How To Distinguish Between Laziness and Burnout?

Do you feel tired all the time? Like nothing interests you anymore even the things you used to don't seem to excite you anymore. Do you feel like you wanna spend the rest of the entire day or week in bed and do nothing?

One would recognize this as mere laziness but this could be a different story already. Something serious that needs attention to get resolved as soon as possible. Burnout can often be mistaken as laziness for some reason.

Based on my experiences, I have been burnout twice. The first one was when I worked as a call center representative for about a year and the second one was when I worked as a college instructor for a couple of years.

During the early stages of my career, excitement and determination are both an understatement. I still have this fire of passion that gets me going regardless of schedules, workload, and being away from the family.

Whenever I find myself stressed out and feel homesick, I go to the mall and buy something for myself or watch movies to alleviate it somehow. It's been working though until such time my health was already compromised.

By definition, burnout is a negative state of physical, emotional, mental exhaustion caused by excessive stress and the inability to cope with it.

These signs helped me to distinguish it's no longer laziness but burnout:

I felt disconnected from everything

As mentioned, during the early stages of my career, it's been always excitement and passion. However, as time goes by, everything felt like my life is already on autopilot. This happens when you feel like you are detached from yourself and you are struggling how to overcome it.

Working as a call center representative was never easy. As a newbie, you will have a lot of adjustments from the schedule, stress, and patience. These three were the major factors why I caught myself being burnout.

Same with my experience as a college instructor. Although I would say that this experience was something I enjoyed more because I learned something about myself that I never thought I have the ability and capability to do it.

And then when I got the chance to go home for a holiday, I felt the need to rest after exhausting too much of my energy from work. I don't feel like going to work anymore. Sunday night gives me anxiety as I'm about to face reality again during weekdays. It's more of anxiety already than the passion.

I used to be motivated and passionate

I believe that laziness is a character trait that you would always consider in a person. It's an innate attitude and we feel that every once in a while. Actually, it varies on what type of person you are.

We do have our coping strategies to help unlock ourselves from that but when burnout takes over, you don't find a reason anymore to strive harder and do everything to help you.

Even the things that you are passionate about no longer interest you. It may come to a point where you would hate yourself for doing it because you might overwork it and it drained you.

I used to be motivated and passionate with my work but when things got out of their way and stress took over, I let myself be demotivated and discouraged so I ended up be burnout.

I have become moody and irritable.

I'm the type of person who can't hide my mood. My body language is transparent when I am irritable and moody. However, I found myself so sensitive to a lot of things. I had trouble containing myself in situations that I used to control before.

A lazy person on the other hand is the opposite side of this. You would find him/her very relaxed and laid back and unaffected from things.

I have neglected my self-care.

I found myself having these concerning habits that I used to take care of before. First of all, I neglected myself for not eating the right meal I deserved. I deprived myself of my comfort foods, had troubles with sleeping, and lack of socialization with the people around me.

I just don't feel like doing anything. Everything seems pointless and uncertain. I easily get tired and more stressed than usual even with the simplest tasks.

Recognizing that you're not okay is the first step of healing. It is important to self-assess so you will know what has caused you that and start to make necessary adjustments for it.

These signs have helped me to stop myself from getting into severe burnout. I took myself a break and that's when I found my sanctuary and peace.

If you're someone who has these signs, help yourself to cure or stop this by keeping yourself on the go and find your big emotional why.

You may find this article helpful:

https://read.cash/@Jeaneth/do-you-lack-drive-c7cb9224

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Thanks for reading!

Keep safe everyone ❤