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Arising from the Ashes of Professional Burnout

Guest post by: Brad Swift

Article Overview: Even though I had wanted to be a veterinarian since I was 7-years old, after 12 years in practice, I found myself at the point I didn't know if I could stand another day in the office. I was frustrated, tired and worn out by the constant stresses of practice that included staffing headaches, client turnover, and financial strains. On top of it all, the stresses at work were having a profoundly negative influence on my personal life. I felt disjointed and disconnected from those I most cared about. My life was out of balance and nearly out of control. The pain of burnout became so bad that I started abusing alcohol and drugs in an effort to numb myself so I could make it through another day. I even contemplated suicide...

Arising from the Ashes of Professional Burnout

Even though I had wanted to be a veterinarian since I was 7-years old, after 12 years in practice, I found myself at the point I didn't know if I could stand another day in the office. I was frustrated, tired and worn out by the constant stresses of practice that included staffing headaches, client turnover, and financial strains. On top of it all, the stresses at work were having a profoundly negative influence on my personal life. I felt disjointed and disconnected from those I most cared about. My life was out of balance and nearly out of control. The pain of burnout became so bad that I started abusing alcohol and drugs in an effort to numb myself so I could make it through another day. I even contemplated suicide before I finally woke up and realized the practice of veterinary medicine didn't have to be so hard and unrewarding. In fact, life itself didn't need to be such a struggle. It was at that point I finally sought help, and with that help I turned, not only my practice around, but also my life.

The 4 Facets of Burn Out Professional burn out is a growing concern in our profession as in many others. There’s no question that the veterinary profession offers many challenges that can leave the most dedicated practitioner as burned out as an overcooked French fry. National statistics suggest that healthcare professionals are not the only ones being adversely affected by the stresses of their jobs.

According to data collected by the Gallup Organization in 2001, less than 30 percent of American workers are fully engaged at work, and 55 percent are ‘not engaged,’ while another 19 percent are ‘actively disengaged,’ meaning not just that they are unhappy at work, but they are regularly sharing those feelings with their colleagues. These statistics suggest to me that at least 1 out of every 5 people at work is in some advanced stage of burnout.

Burn out is a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual shut down and exhaustion usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. It’s like trying to run a car with a dead battery, with no water or oil in the engine, and no fuel in the tank. Let’s look closer at the four inter-related facets of burnout.

In a state of burnout you are often physically exhausted and frequently overwhelmed by work and life in general, which complicates matters because it increases the chances of stress-related illnesses. Mentally, you may experience confusion, a lack of clarity and often an overall negative attitude. Emotionally, you may become depressed, frustrated, resigned, fearful and angry, while spiritually you feel disconnected, empty, wondering if this is all there is to life.

You can think of each of these four facets of burnout as a different colored string, with the four strands wound together in a tangled gnarl. The question is where do you start to un-raffle the knot of professional burnout. Here are a few strategies that others have found to be effective.

S. T. O. P.

S. T. O. P. is an acronym for a powerful strategy that can be used in stressful situations, and that can help you prevent or recover from burnout. The steps are:

S – Step Back

T – Think

O – Organize your thoughts

P – Proceed

Taking such STOPS on a regular basis gives you the opportunity to recover from the stresses that build up at work. Unfortunately, as Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz point out in their book, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, (Free Press, 2003), most of us approach our work and lives like a marathon runner rather than a sprinter, so it’s small wonder that so many of us burnout before we reach the finish line.

Short STOPs of 10-15 minutes sprinkled every couple of hours throughout the day are a good place to start. Then, add in longer periodic STOPs such as regular organizational meetings to look at the larger picture of where everyone is. Consider also the occasional company picnic or other ways for the entire team to recharge and be rejuvenated. One of the most important types of STOPs often missing in a busy professional’s schedule is vacation time that is truly time away from work for rest and rejuvenation.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Perhaps the title of the popular book by Richard Carlson, Ph.D. says it best: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff And It’s All Small Stuff. Keeping our lives and work in perspective is a wonderful strategy for our mental and emotional wellness. Once again, this strategy works synergistically with scheduling in STOP time. These are times that you can step away from all the daily activities and get a better perspective on what’s happening. You may also find that a lot of stress is because you’re doing someone else’s job.

Since many practitioners aren’t naturally skilled at delegating they end up trying to do everything, including a lot of the details like paper work, scheduling, payroll, etc. Much of this work is detail-oriented and while it’s work that needs to be done, it can often be done better by someone else that both enjoys this type of work and is therefore better equipped to do it. To put this strategy in action, make a list of the detail work that you find unpleasant, and then either delegate it to one of your employees or hire a new person to take it over. Business coach, Chris Barrow of the Dental Business School, points out that many professionals would be far more productive and less stressed if they hired a full or part time personal assistant to handle much of these details.

Ignite Your Passion Through Purpose Perhaps one of the most leveraged strategies for preventing or overcoming burnout is to re-ignite your passion for work and life through purpose. According to Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz of LGE Performance Systems, “The quantity of energy we have to spend at any given moment is a reflection of our physical capacity.” However, they go on to point out that, “Our motivation to spend what we have is largely a spiritual issue. Fundamentally, spiritual energy is a unique force for action in all dimensions of our lives. It is the most powerful source of our motivation, perseverance and direction. Anything that ignites the human spirit serves to drive full engagement and to maximize performance in whatever mission we are on.”

They define this spiritual energy source as being “the connection to a deeply held set of values and to a purpose beyond our self-interest.” In other words a sense of purpose is key to avoiding and/or recovering from burnout.

As you can imagine, these strategies are most powerful in combination. Scheduling periodic STOPs is key to carving out the time to get back in touch with your purpose in life and at work. Delegating the ‘smaller stuff’ at work will make such STOPs easier to schedule. The good news is that once you start this process, it becomes easier to slowly increase the amount of time you take to restore yourself, but you’ve got to start, even if it’s only with 15 to 20 minutes a the beginning of your day, where you sit quietly and reflect upon your life.

Seek Assistance and Support

Depending on the degree of burnout you’re experiencing, it may be necessary to seek assistance and support from others to turn your life and work around. Don’t try to be ‘Macho Man’ or “Super Woman.” Reach out for support either in the form of a trusted friend, personal coach, therapist, or some combination. Burn out is not something to take lightly. It can be a killer. Treat it with the respect it deserves by seeking assistance when needed. Incorporating these strategies into your life will allow you to be like the mythological phoenix that arises from its own ashes to be more powerful and passionate about life.

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Article Tags: alcohol and drugs, financial strains, headaches, life on purpose, life purpose, negative influence, personal life, professional burnout, simplicity, stresses, suicide, turnover, veterinarian

About the Author: Brad Swift RSS for Brad's articles - Visit Brad's website Dr. Brad Swift is one of the foremost experts on the subject of personal life purpose, having founded the Life On Purpose Institute (www.lifeonpurpose.com) in 1996. An avid student of the human development movement and New Thought, he specializes in life purpose coaching with individuals and groups. Through the Coaches Mentoring Program, he trains aspiring coaches to carry on the vision and mission of Life on Purpose Institute -- Creating a World On Purpose by deeply and profoundly touching and contributing to people's lives by assisting them to clarify their life purpose and live true to it. He is the author of: - Coaching to Win: Building Your Business by Building Your Team - Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life -- an award winning finalist in the Self-Help: Motivational division of the Best Books 2007 Awards sponsored by USA News - From Spark to Flame: Fanning Your Passion & Ideas into Moneymaking Magazine Articles that Make a Difference. Start on the Purposeful Path with the fun and engaging Self Test at: http://www.lifeonpurpose.com/selftest Click here to visit Brad's website More from Brad Swift The Power of C What are the Upsides of This Major Downturn Living In The Gap Of Possibility And Purpose Part 1 The Power of an Impossible Mission 10 Steps to Inner Happiness

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