How to Avoid Burnout (maybe?):

and be ok.

The Last Question

Yours was the last question, Johnathan. You said, “how do you not burnout? How are you still doing this work? So many of the people I’ve known doing this work have burned out…”

and I didn’t quite know what to say.

The following flashed through my mind:

• I don’t suffer
• I am not a victim
• I have enormous privilege
• I’m flexible
• I love messy stuff

And instead I answered with an anecdote that I thought might cover some of this. I explained that first thing that morning I stopped by my duck coop to pick up some eggs, and then I came to the Design Factory to give a talk. That is what I call the “life-work” balance — (because I resent it being called the ‘work-life’ balance. Life should come first. Life should be more). Stepping into the duck coop isn’t transformative in and of itself, but I find it grounding. I am a part of something else — something that is wickedly busy foraging all day long, that doesn’t write any emails or reports, doesn’t read the bitter pill that is our global news, something that just exists and spends its day worrying about predators, about food, and about water.

I can’t ever get too much of life, but I can feel work pulling me in too far. It is those moments that I have trained myself to pause, I have to regain my keel, my balance. For many years, I didn’t feel the pull and wouldn’t heed it until it was too late, making the swings in and out more disruptive and painful.

Now, through experience, I get it right a bit more often. I know what activities will require a re-calibration afterwards. And I try to be gentle with my judgments when the re-calibration makes me feel unproductive, worthless, etc.

I reject burnout!