Burning Out Happens On The Road To The Top
“Burnout is identified by three symptoms: exhaustion, depression, and cynicism. It is the by-product of repeated and prolonged stress. Not the result of working long hours, but rather the result of working long hours under specific conditions: high risk, a lack of sense of control, a misalignment of passion and purpose, and long and uncertain gaps between effort and reward. Unfortunately, these are all conditions that arise during our pursuit of high, hard goals.” - Steven Kotler “The Art of Impossible”
I’ve been searching my whole life for a way to be successful at something while finding a nice balance in my life.
Not only have I failed to find it, but I’ve also failed to find anyone else that made it to the top without an imbalance tilted towards their goal.
Every collegiate and professional tennis player I’ve met burnt out at some point. They wanted to succeed so bad and that they pushed it to the limit. Where most players were satisfied with their level of improvement, the great ones kept on going. Sometimes, with no regard for the cost.
I’ve also seen this in business and other sports. Entrepreneurs work 7 days a week for years to get started. Managers and executives earned promotions by working way beyond the classic 9-5 time slot. Coaches work 6-7 days a week, coaching all day sometimes.
It’s clear. To make it to the top, you have to work harder than most human beings are willing to imagine for years if not decades.
And when you do this, you’re going to burn out at some point.
When you’re trying to achieve something for the first time, it’s impossible to know your limits, but you have to find them some how. And you find them by going as hard as you can go for as long as you can go. It sounds brutal but think about it: someone playing tennis for the first time is going to get tired in the first 30 seconds of moving side to side. A top collegiate player has to move side to side for hours!
How do you go from 30 seconds of fitness to a few hours? By learning to work through SOME exhaustion. You can’t stop just because you’re tired. You have to push through the exhaustion because that’s how you get in shape! How hard and how long to push is something you learn as you go through the process. Some days you’ll realize you could have pushed through longer. Others, you pushed too long and should have stopped earlier.
Through the good intentions of trying to achieve your goal, you’re going to have many days where you pushed too hard. Your passion and purpose became misaligned and you’ll eventually burnout. When this happens for a prolonged period of time, you’ll burn out.
It’s okay. Just remind yourself that burning out happens to everyone on the road to the top. The key is to learn from the mistakes that caused the burn out and refine your process. Take a break, realign your passion and purpose, and proceed working towards your goal with a better training program.