Avoiding burnout

This week, I want to talk to you about burnout and stress. This is serious stuff. Can't view this email properly? [View in Browser]() {NAME}, This week, I want to talk to you about burnout and stress. Both of these can affect your personal and professional lives, and yet they’re not the easiest things to recognize in ourselves. Burnout is serious stuff. These [latest survey results]() are proof: - A staggering 55% of workers believe their employers are out of touch with the true state of mental health in the workplace. - Alarmingly, 43% fear negative repercussions for discussing mental health issues at work. - The shadow of workplace stress looms large, affecting 77% of employees. Which results in troubling signs of burnout — from emotional exhaustion and a lack of motivation to decreased productivity and…a growing urge to quit. (I’m going to be talking more about fixing your career next week, stay tuned.) Ramit What causes burnout? I know what burnout feels like. After the launch of one of my earlier products, Earn1K, I’d worked every day from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., wrote a five-week launch funnel, got hooked on coffee, and felt every emotional swing you can imagine. I had switched into a hyper-focused mode where everything is about right now. Next year might as well be a million miles away. It's a classic sign of overload and burnout. Kind of like when you can’t even focus on something 10 feet in front of you. My eyes were open, but they might as well have been closed. I hit rock bottom. Couldn’t even drag myself out of bed. For a week! It took a solid six months to feel like myself again. I knew something had to change, but I didn’t realize what was happening to me: complete and utter burnout. Why I redefined hard work Back then, I thought this was just the price of success. But then I had an epiphany: I loved launches, so I didn’t want to stop. But I couldn’t keep crashing and burning, either. That Earn1K launch experience was something I knew I couldn’t repeat. So I changed how I viewed and approached hard work. Instead of seeing it as a burnout trigger, I saw it as energizing. It was a problem to solve. I embraced my quirks and built a system around them. I knew when I was working non-stop, my diet and workouts suffered. My solution: a personal trainer reporting to a nutritionist who coordinated with my chef. Ramit working out I know this system is expensive. But as they say, “Show me someone’s calendar and spending, and I’ll show you their priorities.” The result? Each launch got easier to recover from. Now, after a big launch, I’m out celebrating on the same night! I also realized I can step back and I don’t have to be busy all the time. I love time for myself. I don’t feel guilty sitting down to watch three or four hours of TV, and I don't mind taking a nap or scrolling Reddit. I don’t think of this as “wasted time.” I reconceptualized. Now, I think of these activities as rejuvenating. Avoiding burnout all boils down to how you view hard work and manage your energy. To keep burnout at bay, you don’t need vacations or massages (even though I love these things). It’s more about reframing your mindset. I started to see launches as marathons, not sprints, prepping my life beforehand to make these times easier. This way, when I need to go into action, I’m going to be 100%. - I’m mentally rested. - I’m physically trained. - I've got all my processes worked out and I’m completely ready to go. Ramit Sethi Finding a system that lets you work without burning out is crucial. How to fix stress before it becomes burnout When you feel stressed, try to approach the situation analytically, like a scientist. Let’s say you’re stressed because you’re always late for work. Figure out why: You rush around each morning. Why? You go to sleep too late. Why? You watch TV too late into the night. Bingo. It’s not necessarily burnout. The solution might be as simple as not watching another episode of “Vanderpump Rules” before you go to bed, hard as it may be. Being honest with ourselves is hard work. It’s difficult to acknowledge that we might have to give up doing something we like. But it’s about making choices. Like with my [Conscious Spending Plan]() for managing your money, you need to do the same with your energy. Choose your priorities. Spend your energy extravagantly on what serves you. Cut mercilessly on what doesn’t. You can build your own system to help you unwind and keep yourself from overdoing it. - Maybe you want to prepare meals for the week so cooking isn’t another thing you have to fit into the day. - Maybe you want to make time for exercise, like daily yoga. - Maybe it’s scheduling a quiet time in the middle of the day to read a book. Whatever it is that rejuvenates you, make it part of your system. I’m going to be talking more about stress in the next email and then next week I’m going to be talking about how to use your career to build a Rich Life. Stay tuned. [Signature] [Programs]() [Podcast]() [Netflix show]() [Books]() [Website]() [IG]() [in]() [X]() [YT]() Was this forwarded to you? [Sign up here](). [Unsubscribe here](. 548 Market St #89946 San Francisco, CA 94104-5401