Have you NOT been feeling your usual high-energy ambitious self? Are you starting to wonder, if you are burning out?
I am Dr. Donna Marino, psychologist and executive coach who specializes in helping high-achieving leaders overcome burnout and create sustainable peak performance. Here is a list of symptoms that may indicate that you are on the path to burn out. Check off the ones that apply to you.
- You are starting to (or already do) dread going to work, when you used to love what you do.
- You’ve lost your enthusiasm for the parts of work that used to really light you up.
- You dread opening email.
- You have started getting the “Sunday night blues” or anxiety where as you get closer to Monday morning, you stop enjoying the weekend and start fearing what lies ahead. You might feel angst, depression or melancholy.
- You are having difficulty focusing, concentrating or staying on task when you are working.
- You’re constantly afraid that you are going to be “found out” and could lose your job.
- You’re more irritable than you used to be.
- You feel fatigued and run down, loss of energy.
- You are not exercising or eating right like you used to.
- You don’t feel refreshed after the weekend or vacations.
- You have nothing left to give when you get home from work at the end of the day.
- You may be questioning your choice in career.
- You may have physical symptoms like headaches and stomachaches or GI issues.
- You may even be experiencing panic attacks.
- You feel a lack of fulfillment in your work.
Burn out can be hard to recognize because it tends to happen gradually over time. It’s brought on by an accumulation (sometimes of years) of over-achieving, over-committing, being stretched too thin, working long hours, striving/hustling, and not taking care of yourself. It can happen so slowly and gradually that you don’t even notice until you don’t recognize yourself anymore. Gone is the pep in your step, your enthusiasm, your, “I want to conquer it all” attitude; replaced by fatigue, uncertainty, and dread.
While at the same time, you are a high-achiever, a leader, and know you have so much more to contribute. There is so much more you want to do; if only you had the energy, the focus and the mojo to get it done.
The truth is, you don’t have to struggle with burn out, you don’t have to give up the career you worked so hard for and you don’t have to stop being successful. What you have to do is heal your nervous system from years of over-achieving, rewire your brain for how you think and feel about work, and change your habits to those of the most successful people in the world; so that you can keep innovating, keep being successful and keep impacting and influencing the world around you without sacrificing your health, your happiness or your family life. The world needs what you have to offer, you just have to get back on your feet for the long haul, not for another round of crash and burn.
If this sounds like you, if you checked off a majority of these symptoms, and you are ready for a paradigm shift, contact me at [email protected] for an application for my Sustainable Peak Performance program.
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