How To Achieve Freedom From Burnout
#LeadandLift | Episode 73 | Daniel Ewers
Do you suffer from chronic stress? Do you feel guilty whenever you take a break from work? Do you become so exhausted that by the time the weekend comes, you can’t even stand up to do anything fun or spend time with your family?
Our special guest in today’s episode of Lead and Lift, Daniel Ewers, has been there before and more importantly, was able to get out of it. Now he guides others through their own adventure to excellence across life, business, leadership, and health.
Ignoring the signs
Daniel went from being an accountant to CFO, and the company he worked at grew at a quick pace as well. That’s when he started experiencing burnout. Stress became a normal thing for his daily work, and for most of us, the story is the same.
At some point, whenever he went on days off, he felt guilty because he felt that the business might collapse if he wasn’t there. Some days, it was that guilt that drove him to push further, carry on, and keep expanding.
Then one morning while Daniel was getting ready to go to work, his body sent him a clear message. He had a panic attack. He was breathing heavily, his hand was on his heart and his wife thought he was having a heart attack.
The thing that brought him back from that panic attack was that he started laughing. Questions entered his mind. Why is this happening? What makes us human? What are we all really here for? That was the point that started his journey towards trying to find those answers.
However, the journey wasn’t short. Once he had recovered, he spent the next two years feeling great for a while, then feeling broken the next month. His journey truly took off when he made the hardest decision he had made which was to resign from that business.
“Life should be more of joy and happiness and not the things that make you sick.” - Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath
Symptoms of burnout
The symptoms of burnout, from Daniel’s experience, was first of all, chronic stress. The daily stress that we experience whenever we approach work and the lingering stress that stays with us long after the shift isn’t supposed to be normal. When stress shows up every day in every single week, then it can be classified as chronic stress.
Chronic anxiety is also another symptom. This is the feeling of dread that you feel whenever you start work, going over in your 1mind all the things you’ll have to accomplish and overthinking about the things that you didn’t finish at the end of the day. You might even experience sleeplessness due to anxious thoughts about the things you might have missed, or the problems that will show up the next day.
You might feel trapped in the past, inadequate in the present, and worried about the future. Daniel describes being in burnout as stepping on the gas and on the break at the same time while driving a car. You’ll be expending so much energy, so much gas, the engine will incur a lot of damage, but the car is stuck in place.
Listening to the messages
Daniel was sent a painful and clear message in the form of a panic attack. However, for the readers and listeners out there, we don’t have to learn the hard way. We must look at our lives and be honest with ourselves what we really feel.
His frightful experience sent him on a trajectory towards healing, self-improvement, and eventually, peace with himself.
There were a few things that helped him recover. One of them was taking walks in nature and the other was self-development and self-examination.
For the two months that he was off, he started to connect back to who he was, back to his authentic self. After four weeks of this recovery process, his wife even said to him that she felt that she had her husband back.
A year after that, he still went on from being broken to feeling really great; from doing personal growth practices and being back to survival mode again. Because of his curiosity and interest in self-development, he learned a lot of stuff, one of them being that there’s no off-switch for the stress hormones but there is an on-switch.
The only way to truly escape stress and burnout is by first taking a step back and reconnecting back to yourself.
“A lot of times when, burnout is happening with us, we tend to forget that it's also impacting the people around us. But when we experience things like burnout, there is no x-ray you can do to see that you're in there, but you feel that drain on your energy. And those are times when people around you see it and you need to make that change.” - Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath
Achieving freedom from burnout
The definition of burnout according to Maslach and Leiter, is this: “Burnout is the index of the dislocation between what people are and what they have to do. It represents an erosion in value, dignity, spirit, and will—an erosion of the human soul. It is a malady that spreads gradually and continuously over time, putting people into a downward spiral from which it’s hard to recover.”
Burnout is real and I just want to emphasize that it is something to be taken seriously. It’s an erosion of the human soul. The road to burnout is a dangerous road. It’s a trap that devours people who generally just want to do excellently in their careers. Daniel shared with us furthermore how he was able to recover.
“What I did right in the early stages was I connected back to my values, and who I was, what I needed in my life. And what I needed in my work, And what I needed in my work, and what I needed to support that.” - Daniel Ewers
Daniel reviewed each of his values and rated what he holds strongly the most. Make a list of values and examine how many of your values are in alignment with the work that you are doing.
Second, realize that to get out of this pit, you need someone to lend a helping hand. Find people around you that can help you, be genuine about your struggle, open up to someone who makes you feel safe. There are two essential qualities of a good coach, therapist, or friend, and that’s they are in there with the trenches with you. This means that they know personally what you are going through and also, that they are in a position to inspire you to take the next level for yourself as well. You don’t want a person who can empathize but is ultimately going to keep you there. You want someone who can both empathize and inspire you to claim your freedom.
“If you suspect you could be in burnout, you've got to ask someone around you for help. And if there's no one around, seek out a coach. There are people out there who are on a similar journey who have come out on the other side. You don't have to do this on your own.” - Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath
Daniel advises us to listen to our instincts, to trust ourselves and to follow through with our coaching. Follow through with your dreams and take a hold of what you want in life. You will only live once. Let’s use our time to make it beautiful and cherish our family, friends, and the things that truly matter.
Sickness, anxiety, and depression are all warning signs that you’ve got to adhere to. Listen to these messages and heed them well. Take charge of your life. We can’t all be the executive of our company, but we can all be the executive of our own life. In whatever aspect, do your best to grab a hold of the life that you truly want and deserve.
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Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath
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Hi! I'm Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath, your Certified High Performance Coach. You know when high achieving moms in leadership desire more joy, fulfillment and confidence in their personal life and business? I deliver that through high performance coaching. I am so happy that our paths have crossed!
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