like work is a drag. You set things you need to do for another time until things pile up. You’re less motivated to do these things again. You’re so lethargic that you end up getting late or absent at work. You tell yourself you just need a vacation. You end up still empty when you get back to work.

Irritability – Couple loss of motivation with irritability. You get grumpy with the kids and your significant other. You become a negative thinker and always wonder why everyone else is so much happier and so much luckier than you. You blame others for things you yourself are responsible for.

Using Food, Alcohol or Even Drugs Cope – You feel like these are your friends. They keep you happy whenever you’re down. But everything is temporary until you have another session with food, alcohol, or drugs again.

Frequent Illnesses – And since your immune system is down from all the negativity and lack of sleep, you get frequent illnesses like headaches and body pain.

Burnout is dangerous and may lead to severe depression. If left untreated you may end up in a place where you don’t want to be.

So how can we battle it?

No amount of treatment will help you if you’ll keep on doing the things you did in the past.

1. Address the Root Cause

First, you’re going to have to dig why you got burnt out in the first place. Most likely, it’s coming from too much work and not seeing enough results. How can we address this? One, you might need a change in mindset. You might have the wrong expectations when you’re trying to reach your goals. You’re going to have to re-assess your expectations and not get yourself too pumped up on unrealistic goals.

2. Focus on Being Productive, Not Busy

Busy doesn’t mean more work done. You’re going to have to balance work and taking care of yourself. Take regular short breaks. It has been proven scientifically that taking breaks makes people more productive. The brain can only process in bursts of energy.

3. Balanced Time

Learn to stop thinking about work when you’re at home. Learn to unplug. Your home is exclusive to the family. If you’re working from home, set up a room and treat it as an office. When you’re outside the room, you’re outside of work.

4. Exercise

Exercise is always good for your physical and mental health. For one, you can vent out your frustration at work while lifting weights. Then you’ll feel better about yourself for getting better and better in shape. Exercise improves blood circulation and helps release endorphins making you feel good about yourself too.

5. Balanced Diet

Eating a balanced diet also helps. We are literally what we eat. Ever notice you get grumpy when you drink too much caffeine? That’s because food affects our mood. Too much sweets make us get a sudden burst of energy but only to crash later. Learn to balance things out. A good rule of thumb is to have 1 source of protein (meat), 1 source of carb (rice or noodles), a service of fruits or vegetables. You don’t have to count calories, you just need to be consistent.

6. Sleep!

The last thing we can work on is sleep. Lack of sleep accumulates making you more lethargic every day. Sooner or later, your body will need a reset. Some people end up in hospital beds for the reset.

If things go a bit out of hand, you might need to consult your doctor.

Burnout is traditionally shrugged off by the past generation. A simple vacation was enough for them. But times have changed. One job isn’t enough for most of us. The hustle is real. A simple vacation is no longer enough for most people. And our concern is that sooner or later, your physical and well-being will plummet. Hustling is taking care of your future but we would also like you to take care of the present. Learn to manage your time and your health.

You can’t hustle if you’re sickly.

Like everything else, balance and harmony are key.