On my flight to my vacation, I got into a conversation with the person sitting next to me. At some point, the subject of our jobs came up. And as soon as I mentioned burnout prevention, I was asked about the formula for success.

And that also coincides with what I keep reading on social networks. You just have to do xy and then everything will be fine or it will be. This fits in with our attitude that everything can be solved with the right pill.

But is that really the case? Let’s take a look at the most common tips:

Eat a healthy diet

Oh yes, that can definitely help. But what exactly is healthy for you and your body? How do you know which nutrients you are lacking? So while nutrition can give you back the energy you lack, you need to find out what you’re missing. Otherwise you will always have hunger or thirst attacks. This is how your body gets the energy it lacks and the quickest way to get it is through sugar and carbohydrates – even if they are not the healthiest. For me, it’s potato chips and Dr. Pepper – and I don’t need to explain to anyone how healthy and sustainable these sources of energy are.

Don’t take it so much to heart

or alternatively – don’t let it get so close to you – that’s not wrong in the first place, but a possible tactic. But not without understanding why a certain behavior triggers me and what it triggers in me in return. Because then I know what I can work on. Simply taking three deep breaths may help acutely in the situation – but it doesn’t change the fact that situations still haunt you. One of my triggers is when I feel like I’m not being taken seriously. What triggers do you know about yourself?

Do more sport to compensate

This is also not wrong or right per se. Yes, sport helps to reduce stress hormones such as cortisol or adrenaline, so sport helps your body to reduce stress, but does not prevent it. If sport is just an additional to-do item that you have to tick off during the day and you don’t know how to do everything beforehand, sport creates as much stress as it relieves. In my acute phase, I did exactly that, one of the many tips I was given was to exercise. I dutifully went to the swimming pool 1-2 times a week. With the result that I arrived there already rushed and somehow squeezed it in between. Today I know that a nice walk in nature is worth much more to me.

You simply have to cut back

Sounds logical at first, doesn’t it? But project xy has to be finished first, and your good friend really needs help beforehand, and there’s still the party to organize at the club and the boss wants the information very quickly. How do you just cut back and still feel good about it? One person can learn to say NO and feel good about it, the next can find out their own limits and the next can learn to ask for help or many other things. Because in order to be able to do all this, you first need to know where your boundaries are? Do you know them?

For the reasons mentioned, this advice is just that – advice. Because it’s not as if we don’t know that these things help, but there’s still something holding us back.

For the reasons mentioned, this advice is just that – advice. Because it’s not as if we don’t know that these things help, but there’s still something holding us back.

But what to do then?

It therefore makes sense to look at what exactly is stopping you from following the well-meant tips. Behavioral patterns or beliefs that we have learned are often behind our behavior, which may even have been good at another time in our lives, but either no longer fit in the here and now, or cannot be applied to all situations, or perhaps simply don’t belong in your life at all and never have. Some of these beliefs were also behind my burnout. One, for example, was that as a woman in an engineering profession, I always have to achieve more and prove myself much more than my male colleagues.

More and more studies are also showing that the social environment plays an important role. It’s not about having a very large network, but ideally several independent people you can rely on. So that your entire support system doesn’t immediately fall away in the event of a dispute, moving away or even death. That was actually a decisive factor in my burnout. I only had my work, so I lost myself as a person and only defined myself by it. If things don’t go so well there, everything is perceived as an attack/valuation of yourself.

The STRONGER formula

But why do I have the STRONGER formula? A legitimate question. The formula describes a journey that can help you to scrutinize your personal situation in order to define your personal path. First, you find out how you can best end your stress cycle. Then we look for the right method for you to find your triggers and thus also what exactly you want to change. This also allows us to work specifically on your resilience and find the right sources of strength within you. These are helpful steps, but they are not always taken in the same way. They are more like signposts on your journey.

Conclusion:

There is no one tip that will save you from burnout. But if you understand what is behind your stress, you can find your own way to more balance and inner strength step by step.