Antidote to Burnout

How does one pursue hard things? How do people achieve seemingly impossible tasks? How do people become successful?

Well, there certainly isn't one path to all of this, but surely the people who get to the top and stay there must be very good at controlling their so-called "burnout.”

I don't necessarily think the lifestyle of those who are truly on top looks particularly desirable. Whenever I watch documentaries on the greats of the human race, I certainly admire them, but they all seem to have something in them that feels like they are never enough.

In the past, I have experienced burnout numerous times, and I don't feel like I am free of the spell yet. However, here are some things that I have noticed, read about and learned from the people that have “made it” and share their stories online.

1. Gamify

This term has gained significant popularity over the last couple of years. It is essentially to think of anything you are pursuing as a game. Consider how many points you can get, from where you can get them, and so on. You are literally playing a video game in real life. This is an incredibly strong strategy because, if implemented properly, it can turn any task into a fun obstacle that has a tangible outcome. Also, if done in a group setting, it can create some great healthy competitiveness. And what is the best way of mitigating burnout? It is to make your everyday tasks as enjoyable as possible, whether that means making them somehow fun or knowing that completing them will directly lead you to progress in your bigger goal.

2. Helping those you love.

Some people simply want to provide a better life for those around them, and that alone is a force that is as powerful as it gets. Here are two scenarios (taken from Alex Hormozi).

Obviously, anyone will be way more motivated to work on solving number 2, unless you are a psychopath or your parents are psychopaths. 🙂

Providing for others can bring an immense sense of achievement and is also a great way to stay accountable on the journey upward. As social creatures, humans are wired to connect with others, even in the age of individualism. Helping those you love will always be a force that can be used to fight burnout.

3. Obsessive Behavior

Some people grow up with life throwing the right obstacles and activities at them at the right time. Life allows the individual to become obsessed with a certain realm, and they don't even think about doing anything else but obsessively following said realm. For some, this is the artistic chase of photography or painting, while for others, it might be running and building businesses, or becoming the best basketball player to ever step on the court. This creates the "greats" of our cultures, the super high achievers. However, as admirable as these people may seem at first, once you dig in, you often find that many of them have a broken life outside of their area of expertise.

Myth - Working too much leads to burnout.

Reality - Working too much on things we don’t enjoy and not controlling our emotions leads to burnout.

I watched Fitzcarraldo last week, which is a Werner Herzog classic. Here is a little summary:

There is a documentary about the making of the film, which in my opinion, is more interesting than the film itself. Because they actually did it, they were in the middle of bum fuck nowhere with all these amazon natives and a German engineer who had made a pulley system to pull this boat over a hill onto another river.

With almost everything going wrong, and this taking 4 years to make, he had made a promise to himself. In the documentary he says “What kind of man will I be if I don’t finish this, a man that has given up on his dream. I don’t want to be that.”

In his case, I don't think he was particularly enjoying the process of doing it, but his sheer perseverance and character are such that his soul did not allow him to give up. He'd rather die than not finish this mess of a project.

So it is hard to say: is the antidote to burnout the enjoyment of the doing, being born with some sort of particular character trait, to fight some deep rooted insecurity, or something you learn how to do over time? Personally, I believe that all factors play a role, both independently and in combination with each other.

All humans strive for something, it all seems to depend how much we want that said thing. We can pretend to think we want something but overtime we realise if we want it hard enough to persue it regardless of all the setbacks, negatives and hardships.

I try to force my belief system to accept that success is not solely determined by innate traits and obsessive behavior. Instead, I believe that these traits can be learned and developed over time. This is a selfish, optimistic belief, because I don't believe that I was born with it, so if I don't believe that I can learn, then what would be the point in even trying? You know what im saying.

Lots of love,

Koko

If you are new here click this button to subscribe.