How to fire up, not burn out

The term ‘burn out’ is widely known and understood in any industry; however, a precise definition of professional ‘burnout’ doesn’t actually exist, as technically it isn’t a medical condition. Holly Lynch explores how to fire up and not burn out.

There are shared theories and models about what constitutes the symptoms of professional burnout. The phrases and buzz words apparent in the academic literature include unproductive work behaviours, exhaustion, cynicism, loss of empathy, reduced professional accomplishment, cognitive impairment, social withdrawal and depersonalisation. The Maslach Burnout Inventory¹ is accepted as the most common tool to define and measure professional burnout; however, there is still an emphasis on this NOT being a diagnostic tool and that the use of the inventory questionnaire simply positions burnout as a dimensional construct varying in severity.

So, what does burnout look like for fitness professionals?

5am alarm clocks, getting home at 9pm (or later!), coaching numerous group exercise classes per day, working with a whole bunch of personal training clients daily, trying to food prep to stay on nutritional track, trying to get the required eight hours’ sleep per night, running your own business or studio, keeping on top of your admin, becoming a social media wizard, acting as a part-time counsellor to your clients, trying to keep up to date with your family and friends … sound familiar?

With any role that is directly customer facing, there is an expectation to be everything to everyone – which means many of us are potentially teetering somewhere on the burnout dimensional construct in our search for professional success. As someone who lives that life every day I have often, in certain periods of my career, been on the burnout spectrum for sure. The schedule above – that’s mine. BUT for one of the first times in my career I feel like I am more in control of my time, my workload and the expectations I make for myself. In my humble northern lass option, there are a number of ways in which we can FIRE UP, rather than BURN OUT.

1. Mindset

I saw a quote a while back: “Did you have a bad day? Or did you have a bad five minutes?” It struck a chord with me about the mindset in which we travel through our day. Things don’t always go to plan, so we need to learn to compartmentalise the day and not let the rough patches consume the day as a whole, as this will be exhausting. If I’m not happy with how something has gone that day, whether it be a class I didn’t nail the choreography on or perhaps a client check-in that didn’t go the way we wanted, I block the hours in my day as individual sections in my mind to keep things separate and not allow the distracted thoughts to filter into the rest of my day. It isn’t fair on my clients later in the day if I carry this through, so it gets written down or mentally noted and I deal with it when I have the time to.

I’m also a huge fan of ‘the changed mindset’ theories. If you have a really busy diary, it is extremely easy to wake up in the morning to the thought of “I am so busy today, I feel totally overwhelmed and I don’t know how I’m going to get through all this work.” How about we view it differently though? “Thank goodness I’m so busy today – it’s a sign that I’m excelling in my chosen field. I’m so grateful for the amount of people that have put their fitness journey in my hands. I’m so happy that my chosen career has been a success and that I have the opportunity to do this as my vocation.”

Trying to turn your inner dialogue to one that is thankful for all the opportunities and work commitments you have is such a powerful way of starting your day in the right mindset to succeed.

2. Organisation

This sounds obvious but being organised when you lead a busy life is crucial. If you have lists and notes it frees up brain space for the thing you are doing right now and reduces the requirement for retention of information. You will never truly be able to commit to the client you have, the class you have or the admin you are doing if your brain is completely full of information. Get the information notarised and you can be confident in the knowledge it will get done when the time is appropriate. I highly recommend an online diary – a quick app that can be checked that just has your bookings/meetings/classes in. That way, if a client or colleague contacts you when you are out and about, you are organised and can get your schedule up right away.

I also heavily utilise a big paper-based diary too and this one tool is probably the most valuable one in allowing me to excel each day. Sounds dramatic but it’s true. My paper diary has a double A4 page for each day – one side is separated into time slots for my client diary with a section at the end for my ‘to do’ list and my ‘follow up’ notes, while the other side of the page is blank for notes. This means that EVERY DAY I can clearly see all my client appointments notarised, any marketing or promotional posts I want to create and publish that day, information about my clients, the classes that I’m teaching that day and, because there is room for me to actually plan my fitness classes on the notes page, I have them stored on the date I actually delivered them. I feel super organised each day and having my to-do list right there each day means I can have a physical list of things I can tick off which can also provide a little rush of serotonin at the sense of achievement².

3. Delegate

You can’t be everything to everyone (including yourself), which can be difficult to accept. Your clients deserve the best version of you however, and that version isn’t the one that is trying to do it all day in and day out. Delegation is the definition of working smarter and not harder. Can a colleague take something on? Can you take something off your plate by hiring a service such as food prep or using a cleaner?

Sometimes the answer to that question might be no, but I’ve learned after years in the fitness industry that time is precious and, for the first time, I now have clear time boundaries for clients each day. If my diary can’t accommodate a new client, I happily refer them to a trusted colleague because, if we constantly tried to fit into everyone else’s time frame, we would need to work 24/7. It simply isn’t achievable, isn’t appropriate and isn’t necessary for your professional success.

4. Fuel yourself properly

This one is a hard one, as once the burnout begins you are likely grabbing convenience food, drinking a lot of coffee and trying to save yourself cooking time by having something that takes 10 minutes to prep rather than 20. We all know as fitness professionals that this becomes a vicious circle as we ride the blood sugar waves, the afternoon fatigue, the dehydration and the general brain fog that comes with not providing our body with everything it deserves. And it DOES deserve it!

I plan every day in advance. I know what I’m taking to work vs eating at home, what each meal will be, whether I need to pre-cook something to take to work or if I have time at home when I get in. I also plan for a balanced nutritional intake, not that I track every single meal for its macro breakdown (genuinely I would really struggle with my time allowance to do that); however, I DO make my checklist for the different food types. Have I eaten two or three lean protein sources today? How about four sources of veg/greens? How about three portions of fruit? How about three complex carbs and how about some healthy fats? Your nutrition really shouldn’t be an afterthought, as ultimately it is the ONLY way we can sustain a high-energy lifestyle without making ourselves quite poorly quite quickly. There are some fantastic ‘ready meals’ on the market now that are much more nutritionally balanced than they ever used to be, so although freshly prepared will always be best, there are some really good second choices in the market.

It might seem a big ask; however, if we can eat the way that our body wants us to, that’s already something ticked off our to-do list for the day (cue serotonin rush) and we can actually save time by having our food organised, as it takes out the thinking and planning when we are hungry (this is always the biscuit danger zone).

5. Know your worth

This is perhaps the most important tip for not burning out. Most of us (myself included) do this job because we love it. But it is a myth that if you find a job you love you will never work a day in your life – in fact, I’d say that when you find a job you love you work every day … for many hours … and you work really, really hard at it. So, organise your time wisely – what is making you money and, potentially, what are you doing that is using a lot of time, energy and resources but not actually bringing you any joy or any financial gain?

What is the bigger picture stuff that you might have to invest a little more time in but that will bring you great happiness and success moving forward? If fitness is your career, it has to work for you and, if your effort levels and income are on completely different scales, then this needs assessing. You have invested time and energy in qualifying, upskilling, learning routines, planning sessions, motivating, helping, coaching and physically exerting your own body and you need to be able to calculate the value of that effort.

6. Find your tribe

I’ll keep this one short. If your team around you are all moving in the same direction and rhythm as you, the force of the fire is incredible. So, perhaps ask yourself: am I FIRING UP or am I BURNING OUT? There is only one little spark that separates those two entities, so make sure you are keeping yours alight.

Holly Lynch BSc(hons) MSc, PGCE is an award-winning PT, a business owner and a cat mum. See Holly in conversation with FitPro’s Teresa Wheatley on the FitPro blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

1. Maslach C and Leiter MP (2016), Burnout. In Stress: Concepts, cognition, emotion, and behavior, Academic Press, 351-357.
2. Breuning LG (2015), Habits of a happy brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, & endorphin levels, Simon and Schuster.

Further reading

1. Leiter M (1991), The dream denied: Professional burnout and the constraints of human service organisations, Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 32(4): 547.
2. Maslach C, Jackson S, Leiter M (1996). MBI: Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual. Third ed: Consulting Psychologists Press.
3. McDermott D (1984), Professional burnout and its relation to job characteristics, satisfaction, and control, Journal of Human Stress, 10(2): 79-85.