Mathematics of Burnout

Burnout has a pretty simple equation — no need for integrals or derivatives. A fourth grader could handle it, yet many adults find it difficult. You give more than you receive, and that’s it.

It’s a straightforward process: some activities drain your energy, and some activities replenish and refuel you, allowing you to keep moving forward. It’s simple bookkeeping: two columns.

Doing too much?

People burn out when they overload themselves with work. Although avoiding this is sometimes easier said than done, addressing the underlying causes of such destructive behavior is crucial.

Recovery

What’s less obvious, though, is that we fail to give ourselves the time and space to recover. Are you getting enough sleep? Do you experience deep sleep and REM phases? Are they sufficient? Do you allow yourself to just relax and connect to yourself and your body? Is your leisure time truly restorative, or is it more of a high-performance marathon where you’re constantly pushing for more, faster, better?

And what about your diet and hydration? Do you even pay attention to the signals and needs of your own body?

Hidden Drainers

Then come the more subtle and often invisible factors — energy expenditures on maintaining various draining processes:

• Pretending to be “okay” when you’re not.
• Dragging around and constantly stepping over your emotional baggage. This also includes maintaining social roles and masks.
• Internal conflicts occur when one's job not only fails to fulfill one but actively clashes with something deep inside one. Managing a wide range of inner contradictions and conflicts can be a source of significant health problems and stress.
• Dealing with trauma: this is more about pretending to be fine even after life has dragged you face-first across the pavement a few times.
• Compensating for your physical state: sometimes, we have chronic illnesses or other bodily issues that we’re constantly working around.
• Managing fear: fear drains your energy like a battery, with enthusiasm and persistence.
• Striving to meet expectations requires us to step outside our own box, taking on the burdens of social expectations, corporate culture, and the pressure to live up to what others want from us. It’s a heavy load we often take on voluntarily under external pressure.

Do we count right?

This is similar to tracking calories in a diet, where even the most meticulous people often fail to record half of what they consume because much of it is unconscious. The same thing happens with energy expenditures — we’re usually unaware of how much we spend.

The key to addressing burnout is recognizing these hidden drains on your energy and finding ways to balance the scales between what you give and receive.