Vitamins and Dunkin Donuts
There's a mantra in my wife's nutritionist community:
You can't supplement your way out of a bad diet.
All the vitamin D in the world won't help if you're downing a dozen Dunkin Donuts every day.
Why? Because supplements are just that. They are meant to supplement your eating habits. They can't magically fix your health if you're simultaneously slamming six packs of Mountain Dew or multiple Starbucks mochas in a day.
There's a similar metaphor when it comes to burnout in the workplace.
You can't vacation your way out of burnout at work.
Why? Because vacations are just temporary. Yes, the give you a short burst of time and space to recharge. However, it unlikely to magically fix the many long-term, systemic stressors at your workplace that led to your burnout in the first place.
Take it from me, a repeat burnout survivor.
I used to believe I could self-care my way through burnout. My brain will try to embrace this lie: "If I just meditate and take enough ice baths, I'll somehow outwit or outrun this pesky little burnout problem." No doubt, self-care can and does help. However, like vitamins improving your overall physical health, self-care is a small part of the overall picture in addressing burnout.
A eureka moment for me occurred during a workshop by Steven Kotler. That's where I was introduced to the 6 causes of burnout:
Workload
Control
Reward
Community
Fairness
Values
I'll leave it to you to do your own digging and research to learn more about each of these, but let me offer one example that affected me personally.
Community is a big one for me. I prefer to work with high performers who have each other's back. Toxic people and personalities are stressful. Endless meetings wipe me out. Having to redo someones work for the Nth time drives me crazy.
When you work with a good team, most of these problems don't exist. Even long days can feel productive, leaving me excited to jump out of bed in the morning and do it again.
When you work with a bad team, even short days can deplete you.
This is why you can't always vacation your way out of burnout. First, check and address the other factors. If you can fix these energy leakages, you might find yourself no longer craving an escape. And if you find that you’re still burning the candle at both ends and legitimately need an acute reset, then a vacation may be the perfect solution.
However, even after a nice long trip, you need to find a way to create daily pockets of active recovery to sustain you through the long haul. Just like supplements and vitamins, you don't just take one huge dose in one day and declare victory. It's a daily commitment.
Final note. It’s OK to occasionally have a cheat day and splurge on eating your favorite desserts OR have a bad, stressful day at work. Life happens and perfection isn’t possible. Just don’t kid yourself into thinking you can muscle through years of bad days and fix it with a few saunas.