Thank God, Burn Out Finally Hits Me!

I´m really turning into a computer geek! For a year now since I moved to Germany, my life has evolved around my laptops, my websites and my online entrepreneurship dreams. I´m very ambitious, I want my fashion blogazine to grow big, quick. I also want my marriage blog to grow into a fulfilling and active community, but boy, how much work they require?

On top of that, I also have my personal style blog that I couldn´t afford to totally abandon so after half a year of not publishing it, I just found myself crawling back to it. Then here´s my online journal, while it´s not demanding too much time, it´s page rank and traffic decreased a ton after not writing on it actively for like a year. Could you believe that I´m still launching another website? Yeah, I´m prepping for it too, the launch of Creative Fashion for Kids. That´s how ambitious I am. I want to expand my online territory.

Bu I´m happy that today, I felt very burned out. So much so that I started planning what I have to do in order to get some me-time. I decided I better sacrifice this week writing two quality articles per stay for my fashion magazine, four articles for two weeks worth of posts for my marriage blog, and some alternating posts for my personal blog, then schedule them to go live until next week. That way, I get the entire week next week having more freedom, enjoying promoting the blog by visiting other blogs, do my yoga routines here at home before I start to work, and start to deal with my overflowing stash of laundry for ironing. 

I owe myself some free time, I´ve punished her enough to to work hard so much without enjoying much of life. I´m up into this challenge and I´ll update you soon how it´s going.

How about you? How do you deal with burn out?

Photo credit: wehearit

Should you change your career?

Does it come to you when you feel so stressed out from your day job that you wish you’re somewhere else? I guess wishing to be somewhere doing something else is better than wishing to be someone else. So far, I’m not sure if I ever did wish the latter. My mind says “No” but my heart says “Yes”. Now I’m confused which one to believe. Of course I'm happy for having a job. Just take a look at those thousands if not millions of individuals fighting to get a job, or those who just got fired - which is thanks to recession - they’re frantic to get a new one for survival's sake. In most developing countries, and even in some developed countries, for one single vacancy, hundreds of potential applicants are queuing to get an interview. Oh, but did you know that you have a better chance of getting your target new job if you still have a job just wanting to switch company than someone who has been jobless? But come on, that’s not what I wish to talk about.

It’s just that sometime in your career you probably must have considered changing your path. It might be due to the low demand of your profession, a not competitive salary in the market, or probably simply because you’re not happy with what you do. But let’s face it. It’s definitely scary! Many people might have contemplated it, but the uncertainty and difficulty not to mention the big risk that changing a career imposes is deterrent to actually pursuing it. People can just be too scared and would opt to remain at their safe harbor.

For most times, changing a career is all about timing. For example, you probably must wait when the market gets better and you are certain that your move is not a total blind gamble. Perhaps it’s better to stay with your job right now and wait when everything is perfect. However, sometimes, the perfect time just never comes. Thus changing a career also requires a strong mindset that cannot be shaken by any obstacle. A decision carefully considered and a will that is hundred percent determined is what you need. Changing a career can be very tedious, expensive and timely. But if it’s about getting a career of heart, then it’s a worth thing to do. You would never know what lies ahead unless you throw up the sail.

photo credit: weheartit.com

How to defeat burn out from work?

Did you ever find yourself easily angered, depressed and uninspired at some point in your life?

Did you take a moment to evaluate what caused you these negative feelings and found that in fact, you have so many things to be thankful and be happy for? And yet, after a while of figuring out, everything points out to overworking, tiredness and lack of recreation as the root? In a layman’s term that is what we call “burnt out”.

Indeed, it comes once in a while. And recently, I found myself caught up by this situation. I lost my drive to write articles for my literary blog. I felt lazy to do my basic household chores. I go to work with a hard determination of surviving the day when actually, it used to be fun. I need to start the debate training for both my junior and senior debaters for the next debate competition which will be in less than two months, but I could not get the drive to organize anything. I get easily angered by any little things which I knew I could have ignored. And because of these feelings, even my relationship is getting affected.

But it is not a question of whether it comes or not. It is about how to defeat this negativity once it does come.

I thought that I needed something which would help me channel this negativity out. It was my fashion blog. I spent more time blogging about fashion and connecting with other fashion bloggers. It gave me a different world that could make me feel good. But then when I step back into the reality, the same feelings come back.

I confessed this conflict to my girl friends and was surprised to find that they were also feeling the same. We decided we have to make time for ourselves. We need to go out more, hang out and unwind more. Given our busy schedules, this time has to be made. The very functional all work life that we had has started eating in us and is now bearing fruit.

Thus, we dressed up and went out to unwind. We spent our night just dining out, window shopping and chatting about anything. It felt good. We went home tired but relaxed. Eventually, more hanging out are listed in the calendar.

Getting burnt out from work is inevitable, however, if it does come, you should be able to find ways to defeat it.

So how do you handle yours?