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Book Carole "Carole was inspirational - the energy & enthusiasm was quite unique."
Mike Derrick, Chair East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Registered Care Homes Association
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers traces the sequence
by which dynamic workaholics become totally burnt-out
The early 21st century could have been designed to become a burn-out society.
Ever-accelerating technology that sets up an ethos of perpetual emergency ... International trading with its 24-hour demands on our attention ... An intensity of competition, suggesting that the slightest relaxation on our part will play straight into the hands of the other side and lose business.
The whole trend of today's working culture just ratchets-up the pressure – and continuous pressure can harden into dangerous stress that weakens our mental and physical health.
That is why so many of our most gifted, energetic and ambitious executives find themselves victims of burnout, sometimes finishing their career at only 30.
Tunnel vision of desirable goals
Burnout is the dangerous reverse side of the modern achievement culture, and the cycle goes as follows: achievable goals are set, you reach them, and earn your reward. Goals are then set higher in exchange for higher rewards. A Pavlovian connection takes hold, and you can’t seem to step-off the spiralling ladder towards higher promotion and the 'high life' it will afford. In any event, it would be difficult to do so as there is usually no option of settling for a 'lite only' version of your working day. The job demands your total energy 24/7.
Thus you enter a kind of trance, where you attain prodigious levels of concentration and insight that impact favourably on your record. But this is basically living on adrenalin - and adrenalin supplies are finite as are the limits of your body's resistance and ability to recover from over-demands.
That is the moment when the blazing rocket turns into a spluttering firework that's starts to just fizzle instead. As your routine of working unnaturally long hours develops, so will your efficiency start to drop. Meanwhile you have neglected your health, your leisure and your family life. Your spiral starts to turn downwards. And then you become that too-familiar figure, the burnt-out workaholic, making another appointment with the GP for another prescription for sleeping pills.
Causes of Burnout - summary
- Today’s culture automatically risks burnout, unless actively prevented
- You can trace a double spiral, where concentration intensifies, then fails
- To avoid pressure hardening into stress, you need a stress management policy
Another key insight from Carole Spiers, International Leading Authority on Corporate Stress,
Motivational Speaker and BBC Broadcaster.
