It\u2019s not something they tell you when growing up that you may experience burnout and to be honest, it almost feels like our society raises us to march in a straight line and be careful not to ask too many questions (i.e. Go into business or engineering to get a job but there are PLENTY of people with Liberal Arts degrees working too).<\/p>\n
As a former marketer on big-name brands like McDonald\u2019s, Kellogg\u2019s, and NAVTEQ, for example, my path was pretty fascinating and not anything I can pretend as I manifested into existence while sitting in my dorm room, sorority house, or apartment senior year of college.<\/p>\n
I chose a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Advertising from a Big 10 University, I moved to the big city after graduation (Chicago) and worked my way through agencies and corporate environments. My parents were teachers \u2013 amazing and award-winning<\/strong> \u2013 and I felt they didn\u2019t get paid enough for how hard they worked which is why I ignored my 8-year-old self who REALLY wanted to be a teacher.<\/p>\n I found a thrill in it all \u2013 the constant stream of \u201cproblems\u201d from our clients or internal departments and I felt lucky to be on teams who were always up for the challenge of finding \u201csolutions\u201d. I am not super sure what I was chasing other than it seemed to be totally normal to climb the corporate ladder and want more responsibilities and higher pay.<\/p>\n I did decide to pursue an MBA in 2008 as a personal goal to achieve a graduate degree (I also had an Education grant from doing an AmeriCorps program that I wanted to use) and yes, I utilized that degree to request higher pay. By the way, at every job, I really loved my coworkers. Some of the most fascinating, amazing, and talented people I have ever met (they tell you it\u2019s about the people you work with and I\u2019m not sure really believe it until you\u2019ve experienced it.)<\/p>\n Check out this list of intelligent reasonings behind burnout<\/a> from Frank Chimero. Do any of them strike true for you?<\/p>\n His #2 and #4 really resonated with me:<\/p>\n 2. Achievement culture<\/strong>: believing that identity and safety are only available through high achievement<\/p>\n 4. Visibility leading to hyperactive comparison<\/strong>: passivity and visibility lock together to invite comparison and create a debilitating scarcity mindset. Comparisons lead to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, or fear of failure. Constant self-reproach and self-aggression.<\/p>\n I was completely caught up in the above \u2013 constantly trying to improve, be better, and move into the next company or position. I also tripled my salary in ten years and finally was like \u201cis this enough?\u201d I\u2019m not sure my mind could keep up with going from not much money after taxes to plenty.<\/p>\n