True Life: I was guilty of this.
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Here's your weekly reminder to take care of you. Reader, I am incredibly proud to be a social worker. With my first job as a social worker, I dedicated everything I had to my position. As I shared in my book, The Self Care Investment, my first job straight out of graduate school was as a children's counselor with a domestic violence agency. I came to work early, stayed late, and felt (all) the guilt for not being able to do more.
As the months went on, I found that I rarely talked about anything else other than my job. While I was passionate and excited about the work that I was doing, I struggled with leaving work at work. Pretty soon, my whole world became my job and putting energy into my personal life became harder and harder. I experienced a significant period of burnout within in the first six months of working this job full-time. And one reason why I experienced this burnout was because I over-identified with being a social worker. Over-identifying with your job can increase your risk of experiencing burnout. When your job becomes your entire identity, it can be twice as hard to:
On your own burnout recovery journey, try your best to remember that you are an entire person outside of your job. Your work is not who you are -- it is what you do. Learning what fuels your burnout is a key way to prevent it. Learn even more about what is causing your burnout with my 5-day journaling challenge, Put Out the Flame. In this journaling challenge, I break down 5 common (but subtle) habits that can cause burnout and what you can do about it! To get started, click the button below:
Scroll down for a few more journaling prompts to help you along the way. Sending peace your way, Michelle
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