Starting up a business infuses a lot of energy and enthusiasm in entrepreneurs.
But the huge responsibility of running an enterprise, along with the daily grind can also sap your energy and enthusiasm. If you are not careful, you may experience burnout. This is true not just for entrepreneurs, but for their employees as well.
When the stress becomes unbearable, entrepreneurs and employees may sometimes feel like they are ready to explode.
PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL TOLL
Sometimes, 8-hours may not be enough to finish all tasks at hand. It’s understandable when we and our employees work overtime sometimes to meet a deadline. But if overtime happens often, work can get very tiresome and enthusiasm gradually wears out.
A burnout is sometimes referred to as an emotional state wherein an individual no longer functions well or performs his work satisfactorily.
This is mostly experienced by high-achievers who tend to work long hours and take on an exceedingly heavy workload. They put extreme pressure on themselves to excel.
Burnout leads to emotional and physical fatigue. An individual may start to detach himself from others and feel ineffective in everything he does. This does not happen overnight.
Below are some of the early signs of an impending burnout.
- Insomnia
- Chest pains, palpitations, dizziness, headaches and stomach pains
- Chronic fatigue
- Impaired focus and concentration
- Loss of appetite
- Anxiety
- Outbursts of anger
- Inability to find pleasure in normally enjoyable activities
- Social isolation and detachment
- Inability to trust others
- Poor performance and lack of productivity
- Cynicism
If you are experiencing any of these signs, try to assess yourself and find ways to reduce the amount of stress you are enduring.
REIGNITING THE FLAME
Workaholics need to understand that they also need time to relax and enjoy. We need to feed our mind and soul with things that help us become productive. Drowning ourselves in work may mean more money, but this can also take a toll on our health– physically and emotionally.
Here are a few tips on how to avoid burnout.
- Write down everything that makes you feel stressed.
- Find possible solutions on how you can reduce stress in each situation.
- Learn to refuse any additional commitments when you are already stressed. You can only do so much.
- If there are people available to help you, delegate tasks.
- Give yourself time to recover after a huge project. You may be enthusiastic to start on another project, but learn to “stop and smell the roses”.
- Allowing yourself a few minutes to check on social media accounts or playing online games to relieve stress.
- Meet new people outside from your usual crowd. This can give you a new perspective and inspire you to have fresh ideas.
- As much as possible, don’t take your work home. It makes no sense to come home early only to keep working until midnight. Spend quality time with the family.
- Learn to balance productivity with the need to build relationships which make you feel happy and fulfilled.
To attain success, one must possess different characteristics such as patience, perseverance, and persistence. However, we can only be effective if we are filled with inspiration and see the positive things in life.
One also needs to have a “time out” from the busy world and give some quality time to ourselves.
Get his latest book “35 Tips On Business” available on E-book and paperback at www.amazon.com
(Armando Bartolome is known as the Philippines’ Franchise Guru, a business mentor to numerous micro entrepreneurs who are now themselves big names in the industry. This article is reposted with the author’s permission and was previously published on The Business Mentor column posted by ABSCBN News. For questions and more information, you may contact Armando “Butz” Bartolome by email: philfranchiseguru@gmail.com or on Twitter @philfranguru. His website is www.gmb.com.ph)
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