If you are feeling burned out you may also feel all of your best qualities have been eroded away leaving you nothing left to give, no longer possessing the energy to be effective. Perhaps you even don’t care to be effective anymore.
I want to convince you even though you may feel worn completely down, what remains is really all that matters.
I recently took a trip to the Grand Canyon, my first. I was dumb struck at the sight of it. The canyon is breathtakingly immense, truly awe inspiring in its grandeur. It is, in a word, magnificent.
It is mind boggling to consider that a single river, through the slow passage of time, carved its way through 3,000 to 6,000 feet of high planes sedimentary rock to reveal a canyon up to 18 miles wide. Flowing water carrying sand particles abraded away the softer rock to create what we see today.
Although the Grand Canyon will continue to widen over geologic time scales, the Colorado River will carve no deeper into the rock. The canyon is as deep as it is going to get.
You may be asking, why? In many places the river has reached solid bedrock (center of photo), the very bedrock on which the North American Continent rests. It is ancient stone and much harder. The river moves too slowly to carve into the nearly impervious bedrock.
The bedrock is the foundation and it is upon the foundation all else rests.
People can be worn down by circumstances contrary to their core being. Their best qualities can be eroded away slowly over time until they are stripped of passion, never discovering their true purpose.
I have seen people give and give and give with little personal reward thinking that eventually conditions would improve only to find the wear and tear of a non-purpose driven life to be relentless.
Burnout is often the result. Burned out individuals have been worn down to their very foundations. But, what remains is really all that matters. It is the core, the bedrock of the individual.
What remains are a person’s natural talents and abilities, their very foundation. These are never worn away. They are always going to be there as long as you are here.
Even if you are burned out, there is reason for optimism. On this bedrock foundation a new life can be built, one of your own design. All the extraneous material that has been layered on to you over the years has already been removed. Your very foundation is still there, solid as bedrock.
If you have burned out consider this an opportunity for you to rediscover your natural talents and abilities and use them to find your true purpose and pursue it with passion. Once you reignite, the energy will come for fully engaged living.
The results which will flow over the passage of time will be, in a word, magnificent!
Are you feeling worn down at work? Are you feeling burned out or fully engaged? What steps can you take, right now, to reignite with passion and purpose?