Annual recurring burnout
There’s something fundamentally wrong about the way you work if every year around the same time, you burn out. Right? Right??
The writing app I built to write daily has a really nifty feature called Time Hop. It just showed me that exactly one year ago I was also suffering from a serious case of burnout.
I hit stage 11, but was at stage 9 at the time of writing:
Not gonna lie, this year, I hit stage 11 at some point too, but after some self-care for the past few months, I think I’m at a stage 3-4 now.
And reflecting back even more years, I think this burnout is recurring on a yearly basis.
That can’t be good.
There’s something fundamentally wrong about the way you work if every year around the same time, you burn out. Right? Right?? Let me hazard a guess how the cycle works… I start off strong and motived in January, get some momentum going by February, then by March start to feel the fatigue setting in, and by April I hit full burnout. Then in May I write something about said burnout and trying to recover form it.
That cannot be good.
I need to fundamentally shift the way I work and how my compassion doesn’t seem to include myself. Is it truly compassion if you’re not part of it?
Maybe this year is the year.
Of shrugging off the importance of recovery and then jumping right back into the grind the moment I feel just slightly better.
Of truly understanding how the way I work is literally killing myself.
Of truly enjoying self-care and making it a recurring part of my routines instead of a stop-gap remedy.
This has to be the year when I shift.
I’m mid-forties.
I can’t keep doing it like I’m a young man, unafraid to die.
The recurring burnout has to stop.
This year has to be that year.