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Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him. |
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Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him. |
| Burnout:
An Ounce of Prevention is
Worth a Pound of Cure. by Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach |
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Studies show that people with high EQ (emotional intelligence) are less likely to burn out. Managing our emotions and those of others, and how we react and respond, is crucial to our stress levels, resilience and ability to cope. The prevention, cause and cure
of burnout are all related to emotional intelligence. Working with
an EQ coach to build such skills as flexibility, intuition, resilience
and personal power will make each minute of each day easier, and the effects
are cumulative. Most of us would agree it's "the little things" that
get to us and wear us down. Also being rigid; remember, it's the branch
that
Burnout comes from not pacing yourself and your emotions, and not managing your reactions to people and projects. We're built to work, and run and play; we're really quite hardy. But what our emotions push or pull us through can be very wearing. Think of a task you love to do, where you settle into the chore -- chopping wood, baking a pie, writing a book - and you look up 5 hours later wondering where the time went. Maybe you're a little physically tired, but you're happy in your heart and soul. The closer you get to "flow" like that, the less stress you experience, and you can learn this competency. Low Personal Power also contributes to burnout. The opposite of Personal Power is "feeling helpless and hopeless." This is the "victim" mentality, and makes you vulnerable to every passing thing. You learned somewhere along the line to think "helpless and hopeless," and you can start learning, tomorrow, how to reclaim your Personal Power and greatly lessen your stress. Resilience can prevent burnout. Resilience means weathering the ups and down, rejections, losses and disappointments, and being able to bounce back. Resilient people know how to start AND stop, how to work alone AND in a team, how to focus AND be creative, how to think divergently AND convergently. If you have only one mode, only
one style, only one way of dealing with things, it's like applying the
same single piston over and over. When you've worked on your emotional
intelligence, you can move around in the "engine" and use others parts,
greatly extending the wear and tear and lifetime of the engine -- which
is the all-important YOU!. Just imagine how good that would feel!
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Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. |
| One of the first keys to
burnout is not being able to get a good night's sleep. Let that be
your warning signal to get help and make some changes.
Few things can help with all
areas of your life as much as improving your emotional intelligence.You've
gotten your degree, your credentials, you work out and look your best,
you get your
©Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach,
http://www.susandunn.cc.
Coaching for individuals, EQ Coach training and certification,
www.eqcoach.net.
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