Simone Stolzoff

You're better equipped to deal with whatever slings or arrows the future holds.

And so I think that is the link to me, you know.

how to not know, you're never going to know with absolute certainty what your career or your job might look like.

But the more you diversify your source of identity, of meaning, of purpose, the wider foundation you will have.

And even if one pillar of your identity were to crumble, you will remain standing tall.

I hear this a lot, especially these days, and particularly in relation to burnout.

And one of the things that I've learned from research that has been really helpful for me is that there are actually three, at least three different types of burnout.

There is overextension burnout, which is I have too much on my plate and I feel very strapped.

There is depletion burnout, which is I don't feel like I am having enough time to recharge.

And then there is misalignment burnout, which is I feel this discrepancy between what I value and what I'm doing with my time.

And often when people are not happy with their job, it's one of these three things.

So when it comes to overextension burnout, maybe it's just a matter of doing less, of trying to say no, set better boundaries, make sure that you have enough time to do deep work, the things that are maybe more fulfilling with your work.

If you're in a state of depletion burnout, you feel like you aren't adequately resting or recharging, I would recommend trying to find active forms of rest.

So often we will go to work, we'll come home, we'll try to turn off our brain, turn on Netflix, but actually by investing in things like your local community, your hobbies, something like learning a new language or going on a weekly walk with your best friend or

Those are the types of things that will help you adequately recharge so that you can be more present and productive when you're back on the clock.

And lastly, if you're in a place of misalignment burnout where there's this discrepancy between what you care about and what you're doing, maybe that means that you need to make a change.

Maybe that means either changing your role within your company or leaving your company to try something else.

But distinguishing between these three categories is often a good place to start when you have that sort of ambient sense of, I'm unhappy, but I'm not exactly sure why.

I think it's similar to romantic relationships in some way, which is the first thing that I always tell people if they're looking to meet a partner or looking to make a new friend is to assume that person likes you.

Often we sort of negotiate against ourselves and come up with all the reasons why they probably are judging you and they don't want a new friend anyways or this side or the other thing.