The Millennial Condition: BURNOUT — && some life hacks on how to spot it and stop it.

I know I can not be the only one who feels like there isn’t enough time in the world to get all the things I want to accomplish, done. Not only do I have a “regular job”, but I also am an entrepreneur, creator, friend, daughter, and sister. I have laundry to do, mail to send off, bills to pay and every day I act like I have my shit together.. It's  A LOT.  Guilt and shame creep in when I start to think about everything I couldn’t finish that day. The unfinished list usually consists of those boring errands, like grocery shopping,  cleaning the fish bowl, finally making that appointment with a financial advisor, finishing that blog post, or redesigning my website… after guilt and shame have their way with me, I start to panic... WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?! Why is it so hard for me to "adult" when everyone else seems so good at it?  Then I remember this article I read ...it SPOKE MY TRUTH. It perfectly explained every single thing I had been feeling and why..  It was all about the “Millennial Condition” aka BURNOUT. It was so on point, it inspired me soooo much, here I am writing about it. Mind you, it did take like 2 months to actually do it because… well, burnout.So what is burnout?! Psychology Today describes burnout as a “state of chronic stress” that eventually leads to not being able “to function effectively on a personal or professional level”. According to, Mayo Health, burnout is, “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity”. I don’t know about you, but that is something I do not want to sign up for…However Buzzfeed news reporter, Anne Helen Peterson, perfectly explains WHY so many of us feel the way we do. “Burnout and the behaviors and weight that accompany it aren’t, in fact, something we can cure by going on vacation. It’s not limited to workers in acutely high-stress environments. And it’s not a temporary affliction: It’s the millennial condition. It’s our base temperature. It’s our background music. It’s the way things are. It’s our lives.”I personally suffer from debilitating work anxiety. It pairs perfectly with my imposter syndrome. Every morning I have an internal battle thinking I will most likely show up to work and my boss will have realized that I have no clue that I am doing, that I am not an asset and she would be better off hiring someone else… all of this is not true, however, for as long as I have had a job, I have had a fear of not being enough to be successful or “valuable”. After reading this article, I learned so many things, but one of the most valuable, was that this asinine thought pattern about my value in the workplace and my overall work ethic stems from burnout and the societal fears that were instilled in us a VERY long time ago.Again, Anne with the life changing words and insight….” I’m burned out. Why am I burned out? Because I’ve internalized the idea that I should be working all the time. Why have I internalized that idea? Because everything and everyone in my life has reinforced it — explicitly and implicitly— since I was young. The thing about American labor, after all, is that we’re trained to erase it. Anxiety is medicated; burnout is treated with therapy that’s slowly become normalized and yet still softly stigmatized.We hustle so hard that we’ve figured out how to avoid wasting time eating meals and are called entitled for asking for fair compensation and benefits like working remotely (so we can live in affordable cities), adequate health care, or 401(k)s (so we can theoretically stop working at some point before the day we die). We’re called whiny for talking frankly about just how much we do work, or how exhausted we are by it. But because overworking for less money isn’t always visible — because job hunting now means trawling LinkedIn, because “overtime” now means replying to emails in bed — the extent of our labor is often ignored, or degraded.”After reading that, I began to cry.. more like bawl. Because it resonated SO HARD. Maybe I feel all these feels because I feel LIKE I CAN NEVER STOP. Because I have a little voice in my head whispering, “DON’T YOU DARE STOP NOW… because if you do, well there goes your dreams of success and one day “making it”. So no wonder these tasks are swept under the rug and placed on next week’s list… because they don’t promise any success or positive optimization. If they do, you better believe I damn well do it.Now there may be some eyerolls and sighs on this topic, especially since for the last decade or so, society has used the word “millennial” to describe what is “right” and “wrong” with young people. BUT GUESS WHAT, millennials are GROWN UP NOW, ranging from 21- 40 years old. We ARE NOT COMPLAINING about life and it “being hard” we are EXPOSING SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS.Again as Anne states so eloquently, "many behaviors attributed to millennials are the behaviors of a specific, subset of mostly white, largely middle-class people born between 1981 and 1996. But even if you’re a millennial who didn’t grow up privileged, you’ve been impacted by the societal and cultural shifts that have shaped the generation. Our parents — a mix of young boomers and old Gen-Xers and reared us during an age of relative economic and political stability. As with previous generations, there was an expectation that the next one would be better off — both in terms of health and finances — than the one that had come before. But as millennials enter into mid-adulthood, that prognosis has been proven false. Financially speaking, most of us lag far behind where our parents were when they were our age. We have far less saved, far less equity, far less stability, and far, far more student debt…. As American business became more efficient, better at turning a profit, the next generation needed to be positioned to compete. We couldn’t just show up with a diploma and expect to get and keep a job that would allow us to retire at 55. In a marked shift from the generations before, millennials needed to optimize ourselves to be the very best workers possible.”All in all, we all KNOW the system is inequitable and we believe if we just optimize ourself to be “the best” or “most valuable” we too, can be one of the success stories of our generation. DO YOU SEE THE ISSUE HERE? This way of thinking LEADS TO BURNOUT. Nowhere in that thought pattern does it say, slow down, put up boundaries, take a break and look at all the other things you HAVE DONE so far.I literally can go on and on and ONNNNN about burnout, WHY we experience it and all the various factors and triggers, but to be honest, Anne from Buzfeed does a WAY better job. So check this article out if this sparked your interest! It’s a good read, I literally have read it like 40 times hhaha. Anyways, now that you have an idea of burnout, and all the things, I want to share a few personal life hacks to help spot burn out, stop it and prevent it!So how do you even notice burn out when you’re so caught up in getting it all done?! It’s basically A LOT of stress.. the difference between stress and burnout is a matter of how “bad” you let it get, meaning the earlier you recognize and address the signs, the better able you will be to avoid burnout. There are various signs ranging from mental, physical, social and emotional symptoms. Some of these symptoms include chronic fatigue, insomnia, chest pains, dizziness, a weakened immune system, loss of appetite, anxiety, depression and anger/irritability. When experiencing burn out, it is common to: engage in negative self talk, isolate oneself from social interactions, feel hopeless and apathetic, and become less productive in all aspects in life.If you have experienced or are experiencing any of these symptoms, THIS IS YOUR WAKEUP CALL. Take some time to honestly assess the amount of stress in your life and find ways to reduce it before it's too late. Trust me. Burnout isn't like the flu && it doesn't go away after a few weeks, unless you SERIOUSLY make some changes in your life. And as hard as it may seem, it's the smartest thing to do since making a few little changes now, will keep you sane enough to make it to the “finish line”.If you are in the downward spiral of burnout, the LAST thing you want to do is start up a new "project"... trust me, I get it. HOWEVER, you can't just sit there and let yourself fizzle away, GET UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Fight for yourself, you deserve it.First off, there are three ESSENTIALS one must do every single day. Sleep, eat and drink. So make sure you are getting ENOUGH sleep, drinking enough WATER and NOURISHing your body with good for ya food. Also, start saying no. This is soooo hard for me, like sooooo hard, but the less you commit to, the less stress you have trying to balance all the aspects of your life. Also, move your body! Get up and exercise, it is a proven fact to be a phenomenal stress reliever and I ALWAYS notice a difference in my stress level when I sweat it out. One final action step one can make to catapult out of the black hole of burnout is to make a list of all the situations that cause you to feel stressed, anxious, worried, frustrated, and helpless. Next to each item on the inventory, write down at least one way to modify that situation to reduce it's stress and then begin implementing them into your routine. If you see no way to reduce the stressor, GET RID OF IT.So now, imagine that you have recognized your triggers, addressed the stressors, and implemented your new routine... You are exiting the burnout zone... YAAASSS! Now how you do make sure it is gone for good? Take your breaks, listen to your body and treat yourself every once in a while!Hope this helps! xoxoC