Reader,
I've written a few times this year about a villain I call "The Smothering Grind of Life." As I said last week:
The Grind shows up in many different shapes and sizes.
It's the pressure businessmen feel to work late, avoid using personal days, and constantly monitor their emails while on vacation.
It's the guilt that moms feel when their kids don't make the travel ball team or deliver a 4.3 GPA.
It's the fear that ministry leaders feel when their congregations stop growing or their giving receipts plateau.
It infects every corner of our lives, and its most common symptom is busyness.
But here's the chilling truth – The Grind doesn't just want to make us busy. Its goal is to squeeze the life out of us. And when it's successful, it drives us to do one of three things: burnout, flame out, or tap out.
These aren't fun things to talk about. However, it's important that we reckon with their reality. We need to know what these "outs" are, which is why I'm writing this short series on them.
Today, let's talk about burnout.
In recent years this term has been so widely used that it may be at risk of losing is significance. But that doesn't make this state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion any less real.
When you're in the throes of burnout, you feel constantly overwhelmed, drained, and incapable of meeting the constant slews of demands thrown your way. The machination of The Grind reduces your productivity, drains your motivation, and establishes a mental state of detached cynicism.
Burnout is often talked about as a workplace phenomenon. That said, it can also stem from personal responsibilities, family commitments, or demands from your local community.
How do you know if you’re on the road to burnout? Here are some of the emotional signs the Grind is luring you in:
- Fatigue: feeling drained, even after weekends, vacations, and activities intended to promote rest
- Irritability: frustration over small things, prompting you to overreact to insignificant situations
- Cynicism: feeling detached, hopeless, or consistently negative about people, the world, or life in general
- Lack of Motivation: inability to muster the energy required to do anything that isn’t obligatory, even things you normally enjoy
- Overwhelm: a sense of despair that there’s never enough time or energy to accomplish what’s expected or required of you
When these Grind burnout symptoms show up, they naturally begin to manifest physically. Headaches, tight muscles, sleep problems, increased heart rate, and feelings of panic are all common when the Grind effectively reels us into burnout.
To cope with this pressure, we begin to betray our truest self with behaviors that are unlike us:
- We withdraw to avoid social interactions or responsibilities
- We procrastinate on important tasks due to lack of energy
- We wrestle with indecision
- We find ourselves unable to give our presence to the people and things who are right in front of us
- We self-medicate, relying on caffeine, alcohol, pornography, social media, binge watching, daydreaming, and more
Burnout covers up your truest self with layer upon layer of emotional, mental, and physical veils. They're invisible, burying the true you while your body remains right there in the room. Others likely have no idea how you're feeling.
Worst of all, you do everything you can to keep up appearances. That's what The Grind has tricked you into doing. He's been whispering in your ear, telling you lies. "No one else has this problem." "If anyone finds out that you're struggling, your world will come crashing down." "Just keep grinding. You'll eventually get there!"
If you're hearing those voices now, please know this: those whispers are not telling you the truth.
Here's what IS true:
You are loved.
I'm for you.
You've got this. And if you need help believing this, hit reply and let me know.
Jake