Portrait of a burnout
Not a month goes by when we don’t hear about burnout in the news . Each time with harder facts and figures, more confrontational analyses Still, the column that Laurent Winnock, director of communication and corporate responsibility at insurer AXA Belgium, wrote about his experience with burnout is one of the most striking I’ve ever read . Because his column still echoes in my mind, I’d like to share it with you .
lA urent’s s tory
Exactly one year ago, I dropped out with a case of burnout. I still see myself sitting in the car, rocked by crying fits because I was “burned out,” until the light literally went out at the doctor’s office. However bad that period may have been, I still think of it as my greatest opportunity. Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to make a new start at the age of 35 after suffering from depression.
How did it get to this point? Let me call it a combination of structural professional excess and an emotional violation of important professional values, sanctioned by me. In addition, I neglected my body and mind for years in a continuous cycle of neglect and adrenaline-fueled excess.
In retrospect, it’s easy to ask why I didn’t realize that I couldn’t sleep, suffered from back pain and never managed to shake that constant cough. That I abandoned friends and hobbies. That my long days at work, where I was hyper-irritable
So what determines who will suffer from burnout and who won’t? The risk depends in part on your profession . According to recent polls, nurses, dentists, teachers, bankers and small businesses run the greatest risk . But if we look at the individual personality traits of people with burnout, it is also possible to define clear risk groups . Introverts are more at risk than extroverts because they’re less quick to turn to resources for help, such as asking for feedback from colleagues People who lack self-confidence or are emotionally unstable are more at risk . A tendency towards depression doesn’t have a one-to-one relationship with an increased risk of burnout (depression is an emotional disorder, while burnout is an energy disorder), but it can be a factor. Perfectionists and idealists also have to watch out . Perfectionists are never satisfied with their performance, and do not feel fulfilled . The work is never finished, so they can never enjoy the results . Idealists, on the other hand, strive for such elevated goals that they often cross the boundary into exhaustion without noticing .
t he I m P ortA nce of mentA l flex I b I l I ty
At first glance, the description of risk factors for burnout might seem demotivating . Most people probably recognize themselves in one or several categories . Moreover, many assume that traits like perfectionism or self-confidence are largely fixed . If you’re a perfectionist and/or a nurse, are you doomed to suffer burnout sooner or later? Not at all . There are many people who, on paper at least, are greatly at risk but will never suffer burnout . One perfectionistic nurse is clearly not the same as another. But what makes
one succumb to pressure while the other only comes out stronger?
The answer is resilience . Mental flexibility, the ability to deal with adversity, determines how susceptible we are to stress and thus how great our risk of burnout really is (in spite of contextual and personality elements) . The good news is that resilience, like muscle strength, can be developed and trained . That’s what I want to focus on in this book But if we want to avoid burnout, we must focus on more than just our brain . We must also maintain our physical resilience . We know from research that those who eat a healthy diet and get enough exercise are better able to cope with stress . Energy-rich, whole foods can help to keep your mind sharp, and sports help you work off the tension accumulated through stress . Moreover, you can banish stressful thoughts while exercising, so that your mind becomes clear again . Sufficient sleep is also crucial in maintaining an adequate level of mental resilience . Thus, a good burnout strategy takes into account both the physical and the mental components of resilience .
New Year’s resolutions are an excellent example of the fact that will alone is not enough to reach a goal . However strong your willpower might be, and however great your self-confidence, to turn your dreams into reality you need something besides willpower. That something is self-control, the ability to control and modify your emotions, responses and behavior patterns when you think it’s necessary Naturally we as human beings like to believe that we have self-control That we decide who we are, what we do and how we order our lives . Free will is the most beautiful illusion that we as humans cherish . Until we fall hopelessly in love . Or fall prey to an addiction . Or just can’t seem to lose those last few pounds . When we fight back our tears . In such moments we feel helpless, because we are confronted with the fact that we don’t have as much self-control as we’d like . Self-control ensures that people do not always give in to their impulses, that they can decide to do the right thing or the smart thing instead of just letting themselves be carried along by emotions and instinct . The ability to control impulses is crucial, both in daily life and at decisive moments (such as a crisis), to our quality of life It prevents us from spending money on frivolities and enables us to think long term . It ensures that we don’t gobble down sweets every day or waste precious hours surfing on the Internet . Self-control stands between us and addiction, obesity and destructive behavior. But if self-control is so good for us, why don’t we have more of it? And if we agree that we don’t have enough self-control, is there some way we can develop it?
t he m A rshm A llows of success
The man who first put self-control on the psychological map was the American researcher Walter Mischel . In 1970, he conducted the legendary marshmallow experiments, in which he tested toddlers for self-control by leaving them alone for 15 minutes with a marshmallow . The children were promised that if they hadn’t eaten the marshmallow in that time, they would get a second one . Only a small minority made no attempt to wait . One-third of the approximately 600 children tested succeeded in leaving the marshmallow alone for the entire 15 minutes .
Age appears to be the most determining factor in self-control . This is because self-control is found in the anterior prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that develops last . Studies show that the prefrontal cortex is only fully developed between the ages of 20 and 25 . Thus, children have less self-control than adults . A second important determinant was the situation at home . Children from broken families were found to give in to temptation much faster than children who grew up with both parents .
The most groundbreaking results were only discovered 20 years later during a follow-up study When the participants in the marshmallow experiment were re-examined, it seemed that the children who earned a second marshmallow had done much better in life than those who had eaten the first . Those who had demonstrated more self-control in the past had become adults who had better physical and mental health, struggled with fewer addictions, had less contact with crime, enjoyed greater academic success and on average earned more money .
The problem with “mind wandering” is not that it happens but when it happens and how it affects us . In a meeting, right before a deadline, even behind the wheel of a car. It happens to our minds at inopportune times and embarrasses or even endangers us .
Another problem with these outings of the mind is that they disproportionately cause us to drift into negative feelings . This was one of the more disturbing findings of Killingsworth and Gilbert’s research Previous studies had already shown that unhappy people’s thoughts strayed more frequently, but this was the first investigation that showed that the opposite was also true: participants in the study reported significantly more negative feelings when their minds were wandering than when they were concentrating .
All the old philosophical traditions advise people to fight unwanted thoughts and live as much as possible in the here and now, to be conscious of the moment . And now, thanks to science, we finally know why: a wandering mind is an unhappy mind .
It is no secret that the worse we feel, the less we pay attention . But the reverse is also true . The more we lose control of our thoughts, the worse we feel Heartbreak is a good example . If our love life isn’t going well, nothing seems to be going well . A broken relationship is very distracting and because we’re so inattentive, we don’t seem to be able to enjoy anything .
However, researchers distinguish between wandering stimulated by the environment and that provoked by emotional thoughts . The first form can be considered an activation of the archiving feature in our brain, as described by Killingsworth and Gilbert . By allowing your attention to
wander briefly, you give your brain time to process and store information . You understand that this form of mind wandering is very useful . The second form is associated with sliding off into negative feelings . As contradictory as it may seem at first glance, this type of mind wandering also has its uses . I will return to this topic on (p . 97), in the section on conscious mind wandering
t hree techn I ques for A more consc I ous consc I ousness
The modern individual’s relationship with his or her wandering mind is ambivalent to say the least . On the one hand, we’re irritated that we cannot keep our attention focused; on the other, we instinctively feel that our mind is overexerted and needs to “float around out there for a while .” The solution to both problems is contained in a single answer: by training the consciousness, we can learn to concentrate better – but also to relax better.
t echn I que 1
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is currently very fashionable . Everywhere you look, you are advised to be more “mindful,” whether it’s about controlling your thoughts or tasting the food on your plate . Mindfulness is often seen as an attitude of “acceptance” in life, in which you try as much as possible to live in the moment .
once, or iFusion, with which you can control all your Apple devices at the same time .
Gadgets like these simplify multitasking on a practical level only . In our brain, they only create more barriers and less efficiency . What disturbs (and astonishes) neuroscientists most of all is that repeated multitasking doesn’t make us better at multitasking – it makes us worse A study by Stanford University showed that multitaskers performed complex tasks more poorly than singletaskers because they had more difficulty organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information . Moreover, the multitaskers were slower when switching between two tasks . For a long time, it was thought that this cognitive deterioration from multitasking was temporary . But research at the University of Sussex suggests otherwise: the brains of multitaskers exhibited less dense gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, an area that is responsible for empathy and cognitive and emotional control . It goes from bad to worse . Young people who have grown up with mobile phones and computers are worse at combining tasks than the generation that experienced the analog age A well-known saying in this regard is: “If Steve Jobs had had an iPad as a child, he would never have invented one .” Apparently Jobs was convinced of this himself, because he wouldn’t let his children use his devices and limited their Internet usage .
Hopefully, it has now become clear that you must use your mental space as well and as efficiently as possible . But how do you do that in concrete terms? Here, too, I would like to propose a number of practical techniques .
t echn I que 1
Stop multitasking
This is certainly not a plea in favor of banning all technology from your life and going back to the time when you had to accomplish everything via a single landline . What I’m arguing for is using technology more wisely . Don’t let technology eat away at your mind; rather, use your mind to make full use of technological capabilities .
The first and most important step is also the most radical: stop multitasking and begin singletasking . The most obvious way to do this is to try not to combine tasks anymore . In most offices and even domestic spaces, everything is oriented towards combining tasks . Think of all the laptop meetings at work or the open kitchens that allow parents to help the kids with their homework while preparing a meal . And how many desks are turned towards the television to make doing homework more pleasant?
If two reports have to be finished on the same day, most people will work a little on the first, then a little on the second, then a bit more on the first, and so on . In this way, you probably feel like you’re doing well, because both reports do indeed seem to be progressing In reality, however, you progress much more slowly than if you completed one report after the other. If you have two days in which to finish two reports, you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you set two deadlines and do each report on a different day instead of trying to do them both at once .
Most people can let go of this sort of multitasking fairly easily, especially if they understand what it’s costing them . What’s harder is resisting stimuli from our environment .
also become expert in dealing with challenges . That’s one of the reasons why travel is so enriching . After a distant journey, you may have already forgotten everything you saw after a few months, but the experience of having to cope with unknown situations and strange people lasts a lifetime . This principle is also familiar in the business world . Resilient companies are companies that allow their employees to step out of their comfort zone and seek out new experiences, even if they have nothing to do with their work The best-known example is Google, which has for years offered a “20 percent program,” in which employees can invest one fifth of their time in projects that are unrelated to their actual job . By making out-of-the-box thinking routine, you increase not only resilience, but also creativity and productivity . New challenges and the feeling of freedom are important conditions for employee engagement .
s te P 4
m entA l P re PA r At I on
While we went over the various scenarios, we not only talked about the content, but also devoted considerable discussion to what was going on in his head . With such a challenge, in which the prospect of a reward is doubtful, it is only normal that Casper had to find resistance within himself at a given moment . During difficult times, we used distraction to maintain his self-control . I also kept an eye on his reserves to make sure he didn’t use up his supply before the big day . It’s better to do a little each day than a lot in a short time . As we have seen, when preserving self-control,
it’s important not to hand out too many rewards along the way (such as compliments) . In this way, we kept our focus constantly trained on the final goal .
Casper also had trouble with straying thoughts on a regular basis . I therefore suggested that, in the month before his conversation, he pay more attention than ever to his physical condition: eating healthy food, exercising once a week or taking walks, and above all getting enough sleep . In the runup to an important event, most people do the opposite They start eating unhealthily, skimping on exercise, forgetting to take time out for themselves and sleeping less . From the point of view of your brain, this is probably the worst possible strategy . Anyone who wants to meet a challenge with the right mind not only needs to train, but also to respect the basic rules of mental hygiene .
In this case, it wasn’t necessary to work on increasing focus because Casper was already highly focused on his goal . Instead, we paid particular attention to developing an optimistic attitude, maintaining motivation through self-control, and training his consciousness . It goes without saying that all of these things would be useful above and beyond the upcoming meeting
Of all the steps you can take in a crisis, increasing mental resilience in the long term is certainly the most important . In this part of the preparation lies the key to post-traumatic growth, which determines whether what doesn’t kill us does indeed make us stronger. Of course most people take steps to acquire mental training only when a crisis arrives . But that’s not necessarily a disadvantage . An acute threat could result in people demonstrating even more perseverance in
timeboxing 141
time goals 140, 142
Tough, Paul 182
van Gogh, Vincent 40
Veenhoven, Ruut 53
Voltaire 117
Wanmaker, Sabine 113
Wegner, Daniel 80
Weick, Karl 192
willpower 59, 66, 81-84, 97, 141, 143, 161
willpower exhaustion see ego depletion
Winnock, Laurent 25, 28
Woodley, Michael 103
working at home 146-148, 154, 164, 182
working memory 108, 111-113, 187
work-life balance 146, 147
worrying 80, 81, 87, 97, 113, 116, 145
Zonderland, Epke 101-103, 107
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Translation Irene Schaudies
Cover design Studio Jan de Boer
Author photo Liesbet Peremans
© Uitgeverij Lannoo nv and Elke Geraerts, 2017
D/2017/45/675 – ISBN 978 94 014 4894 9 – NUR 770
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