500 Words a Week - Burnout

A shorter blog this week.

The following blog stems from a quote from Marissa Mayer in “How Google Works” by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg.  Marissa was one of Google’s early employees and was CEO at Yahoo.

“Burnout isn’t caused by working too hard, but by resentment at having to give up what really matters to you” – Marissa Mayer

Within S&C or coaching due to odd working hours we may end up missing many things we deem important or want to do. Especially when young or new in our career we will happily miss/ give up that what matters most to us for the sake of the role. We mistakenly correlate hours in the building with productivity. Rather than continually just accepting that we will always miss things we deem important, we need to be more proactive about slotting in time to do that which matters most to us outside of work. Upon first moving to London, I didn’t know many people and I found it hard to meet new people, socialize outside of work or do some of things I enjoy. However, as time went on, I began to realize it was more to do with me not being proactive enough to find times for things I like to do or create time to spend with those close to me.

Mayer in a different article encourages people to find their “rhythm”, that being an activity that matters to you so much that when you can’t do it resentment begins to set in. This is an activity that restores your energy when you are low.

Mayer argues that you can’t have everything you want, but you can have what really matters to you. Do you know what matters to you? Do you know what replenishes your energy? If not, find what matters to you and make time for that.