Snuffed Out

I have been burned out from being involved in social causes a couple of times in my history of volunteering. When I start volunteering it is because I'm am passionate about what I am getting involved in, this passion continues to grow as I see how I am helping move towards making someone's life or the world better. I throw myself into it, wanting to get more and more involved to help make a difference. But when it starts taking over my family and social life and interfering with school and work, its time for something to change. When this happens I just step back and prioritize. I'm am a very organized, scheduled, and systematic person, to say the least--I love routine. To balance my social involvement with the many other things in my life, I limit volunteering to one day a weekend. That way I can still spend time with my family and friends the other day of the weekend and I can do school work and still work during the week.

An example to help when you get burned out from the book that relates to my situation would be when Loeb says "Set boundaries, you can't let the cause consume your life." I think that this is essential to avoid emotional drainage. I am fairly good at setting boundaries and prioritizing, but I only do this after I am drained. I need to work on using it as a preventive measure.

Everyone has their own reasons for getting burned out and everyone has a different way to prevent it or re-spark their interests and get motivated. Its important to realize that you can over come it and learn from it. The old saying goes it gets worse before it gets better; and when you hit that bottom, having the strength to pick yourself up can reignite your fire to greater heights than it has ever been before.