“Take more vacation!” they said!
“Change your job! Change your career!” they said!
And worst of all, they said, “Start working out and eating better!”
These are common recommendations for overcoming burnout, and as standalone “good things to do” they are great!
However, as solutions to burnout they are ineffective at best, and potentially detrimental at worst, and in this article, I’m going to explain why they don’t work as blanket burnout solutions. At the end of the article, I will give you a list of things that will work instead.
First and foremost, I LOVE vacation! Tropical climates and clear-water beaches are my favorite! The Maldives and Bora Bora are right down my alley!
Furthermore, I’m not opposed to switching careers or jobs, because in certain situations, it’s necessary. Switching jobs or careers, while occasionally may be the right move, it is rarely the right first step!
And exercise? Well, I have my own line of digital fitness products that I’ll give you access for free at the end of this article! I love exercise and think it’s a great way to be fit!
But, these 3 strategies will do nothing more than temporarily give you the impression that your burnout problems have been solved!
What’s wrong with these strategies?
Well, the short answer is that nothing is “wrong” with these strategies. They’re simply overrated, temporary, and if done incorrectly, can make things worse!
Let’s take a look at vacationing first.
Why vacations don’t fix burnout
Vacationing is good and will take you out of your job-related conditions that have contributed to your burnout. This is a good thing!
The vacation will give you a much needed break and a chance to recoup, which is also fantastic!
But here are two analogies that will show why vacationing CAN’T be the final solution.
Burnout is like having someone constantly choke you. If they let you up for air, that’s great! But if they resume choking the living crap out of you after your breath of fresh air, then we haven’t really made any progress, have we?
Vacations, job changes, and exercise are like the breath of fresh air, but we want more permanent solutions, which you’ll see later in this article!
The second example may be familiar to you:
Imagine a dog with lots of fleas that lives in an environment with fleas inside of the house and outside. Unfortunately, even though the dog is on a flea preventative, it’s not working because there is a poorly managed environmental component to the flea problem. The dog is EXHAUSTED from itching and scratching so much.
As a solution, I suggest that the dog go on a 2-week vacation to the Sandals Dog Paradise Resort, where there are no fleas within a hundred mile radius.
All dogs have to take a Capstar upon arrival, get a bath by professional groomers, and take a dose of Bravecto!
There are also plenty of dog butts to sniff and gourmet dog food served all day long! There’s even a special canine margarita that won’t get the dogs drunk, but it will give them the zoomies!
Ahhh! Sounds good, right!
It sounds good because IT IS good!
However, at the end of the vacation, the dog will go back home to the flea-infested environment.
The dog still has fleas, and thus, the vacation will be nothing more than a distant memory as the dog returns to being a 10/10 on the itchiness scale.
The vacation could be a long-term, temporary solution if the dog could vacate there for most of or all of the year, every year for the rest of its life. However, we know that vacationing all year isn’t vacationing – that’s called moving, and it’s rarely a solution to burnout.
There is an interesting point to make here: you could have a mental breakthrough on your vacation that would lead you to the true solutions that you seek. Or maybe you meet someone on the vacation who gives you an awesome business opportunity or something.
Another possibility of the vacation is that you could discover a new hobby that really lights you on fire!
But…
You could also just drink a lot of margaritas and potentially get involved with the wrong people too, and most people know that the average vacation doesn’t provide a profound experience of enlightenment or nirvana!
The worst thing that could happen is that you happen to have a NIGHTMARE of a vacation!
You know the type – where you miss your flight, your significant other isn’t acting right the whole time, and you’re more exhausted than rested by the end of it!
And God forbid you were crazy and took those satanic little devils you call children with you!
How’s the saying go? “Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. And children are from Hell!”
Just kidding! I’m sure your kids are absolute angels, sincerely! My two little girls are certainly amazing! Sassy, but amazing!
Vacations are a good solution to wanting to take a vacation and see new places and whatever else you envision it to be, but they are overrated as it relates as a burnout solution because they don’t address underlying problems!
Ok, let’s quickly take a look at why exercising and career changes are overrated too, and then we’ll talk about the REAL solution!
Why exercising won’t fix burnout
Let me be clear: I love exercising! I try to do it everyday and multiple times a day! But it wasn’t always this way!
Soon after I graduated from veterinary school in 2013, I somehow found myself 45 lbs overweight! I was literally ripping my pants in the exam room!
Trust me, being fit is WAY better than not being fit, and exercise was a part of my overcome burnout strategy!
If done correctly, it can definitely help you be less physically exhausted and perhaps it can help you become mentally tough.
While all of this is true, there are veterinary professionals who have fit bodies, and who workout a lot, and who ‘eat right’ who are also burnt out!
I mean, who wants to be burnt out with a 6-pack?
Furthermore, exercising in and of itself can burn you out and even lead to injury! Injury could put more of a physical and mental strain on you than before when you were out of shape but not injured.
If we look at our example of the dog with fleas, maybe getting it some exercise helps him not be physically exhausted from scratching all of the time. Perhaps when the dog is exercising, it’s mind won’t be on the itchiness.
But at the end of the exercise and fitness, it will go back to its flea-infested environment, and nothing will have been solved!
Most importantly, some people hate exercising! So why should that be a blanket strategy for overcoming burnout?
You DON’T have to be a fitness junkie to overcome burnout!
Why changing careers or jobs won’t fix your burnout
Jobs can be exhausting!
People can make the wrong career choice(s)!
Your boss or your staff can be really annoying and sometimes, flat out hateful or disrespectful!
In veterinary medicine, even the clients and pets can drive you up the wall!
Furthermore, it COULD BE time for a job change and maybe even a career change!
BUT! BE WARNED!
There’s an old saying that goes, “Wherever you go, there you are.”
If you even remotely think about changing your career or job before you’ve gone all out to change yourself, then you are looking for a fish in a tree.
Note: This is assuming that you aren’t being physically abused at your current place of work. I have a ‘no tolerance’ policy for such behavior from clients, pets, higher ups, lower downs, whoever! If you’re at an abusive practice you should bounce (bounce is slang for LEAVE)!
Take me for example, I was COMPLETELY burned out at the first practice I worked at. I was seeing upwards of 30 cases/day, and I did not know how to handle the mental, physical, and emotional challenges that came with that.
As a result, I turned to familiar strategies of coping – alcohol, smoking, and stress/comfort eating. As expected, those clearly made things that much worse!
However, when I got moved to a different hospital, with different people, with a much slower caseload, and an awesome practice manager, I was still unfulfilled and resentful towards my job and career choice.
Thus, moving to a new hospital didn’t fix the problem because I hadn’t changed!
Long story short, I was able to find the true solution.
In order for things to change for you, you will have to change first!
After making the necessary changes to myself, I now have the veterinary career of my dreams! I feel unshakeable despite any combination of circumstances, conditions, or life events that come my way!
I even feel that I could go back to that first hospital and THRIVE despite the caseload! Give me the same people and the same cases and it wouldn’t matter! I WOULD NOT succumb to burnout!
What’s the real solution to veterinary burnout?
You must cross mindset bridge!
Vacations, exercise, healthy eating, and career/job changes don’t take you across what I call mindset bridge.
Once you cross mindset bridge, you can find advantages in disadvantages. You can see the opportunity in the chaos that you face in life.
You realize that life is happening for you and through you, but never to you.
You realize that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ simply go together!
You realize that the contrast of a day that feels amazing to a day that feels awful is necessary for you to grow and get closer to your best life.
In essence, the ‘bad days’ help you better appreciate the good days and can help you notice what things are making it good – if you’re being mindful that is. This can help you to see the good in the bad days!
When you cross mindset bridge, you understand that by turning your expectations into appreciations you can learn to love everything! You learn that you don’t have to accept everything, but you learn to see the beauty in it all.
You realize that you are a creator and that you can create the exact life experience that you want for yourself!
Once you do this, you’ll find that your worst days become your best days, which makes a huge difference in your life experience!
You truly see that Heaven on Earth was never meant to be a cliche. Rather, it was meant to be a truth for all to see and experience, now! You can experience it in your veterinary career and you can experience it in your personal life! That amazing feeling is here for you!
More importantly, you’ll realize that lacking sufficient vacation, exercise, and the right job/career, aren’t the true solutions to your burnout. You’ll realize that veterinary professionals are missing the following key components to being burnout free (and living a fulfilling life of inner peace):
- An advancing perspective
- Healthy self-belief
- Creative imagination
- Massive determined action
- Vision and purpose
- Healthy and non-spiteful boundaries
- Mindfulness and meditation
- Deep gratitude
- Personal development
- Radical self-care
- Self-reliance
- Robust support networks
- Resilience
You see, crossing mindset bridge will help you do and experience everything better.
The good gets better and the bad will look like MASSIVE personal and professional growth opportunities!
“So how the Heck do I find and cross this mindset bridge? Where’s the frickin’ bridge already?”
You may have these questions, and I’ve got answers! You can enroll in Get MotiVETed University: School of Wellbeing for Veterinary Professionals for FREE! GMU is designed to be a great starting point for getting you acquainted with mindset bridge and True wellbeing. If you go through all of the courses, you’ll find answers to your questions!
Also, check out the mindset bridge video below. You’ll have to extrapolate just a little, but it’s a short video that explains it visually!
Summary
All of the above IN CONJUNCTION WITH taking frequent vacations (if you want) and exercising and eating healthy (if you want) and potentially changing careers or jobs (if you feel the need to) will truly CURE you of your burnout!
For more information on HOW to cultivate the above skills, check out Get MotiVETed University, the world’s first school of wellbeing specifically for veterinary professionals!
You can access the FREE Digital Fitness Package Here!
