E25: We are the Burnout Generation

Feb 19, 2019 41m 49s 10 insights
Stephen Bartlett reflects on a chaotic week, discussing the "burnout generation" and the intense pressures of modern life. He shares insights on combating burnout, the importance of self-awareness, removing toxic people, and embracing authenticity despite criticism.
Actionable Insights

1. Embrace Authenticity Despite Haters

Choose to live authentically, pursue your fulfillment unapologetically, and accept that hate and criticism are inevitable consequences of putting yourself out there and achieving your goals. There is no way to achieve what you want while being yourself and avoiding all criticism.

2. Ruthlessly Remove Toxic People

Identify and completely remove individuals from your life who rob your peace or negatively impact your mental health, even if they are talented or well-connected. Their negative impact on your well-being outweighs any perceived value they might offer.

3. Prioritize Sleep for Cognitive Function

Ensure adequate sleep to prevent “directed attention fatigue,” which deteriorates the brain’s executive function, reduces decision-making capacity, and leads to low-grade anxiety. Technology often robs us of sleep, so actively push back against it.

4. Simplify Life to Combat Burnout

Actively push back against societal conditioning to constantly achieve and acquire by decluttering your mind, de-responsibilizing your life, and simplifying everything. This counteracts the tendency to fill freed-up time with more tasks, which leads to burnout.

5. Develop Self-Awareness for Success

Understand your own unique strengths, weaknesses, and passions to carve out a personalized path to success, rather than blindly copying others. Studying and emulating someone else’s blueprint is dangerous because everyone is a different ‘jigsaw piece’.

6. Re-evaluate ‘Having It All’ Mindset

Challenge the societal pressure to ‘have it all’ (career, social life, entertainment) as this pursuit often leads to dissatisfaction and prevents genuine accomplishment. The speaker suggests it results in having very little to be proud of.

7. Reconnect with Core Psychological Needs

Prioritize activities that fulfill fundamental psychological needs like exercise, social connection with friends and family, love, and engagement with nature. Modern efficiencies often diminish these essential elements for well-being and can contribute to mental health issues.

8. Apologize and Commit to Self-Care

When stress and lack of self-care cause you to act negatively towards others, apologize and commit to better self-care to prevent future recurrences. This ensures you maintain your desired character and prevents negative states of mind from hindering success.

9. Leverage Death as Liberating Reminder

Use the certainty of death as a powerful, liberating reminder to focus on what truly matters: your happiness and improving the happiness of others. This perspective helps you disregard trivial concerns, external opinions, and the ‘small stuff’ that won’t matter in the long run.

10. Beware Social Media’s Unrealistic Portrayals

Recognize that social media often presents curated, idealized versions of life, fostering dissatisfaction and a false belief that more work will achieve an unattainable ‘best life.’ This awareness can help mitigate the ‘I want your life syndrome’ and its associated pressures.