Burnout Prevention Quiz Results
You have taken a great step towards looking after yourself. Use the information below, along with the score you received in your email to understand what to do next
RED ZONE - 80 Points and Above
YOU ARE BURNING OUT
What you need to know
Firstly, believe you can RECOVER
This is a serious medical condition; now it is the time to find help to guide you through to recovery. You may feel at the end of your tether, but recovery is possible.
Taking a few weeks off now will save you months, and even years off in the future. Surrender to purposeful rest, your body, & mind are screaming out for you to look after them!
Though you are struggling to recognise yourself, you are still you, and all your abilities are still there they are just exhausted for the time being. They will come back if you make serious adjustments now. You are worn down by prolonged stress not because you can’t do it.
Do you have ‘Burnout trauma’ – this is where people experience the overwhelming shock and complete rupture in their mental and physical health.
Sometimes you see the burnout coming, and other times it can take you by surprise. This is a sign of your strength; that you have been working at a super human pace for a long time.
What’s important is that you adjust your thinking quickly, but most crucially get some help so you get on the road to recovery. It is hard to recover alone, as the brain is programme to keep going, and acting on old habits, until burnout forces you to stop. If you can, allow someone to help you.
Staying in the state of burnout can create despair and despair is very distressing and can lead to feeling hopeless.
What to do next
- Getting professional help in person or online will speed up your recovery
- Read as much as you can manage on the subject, or at least just enough to know you are not going mad
- Everyone has a limit, and with care and time, you get back to full health and energy
- Everyone living and everyone who has ever lived needs a helping hand now and again
- This is not a weakness; this is a sign of your strength and your commitment and dedication over probably many years
- You have most likely been extending yourself beyond your limits many times and your system is asking for rest
- Convalescence is important so that you can go on to recapture your sharp mind your creative mind and your ideas and help them come to fruition in the future
AMBER ZONE - 40 - 80 Points
YOU ARE HEADING TOWARDS BURNOUT ADJUST THINGS IMMEDIATELY TO AVOID ‘BURNOUT TRAUMA’
What you need to know
You are beginning to feel the signs of prolonged stress, and it’s changing how you think about the world. Try not to hold this against yourself we are all trained to ignore the signs of stress, believing we should carry on regardless.
You have caught yourself early enough to make some changes that will give your mind and body what it needs to repair. These changes are going to help you avoid burnout trauma, this is not a luxury (we sometimes believe it is) it is a necessity.
You are worth looking after, and the earlier you start to feel the indicators of burnout and make adjustments the quicker and more thoroughly your avoidance of burnout will be.
What you are thinking is an early indicator to how close you are to burning out. If you find yourself in overwhelm you are overstressed, and have been for some time and please remember this is not your fault. We are aall habituated to carry on, until we cannot.
What to do next
- Take out of your diary anything that is not vital.
- This is a serious requirement when you have this many symptoms of burnout. It is not negotiable unless of course burnout is an option for you, which it is not for most of us.
- Burnout is costly in so many ways most importantly your physical and psychological health it is imperative that self-care become your number one priority. There is such a thing as ‘burnout trauma’ and I believe that this can be something that will last for many years if not prevented.
- Make everything that looks after you your priority, it’s almost like back to basics food warmth rest companionship with others and with yourself.
- Rest is invaluable it’s gives you literally timeout and reduces stress hormones. It is also vital to be having self talk messages that you are prepared to look after yourself so that your body and mind does not need to take you down to burnout in the future.
- Get proper rest into your day, this is so much better than collapsing with exhaustion. Collapse is expensive in so many ways.
- Living on the edge of burnout is not a healthy state. There is a good chance your body or your mind will take you down if you do not look after yourself now.
GREEN ZONE - 40 - Points and below
It’s time to avoid more serious problems in the future
Your thinking is a significant indicator as to where you are on the burnout spectrum.
If on Tuesday you are thinking ‘I can’t wait for Friday’ it could be that your body and mind are crying out to be looked after. It could be something like we are not in the right job, or running the right business for ourselves. However, they can be a more profound reason; that your work and your life in general are not nurturing you.
The this set of symptoms in the green zone is ordinary for us all from time to time and for different reasons depending on what’s going on in our lives was going on in our families was going on work. However if you are finding yourself having a mixture of all of these feelings all of the time in these are the early indicators of on the burnout spectrum you’ve got yourself early which is great news.
What to do next?
Tiny almost imperceptible adjustments to your day and your thinking will help
- Take time for the cup of tea you think there’s not time for, you need rest and it reduces levels of adrenalin & cortisol that build during the day
- Know that most things can wait, your health cannot
- Talk to someone about what’s going on; know that this is not weakness. You will find others’ understand
- Ask yourself, are you doing what you want? Choices are crucial to reducing stress
- Ask yourself are you doing what you need? Make sure basic needs are covered even if you feel there is not time for them!
- Make sure you are eating lunch, partly for the rest (as above) and for the nutrition
- Put in place the things that sustain you, however small
Don't suffer with burnout.
Reboot Yourself
Anna has put together an online course to help you identify, avoid and treat the symptons of burnout
Note:
People are often worried that accepting help when they don’t feel okay is a weakness. People also worry that they will become self-indulgent, or even selfish. Some may even worry they are going to become conceited and arrogant if they look after themselves. This is so far from the truth. The exact opposite is true, though this might be hard to convince you of that right now.
It is only the very strong dedicated and committed who burnout and that is such a terrible waste of great minds, great people.
Adjusting to where you are burnout spectrum is an imperative if you want to have a working life that is sustainable, for yourself and for your families and for your workplace.
