Recovering from Burnout: My how-to guide

How I realised I am experiencing burnout

Let me take you back to an experience I’ll never forget. I was preparing for a meeting with a big-tech organisation that I’ve been doing consulting for, for over a year now. I knew the team, I know what I was speaking about. The problem was I was crying uncontrollably, and the call was 10 minutes away!

I was having a massive panic attack, unable to control my breathing, and unable to move. I knew I had to pull it together. I’ve spoken in front of thousands of people, this was just a meeting, for Christ’s sake! But I couldn’t. There were a million things in my head — all of them telling me in a nutshell one thing:

“you’re miserable, tired, and not where you should be.”

The call was fast approaching. The only thing I could think of to stop myself was to do what I had been doing with all the difficult thoughts that have been conquering me when I’m too “busy” to hear them — postpone the worry. So, I took out my phone and took a selfie, and made a promise to myself to not forget why and how I got there. A couple of weeks down the line I handed in my notice.

In today’s fast-paced work environment, burnout has become all-too-common for professionals across various industries. It took me a year to get my creativity…