What To Do When Your Passion Burns Out

You have probably heard the Confucius saying, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Many of us strive to find a career we are passionate about; after all we do spend a large part of life in the workplace. However, once we work in a career that we believe is our passion, sometimes we become burned out with our jobs.

In the article “What To Do When Your Passion Is Burning You Out,” the author realistically explains, “I know it’s an uncomfortable truth. Doing what you love will occasionally burn you out.” Many times our immediate reaction to feeling burnout is thinking we are no longer passionate about something and wanting to quit our job or change career paths entirely.

Accepting the fact that burn out is bound to happen is a great way to figure out how to handle feelings of burnout in our jobs without making knee jerk decisions about our careers. Below are some suggested tips on how to handle when you are experiencing burn out:

1. Remember that your job can be an expression of our passion not your passion in and of itself. There will be aspects of your job that you won’t enjoy and most people find parts of their jobs they don’t like.
   
2. Evaluate what is the source of your burnout by considering the following points:
   1. Are non-career/job related stressors such as family and finances affecting how you feel about your job?
   2. Are their duties in your current job that you just dread or don’t overly enjoy that are causing you to dislike your entire job?
   3. If you could re-design your job to address the causes of your burnout what would it look and why?
   4. What made you start in this particular career/job in the first place?
3. Address factors that are within your control that may help ease the feelings of burnout for example:
   1. Talk to your supervisor about a shift in duties if at all possible. Perhaps taking on something new that you are more interested in will renew your interest in your job.
   2. Unplug from work: Many workers attribute feelings of burnout from the overly connectedness to their job even outside of work hours. Drawing boundaries instead of taking work calls or answering work emails at home can help relieve some of that burnout.
   3. Take breaks: Sometimes, the simplest solution to prevent or address burnout is taking a vacation. If you have vacation days use them. Take your mind away from your work and give yourself breathing room.