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.
@Heather225
What I learned:
What burnout is, which is a state of chronic stress that can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and detachment, as well as feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment
What I can do to stay healthy and avoid burnout:
Practise self-care. This means taking breaks and logging off completely for a few days
Set time for daily downtime
If possible, try to reduce your workload
@kindFish9215
I agree, taking breaks and spending time for yourself is so important to avoid burnout and be a great leader :)
@kindFish9215
I learnt about logging off completely for a few days as a self care routine and I used to feel guilty about it... As long as I fulfill all my leaders requirements and inform my regular members, no more feeling guilty over logging off completely.😃
@Heather225
so much informative
What I learned:
- I learned how to identify burnout in myself when I'm feeling tired, anxious, or unfocused or experiencing any of the other burnout symptoms.
- There are lots of different ways of overcoming and coping with burnout
- Having a healthy team helps create a healthy community as we can bring our best and provide the best support possible.
- To be a good leader I should be accountable for my actions, collaborate with those around me, solve the problems I encounter, adapt to changes I encounter, and keep a positive attitude
- It's okay to be a bad leader sometimes as long as I recognise I need a break to regroup and reflect.
what you will do to stay healthy and avoid burnout!
- Regularly reflect on how my time at 7 Cups is going and check it's not getting too much.
- Set daily downtime and a schedule to stay online for so I know I'm not over-doing things. Also adjust this schedule if I feel things are getting too much.
- Take self care breaks often
-
Try to reduce and eliminate the things that stress me out.
@Izzy274
I think I might just steal your idea for scheduling to avoid over working😃
@Izzy274
I like the mention of reducing stressors. As a child, it was so normal to be constantly stressed that it was easier to accept that I'd always be stressed, rather than tending to my needs and reducing the amount of stressors in my environment. This absolutely did not come naturally to me when I became an adult and became responsible for tending to my own needs.
@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!
I learnt that when experiencing burn out, it is wise to remember my why, set boundaries and get time away. Self care breaks and logging off completely for some days is also important.
@JoyHappyNess
Well said, Joy!
@JoyHappyNess
Yes, you're absolutely right. I also learned that logging off completely somedays is fine. I think overworking yourself isn't the best thing to do. Let's do our best!
@Heather225
Tell us what you learned, and what you will do to stay healthy and avoid burnout!
Answer: I learned what burnout is, what the symptoms are, and how to avoid it. I also learned that self-care is very significant. To avoid burnout, I would make sure that I take proper self-care breaks, log off from the community from time to time and do things that I would like: a walk, meditation, soothing activities like listening to my favorite genre of music, sketching, coloring, etc.
@Heather225
1. Burnout may affect my role as a leader, burnout is a state of chronic stress.
2. Take regular self care breaks, set proper and respectful boundaries.
@Moonlemon48
Good points made !
@Moonlemon48
I think you took away a lot of good points. Scheduling and self-care breaks will be so important. I wish you all the best!
Please read it through and in the replies, tell us what you learned, and what you will do to stay healthy and avoid burnout.
I will take self care breaks as and when required to stay healthy and avoid burnout.
@jersey123456
I learnt what burnout is and recognizing its symptoms, how it affects work efficiency.
@jersey123456
Yes! Please do keep yourself healthy. Good luck in your leadership here!
@jersey123456
Great you see that you've gained insights from here! Keep shining!!
@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!
I learned that self-care isn't just about time off, it's a system that you put in place to prevent burnout as well. Unless we can maintain our burnout, we will be more inactive. To avoid burnout, I think I'm going to schedule more since I currently have a lot of commitments in my life at the moment. I will also make sure to do as much as I can without biting off more than I can chew and engage in regular self-care activities.
@LavenderFlower I couldn't say it better 👏👏 Self-care is incredibly important and I'm glad to see its importance being highlighted as part of the course :P
@LavenderFlower
Sounds like you have a lot on your plate to go on with. I'm sure you'd come up with a great schedule to manage everything! :)
@LavenderFlower
Oh wow! I didn't think of self-care being a system and I really love this metaphor! It's definitely a system to help us recharge and cycle through our life and its commitments!
I learned the different signs of burnout, how to identify it and to prevent burnout. I also learned about the importance of sustaining my own mental health in order to help others in the community. For starters, I will try to take self-care breaks whenever I need them and learn to recognize my limits. I know that I am someone who pushes herself too hard and I find that I'll need to know when to stop and that it's alright to step back and let someone else take charge sometimes.
@xinyii11
Loved your usage of 'sustaining one's own mental health'! It all comes down to that sooner or later.
@xinyii11
LIMITS! good word, definitely something we should all explore on 7Cups and offline. It allows us to recognize when we need to take breaks and also keep us from committing to things we cannot handle or that would run us into burn out.
@Heather225
Another great article i couldn't get my eyes off! :)
End of the day, it's us who's gotta sleep with what we've done throughout the day and this is where self care comes into picture.
I will start listening to my inner voices more often and know when to stop.
@lyricalSea85
It's definitely hard to listen to our inner voices sometimes, but I think it's important to too and to know when self-care is needed
