Hi, this is Dr. Veerle Van Tricht,
The Burnout Expert. I’m talking to you from the beautiful island of Bali. And as I enjoy this very healthy fruit smoothie, I’m actually giving you two tips already on the things you could do to avoid burnout.
Healthy food and having a break.
Take some time off to do something you like. Catch up on sleep and recharge your own energy.
The common mistakes I see people, who get burnout, make are the following:
First of all, they don’t take time for themselves and they’re always giving. Sounds familiar? They’re always giving to their clients, to their patients.
At home, they give to their partner, to their children and they never have time to recharge that energy, so no wonder they’re running on empty.
Second mistake: they lie awake worrying at night that they’re not having enough time to finish all the jobs they want to do and the responsibilities they have to fulfill. So they get too little sleep, which makes them even more tired. That tiredness leads to crankiness, so there’s a lot of fighting going on in those households where some person is burned out. Not only do they get cranky with their spouses, which can lead to bigger problems, but they also get cranky with their colleagues at work, which creates an unpleasant work atmosphere. And the workplace is one of the triggers of burnout. If that’s unpleasant, burnout gets triggered and can spiral down in more complicated problems. Like I mentioned in a previous video, studies were done in America, we talked to some nurses that 45% of them tested positive for burnout, 36% of them tested positive for depression, and more than 6% had suicidal thoughts in the last 12 months. This is how bad it can get. So I don’t want you to stick your head in the sand, I also want you to realize that you’re not alone. I know it can be difficult for a perfectionist to admit that you’re not coping, but honestly at some hard times in your life, you can’t do it all, you don’t have to be Superwoman or Superman.
There’s help available. Even doctors and nurses are human too and need to prioritise time caring for their own wellbeing.
I mentioned the root causes of burnout and some of the issues I can help you with.
You will have MeTime or more time in your day, I have created a cheat sheet that gives you some tips on how to Go from NOTime to METime in NOTime, and you find it in the link associated with this video.
