40% of professional women are burnt out and hanging on by a thread.

70% believe the concept of success at both home and work is a myth.

– Megan Dalla Camina

Women who have burnout have trouble maintaining relationships, have more health issues and are less successful long term. The good news? These three hidden causes can be cured.

Women who are successful at avoiding burnout protect their health, make better decisions about work, and spend more time with the people and things the enjoy.

The first question to ask yourself Is… is it really burnout?

Since you are here, you may be giving your career more than it’s giving you and you are feeling burnt out.

The truth is there’s a reason we feel stuck and more than a little bit tired and stressed.

You are feeling burnt out if:

• You don’t have time to do the things you want to do
• You’re stretched too thin to enjoy relationships and things you like to do
• And you feel tethered to the paycheck and helpless to change.

BUT what you might NOT be aware of are the 3 hidden reasons why you are heading for burnout and what you can do to change that starting now to protect your health, make better decisions about your work and spend more time with the people and things you enjoy.

1. The first reason why you are heading to burnout is your ego is invested in the outcomes. You are not secure in your value as an individual and you feel like you have to prove something… you are constantly trying harder to be “good enough.” But never seem satisfied no matter how much you achieve.
2. Second, you equate your worth with your performance. If you are praised at work, you feel great about yourself. If you are criticized or something doesn’t go right, your self esteem goes right into the tanker.
3. You feel like an imposter. No matter how successful you are, you feel unworthy of praise and you achieve less than you are capable of because of poor self esteem.

In all cases you would change if you knew just what to do. You feel stuck in an unhappy situation.

So how DO you avoid burnout?

Here’s are three steps to take now to address these three hidden causes… 

1. Disconnect your personal value from what you do. When your personal value is tied to performance, you are not seeing yourself clearly and making poor choices. It’s like living a shadow life – the real you has somehow gotten lost inside this automatic way of being.
2. Evaluate whether this job gives you joy or just a headache and a paycheck. You have become comfortable with the status quo. Even though your current situation doesn’t feel good – it’s somehow comforting psychologically because it’s what you KNOW.
3. Get clear on what it would take for you to feel successful – really successful – and are those things within your control? Extreme stress shuts down creativity and you can no longer see solutions to your situation. This perpetuates and increases the burnout cycle. To change the status quo – get help and step outside and look in. What can you do to get more of what you want?

There are times when situations are untenable and it’s time to disconnect entirely. But many times it’s just your mindset that needs to shift.