The highest cause of depression, stress and burnout is no doubt having to engage in too much work. This is noticed when the working population is seen greatly worn out when they catch a taxi, bus or even the subway station. While depression could be attributed to too much pollution in the environment, eating food that is of low quality or working for long hours.
If you feel that you are exhausted even after a long nap, you lack the creativity that once sparked your career and also that you feel overwhelmed by roles and responsibilities you could handle easily earlier, then you are probably going through burnout. These could also be accompanied by a series of negative emotions such as being frustrated or even just irritated by little things often.
The above described is the basic type of burnout that could happen to anybody, especially in their adult life. Entrepreneurs have been found to be the most susceptible to burnout because they tend to be quite passionate about their trade. They are also quite isolated from most of their family. The nature of their business also makes them highly vulnerable as they are highly uncertain of what will happen tomorrow.
Combining both their passionate nature and their uncertainty makes them a part of the population that is highly vulnerable. Studies show that these are the main causes of entrepreneurial burnout.
Burnout Can Affect Anyone
Entrepreneurs have to be on the lookout often when running their business and this translates to having to stay at work for long hours even after everybody has left. They have to get to work earlier than everyone and would even not go for lunch or any break in between. This results in less time for interacting with their peers as well as for spending with their family members.
Yvonne Douglas from Maid Service Direct mentions, “I never thought running a business would be so demanding both physically and emotionally. Burnout had snuck up on me and thankfully I was able to take the measures needed to not only have a successful business but to regain my sanity.”
Entrepreneurs tend to develop a feeling of being too obsessed with their work that they actually forget the meaning of life altogether. They might not realize this as they will be neck-deep so much they will not be able to handle whatever comes their way.
Burnout and depression do not occur in the life of an entrepreneur quite automatically. This is an event that develops gradually. For instance, entrepreneurs being what they are, suffer from the ability throughout the growth to separate themselves from the business. However, every business has ups and downs, and the downs have the worst effect.
When the businesses undergo setbacks, the entrepreneurs will have that feeling as if they themselves have failed. This will then be followed by both depression and burnout.
What is Entrepreneurial Burnout?
Unlike what most people think, burnout does not simply arise from stress at work just like fatigue and exhaustion. It arises from a series of steps that extend up to affecting both the brain and the endocrine system. You would also realize when a person is experiencing burnout at its full-blown stage it will have affected their mental, physical and emotional state.
Stress on a normal degree is not that harmful as it can even push one towards working towards achieving greater milestones. This happens to the lucky ones who are able to recollect themselves and then strategize towards achieving success. They would then have recovered from the earlier setback.
However, a few will not witness this type of comeback. Such a group will experience consistent stress and fail to control it effectively. They might not get time to rest enough or even have enough healthy food to eat. This then leads them to develop chronic stress, which would then trigger a number of complications that are quite ugly.
At this stage, the person would experience issues such as certain disorders, ailments, tension along the body muscles and many others. When it comes to their body health such people would develop complications of the blood such as high blood sugar levels, cases of diabetes, poor immunity and even a weak heart.
A series of events take place and trigger issues with the endocrine system. This makes the endocrine system overtake the control of body functions that are considered to be of less priority such as sleeping, digesting food and even the reproductive system. At this stage, the burnout kicks in.
From the description of burnout above, you can realize that early intervention is the best way to deal with burnout. Whenever you notice any of the above signs, then it would be wise to start relaxing more and having enough to eat, exercise and that is healthy foodstuffs. One should not wait for the more advanced stages to occur before they seek special help as this would have a drastic effect on their lifetime development.
How To Deal With Entrepreneurial Burnout
For any entrepreneur who would not like to get to the stage of dealing with entrepreneurial stress, there are control measures that they can take. For one, they can consider putting the social life at first priority or rather just giving them enough time. This includes the social time they spend with family members, friends out of work and even when they partake in their hobbies over the weekend.
Another great idea that would help to avoid dealing with such type of stress is engaging in activities that will keep your body fit. This includes being on a healthy diet, going for a morning jog or even having adequate sleep. Lastly, you should also ensure that you are healthy mentally by avoiding being dragged by your shortcomings, challenges or even having a tedious schedule ahead affect you.
Take a time out and do something that you enjoy even if it’s only for a couple of hours. By giving yourself “me time” can make the world of difference. According to Deylia Rady, Managing Director of Jack Buys Austin Houses, “With the fast-paced nature of our business, I have to slow it down at times by going to an afternoon matinee and getting away for a couple of hours. Doing this helps me to take my mind off the normal day-to-day routine. It gives me peace of mind.”
All in all, it is a belief in our current society that for one to be considered successful they should be greatly determined in their trade. This is believed to be achieved by staying at work for long hours and foregoing time meant to be spent with family and friends. This is quite the opposite of the truth because taking time away from work; to even just be alone and think gives us a sense of clarity. This prepares entrepreneurs to be creative and strategy towards achieving more; a sort of “thinking out of the box” situation. So in this case society has it all wrong and yet many entrepreneurs are driven into entrepreneurial burnout.