How Burning Out From Work Helps You Set Life Goals

If you search 'burnout' on Google, you'll see how there is just an ocean of articles talking about how burnout is bad for you, how it's affecting your health, and how to deal with it.

That's all true and useful, but what people don't talk about nearly enough is how burnout can actually help you set important life and career goals for yourself.

Burnout isn't just "tired and stressed out." It's when you feel like wanting to quit, but can't because of certain strings attached, perhaps burden of responsibility for your family.

It's a moral dilemma a lot of people face; whether to stay in the job you hate for financial security of yourself and your family, or risk it and pursue your dream and somehow make it work.

Most people still seem to choose the first option and just live with it because they don't want to put their family is any kind of risk, even if it means they have to sacrifice what they wanted to become.

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Burnout As A Sign

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But what's important to understand is that burnout isn't something that is supposed to happen constantly. You can very well get tired of working on something even if you are passionate about it, but if it keeps happening over and over without any feeling of accomplishment, is it really worth it?

Burnout, if you look at it this way, is a sign that you aren't listening to yourself. Neither your mind, nor your body. I felt the same way in my first job, and that's why I quit.

Related: THEY HIRED ME! - Sharing My First Day Experience At My First Job

I was working till 9 pm and I used to get so incredibly exhausted that all I wanted to do after getting home was just lie on the bed and not get up. Still, I worked on my blog instead till 1 am in the morning without giving my body the rest it needed.

The consequence? Extreme anxiety and feelings of hopelessness. Even if I'm only 18, I felt as if I'll be stuck in this job forever. But after a month, I knew what I had to do, and so I did.

Related: What I Learned About Life And Marketing Yourself From My First Job

My decision to leave that job (and find a better one right after) was because of the burnout I felt, not because of the amount of money I made or the influence of the people that I worked with.

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Is Burnout Necessary?

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I understand that a decision like this is easier for me because I don't really have the responsibilities other older folks do. But what my experience with it taught me is that burnout is actually a necessity.

Why? Because it forces you to zoom out and take a look at the life you've created for yourself. It's the moment when you go "Oh god, what have I gotten myself into," and start to rethink your choices.

This is exactly the moment where you will either start to make your life better by making new decisions, or try and make peace with however things are going. I'm not really a fan of option two. I don't know how to pretend to be happy in a place that I'm not.

I understand that sometimes your options are just not clear and very limited, but in the end, it's in your hands what you want to do with your life. Your burnouts should be meaningful, not something you face every Monday.

Look, I know how it feels to want to give yourself a burnout. Surprisingly, it makes you feel like you have a purpose. But if we're gonna burnout over something, shouldn't it be for something that we love, rather than need?

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