Course 2: Becoming a 7 Cups Leader - (Discussion #11) Avoiding Burnout
7 Cups is founded on a community of passionate volunteers who lovingly dedicate their time to providing support.
You may face what is called burnout during your journey. You may have already faced this in your real life. Burnout is very real and must be recognized. You can't help fuel someone else when your tank is empty, after all!
To address and learn about burnout, we have created a slidedeck on how to avoid burnout.
Activity: Please read it through and in the replies, tell us what you learned, and what you will do to stay healthy and avoid burnout!
Then, please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread with encouraging or supportive words!
After completing the course quiz, please proceed to this post!
This post is brought to you by the Leadership Development Program Team, find out more information about the program here.
Through the slides I learn that 7 Cups really look out for the members in the community and be very mindful of their mental health. We are encouraged to take chats and help other members but are not encouraged to sacrifice our own mental health at all. In order to overcome burnout, I need to prioritize self-care and take quality time away to dedicate to doing things that I enjoy and set clear boundaries. I also shouldn't take on too much that I can't handle, that would only bring the work performance down.
@herealways27
self-care as priority is a good reminder ;)
@Heather225
Please read it through and in the replies, tell us what you learned, and what you will do to stay healthy and avoid burnout!
These are a few things I learnt:
1. Remember why I'm doing this, because 7cups saves lives.
2. Be aware of signs of burnt out such as: irritability, loss of enjoyment, forgetfulness, headaches that eventually lead to physical and emotional exhaughtion, cynicism and detachment and feeling of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment,...
3. Ways to cope/ avoid burnt out: Set daily downtime, reduce and eliminate stressors if possible, reflect on amount of work and set clear boundary of time.
@Bu123
In order to avoid burnt out, I will drink a lot of water, stay physically healthy and active with exercise, do mindful exercises on 7cups, set a boundary of how many new members I'm going to listen to each week!
@Heather225
@Heather225
From the slidedeck, I learned that in order to overcome burnout, spending time offline instead of online is crucial. I never knew that spending time online and offline has a relationship with having a burnout and overcoming it. To be healthy and avoiding burnout, I will focus more on self-care and finding available times when you can volunteer for things you can enjoy. This means I will spend more time with family and friends and be more devoted at my volunterring at 7 Cups!
@Heather225 The slides were really motivational. I was reminded of the importance of the work we, the community do at 7cups. I also was reminded of the value of self-care, and how through taking breaks and generally setting boundaries I can avoid burnout.
@Readylistener I liked how you were reminded about the importance of self care. That is good to remember.
@Readylistener
Glad you found the slides motivational!
@Readylistener thanks for sharing!
@Readylistener
Same here :) Quite often we forget about self-care
@Readylistener
Yes. I am glad that you mention setting boundaries. That helps the general energy.
@Readylistener Taking breaks and setting boundaries are rightly mentioned as crucial to avoid burnout.
@Fristo
thanks for your input, <3 you are amazing
@Readylistener Self-care reminders are so important, I couldn't agree more 
@Readylistener
The slides were indeed motivational!
@Hope2103
I agree with you <3
@Readylistener
Congratulations you do well <3 <3 <3
The slides were really interesting! I was reminded of the importance and value of the work we do, here at 7cups. I also learnt some of the tell tale signs of burnout and how to avoid it. I was also reminded of the importance of self care and how I should set firm yet sensible boundaries.
@Readylistener
Great Answer
@Readylistener I liked how you mentioned boundaries.
@Readylistener
Awesome that you now know some signs of burnout!
@Readylistener
Great response and thanks for sharing
@Readylistener yeah!
@Readylistener "Firm yet sensible boundaries," nice.
@Readylistener
Setting firm and sensible boundaries is indeed important!
I have horrible connection and thought the first one didn't post so I posted twice :o, sorry!
Please read it through and in the replies, tell us what you learned, and what you will do to stay healthy and avoid burnout!
The slides were really interesting
I learnt that burnout isn't good for a n individual as well as community and self care is really important
@shiningSky3745
Yes. I agree.
@shiningSky3745 That's a great way to put it, that burnout is not only bad for you but also bad for the community 
@shiningSky3745
Hello!
I totally agree with you. YES, self-care!!! NO burnout!!!
@shiningSky3745
Agreed !
I learned that burnout is a stress that leads to feeling of ineffectiveness, cynicism, detachment and emotional and physical exhaustion. To stay healthy and avoid burnout, it is important to take some time off, take a look at our goals and ask our community manager to reduce our some roles. Also, self care breaks when you feel like this, ensures that you end up coming back feeling good and fresh and helps you become a good leader.
@SweetDreamer69
Its great to note the steps you are taking to stay healthy. Thanks for sharing and helping our community.
@SweetDreamer69
i agree with you how important self care is
@SweetDreamer69
In other words, too high expectations and demands lead to burnout. Thank you for your feedback.
@SweetDreamer69
I agree! Taking time off is important to your mental health and so you can be a better listener, and to avoid burnout.
@SweetDreamer69 When I start to burnout emotional exhaustion is my warning sign. It truly is important to take those self care breaks so we can come back stronger than ever and ready to go again!
@Heather225
Keep in mind the sign of Burnout and make sure if we are going through Burnout, we take a break .
Self reflect why we are feeling so and what can be done to overcome it.
When we are healthy we will give our best performance. So taking role and responsibility that we can performance without having often burnout is better.
@blindHeart12 Great answer !
@helpfuldipper
thank you dear.
@blindHeart12 right on, I like the reminder here to self-reflect!