How to avoid burnout from trying to get better?
Do you ever feel like you need to push yourself to do better? More effective, fitter, and full of energy... Don't worry, you're not the only one who feels this way.
Expectations and goals set by other people make us think there is always something better, and we work hard to reach it. There is a lot of pressure to reach these goals that don't have a clear end date.
This work, which is seen as growth, leads to burnout. We looked into what "Betterment Burnout" is and how to avoid it. Betterment Burnout is the result of always trying to be better.
Betterment According to the dictionary, burnout is the tiredness you feel from always trying to be better. In 2024, a study found that 55% of its users said they felt like they were always under pressure to be better. So why do we always try to be better?
People are naturally social, so connections with other people are at the heart of human life. Comparing things with other people can make you want more, and this can happen in social situations. A lot of the time, we compare ourselves to other people.
People often think that having things and being popular are signs of success and happiness, so you may always be trying to keep up with or beat the people around you. People feel more driven to do more when they feel like they have to meet social standards and not fall behind.
It might not sound so bad to try to be a better person after all. Of course, working to improve yourself for the right reasons has a lot of rewards. You're constantly at odds with yourself for the better because you have too high of hopes for yourself.
This leads to stress. Plus, there isn't a clear meaning of "better," so this journey turns into a never-ending process of improvement. This growth, which doesn't seem to have a clear end, is not the same.
When you set and try to reach your goals based on social media trends, unrealistic assumptions, and the connections of your class, race, gender, and sexuality, you end up feeling burned out.
What kind of progress can someone make if the goals they set are constantly shifting based on these false assumptions? That is, trying to reach a goal that changes all the time won't help you get better.
In fact, the pressure to achieve the impossible makes you feel worried all the time, which eventually leads to burnout.