Learning not to burn out

I was spiraling, in german they call this “Teufelskreis”, when you just can´t stop thinking how bad things are, and with every thought you just reaffirm all that despair, it just becomes worse and worse. I grew as a person during that process.

As you can imagine, things were bad. The organisation was doing everything wrong and there was nothing I could do about it, I tried of course, I explained, I warned, I complained, I screamed. Nobody listened, and I felt powerless, I could see the end of the story and it wasn´t good, and the worst part was that there was nothing I could do about it.

Sounds like a horrible drama movie, it wasn´t, it was just work. But for someone whose work has been a big part of his life, who used work as a way to avoid other things in life, this was a big deal, this mattered and things were going to hell.

Of course things were not that bad, and not everything was wrong, in fact, things are rarely just right or wrong, at the end of the day it is just opinions and results and owning them.

My way out of this “Teufelskreis” was learning something simple: work is work. Nobody dies, at least in my line of work. Nothing is purely right or wrong, and everyone is just trying to do their best.

So if you don’t agree with something, don’t despair. Be true to your thoughts, be authentic, be loud and courageous. And if things still don’t go the way you want them to, let them go.

And if by letting them go, workplace becomes a place where you no longer feel like you can be you and do what you think needs to be done, at least to some meaningful extent, then move on to the next thing. That’s what I did. This has been a valuable lesson in life, not just for work, but for everything, and I’m grateful.