While I’ve written extensively about burnout and the attendant exhaustion, a colleague gave me a different viewpoint that I think should be explored.
Specifically, he is bored. He’s exhausted from trying NOT to be bored. He’s not using his talents. Lockdown has him locked out of physically being with people who are stimulating. Libraries are closed and bookstore and Amazon purchases add up. He lives alone in a lovely house and rarely sees his neighbors.
Got the picture?
Until Tom brought it up, I had not given a thought to the very real trigger that comes from boredom. Let me be more specific—when the head and the heart aren’t engaged in meaningful ways, it’s exhausting to try and find what will jump start our emotions and our intellect.
Here’s what we came up with to help Tom begin to move from burnout to breakthrough.
Intellect:
Watch one TED talk a day.
Subscribe to Blinkist—an app which gives you synopsis of books.
Watch Dry Bar Comedy on You Tube—(Tom has a not-so-secret wish to be a stand-up performer).
Learn and/or try one new thing he has never done every month.
Emotional:
Call and/or go see a mutual friend who is 90 years-old and in Assisted Living. Now we can only talk to her by sitting outside through a window. But hey—that’s a connection.
Reach out to some of the young men and women who are part of Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Orange County. Tom has been a supporter and on the Board. Calls on Facetime or Zoom let them know an adult cares about them.
What suggestions do you have to quench the burnout flames of boredom? I’d love to know.
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