Let’s go deeper into Burnout Culture today. Yes, we want to help people who are burned out, but from where I see it, we should also want to stop more people from getting burned out. The industrial revolution changed our culture to expect that humans output like machines. And now I think we need another revolution to change it.
So, today’s episode of Creating The Path is all about The Rest Revolution. Join me in this conversation.
Listen On:
Topics discussed in this episode:
[01:38] Burnout Culture and the Industrial Revolution
[03:41] What we can do about burnout culture?
[04:50] The Rest Revolution
[06:30] What the Rest Revolution is NOT about
[09:40] The top 5 regrets of the dying
[11:04] Recap of the episode
Resources:
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Join The Rest Revolution at @jointherestrevolution on Instagram!
Follow me on Social:
Noteworthy Quotes:
“Yes, we want to help people who are burned out, but we should also want to stop more people from getting burned out.”
“The industrial revolution changed our culture to expect that humans should output like machines. And now I think we need another revolution to change it.”
“The Rest Revolution is about reclaiming our humanity, our health, and our right to enjoy life.”
“Laziness does not exist. What we call laziness is just a lack of motivation. And there's nothing wrong with having a lack of motivation. Unless you want to be motivated, in which case, you can work on that.”
“The word lazy is too often used as a way to shame ourselves and other people. And it's a huge contributor, I think, to maintaining burnout culture.”
“We just need to develop the skills to rest so that we can continue to work and show up as our best in our work. Because if we don't get the rest that we need, our performance starts to decline.”
“Embrace the fact that in order to perform our best, show up the way we want to in the world, and have both success and happiness, that rest is a vital component.”
“Our worth is not tied to our work output. And we don't need to work to exhaustion to succeed.”
Summary of the Podcast:
Creating the Path is a podcast that challenges multi-passionate entrepreneurs to achieve their goals by working less and eliminating overwhelm, so they can create their own unique pathway to a life they love. My mission is to transform hustle culture and assist others to shift away from living life on auto-pilot to living intentionally and following your own path to a life you love instead.
Host Bio:
Heather Grace Hanson is a certified positive psychology-based coach and creator of the Intentional Energy Framework, a system that empowers you to create a life and business you love without burning out. Heather is obsessed with all things personal development, running and walking in the park, interior design, salsa dancing and most importantly, spending time with her pup, Barclay.
Episode Transcript:
I’m really excited about today’s episode because it’s been something that’s been rolling around in my brain for a few weeks now and I just wasn’t sure what to do with it, but today I’m finally going to let it out of my brain and share it with you.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about burnout culture because I hear people talking about it so much lately. It’s just everywhere. It was a problem before the pandemic, but now with all the stress of the pandemic, burnout has become an even more omnipresent problem.
And I was laying in bed one night wondering, how did we get here? What are the underlying causes creating this culture where everyone feels the need to overwork and where it’s expected that we should work all the time?
Now, I think there are many underlying causes that fuel it, but I had a big epiphany about when our culture started on this course to get us here. And this might sound crazy, but I hope you’ll stick with me. I swear I wasn’t drunk or high when I was thinking about this, but I honestly think this could have started with the industrial revolution.
Maybe that sounds a little out there, but think about it. When people started to work in the factories and we had these machines that could output work faster than humans could, things started to shift to wanting more and more output. How much work can we get for the lowest cost?
That’s very similar to what I experienced in my corporate job, in the sense that they would lay people off but still the same amount of work output was needed. So those of us still working there had to absorb that extra work.
And this is such a common phenomenon, especially in large corporations where the people at the top are making decisions and handing down work with either no awareness or little care on whether it’s a reasonable amount of work based on the number of employees. And it makes the employees feel like they’re expected to be robots or like they’re less than human.
And like I said, I think there are other things that fuel this culture currently, and whether or not it did start with the industrial revolution maybe doesn’t matter, but I think it’s interesting to think about because, at least to me, it really paints a picture of how ridiculous it is the way we operate these days, treating ourselves and everyone else like machines, and expecting ourselves to be machines and then feeling bad about ourselves when we’re not. It’s an absolutely ridiculous and horrible cycle we’re stuck in, as a culture.
So what do we do about it? There are many more people now who are talking about burnout and how to recover from it and prevent it, so every day there are more and more resources coming out, which is great.
I don’t know though, maybe it’s because I have a tendency to be impatient, but it doesn’t feel like enough to me. It feels like the change is happening too slow. Or here’s what it is I think that’s bothering me. There’s a lot of help for individuals who are burned out, which is incredibly important, but I don’t hear enough talk about what has to change within our culture.
Yes, we want to help people who are burned out, but we should also want to stop more people from getting burned out. The industrial revolution changed our culture to expect that humans should output like machines and I think we need another revolution to change it.
So I think we need a Rest Revolution to end burnout culture. The Rest Revolution is about reclaiming our humanity, our health, and our right to enjoy life. And it’s already started because so many other people have been talking about the need for more rest.
So I believe this movement has already started, but I do think we need to be more loud about it. Because revolutions aren’t quiet. When a movement becomes so big that you could call it a revolution, that means everyone knows about it at that point, right?
That’s what changes culture. And I think burnout culture is a big enough problem that it needs and deserves a revolution to eliminate it.
Because it breaks my heart when I see how many people are affected by stress and burnout and all the illness and disease that that leads to. And knowing that we could eliminate so much of it just by resting more.
So that’s the Rest Revolution that I’m proposing we all start or join in.
Now I want to talk about what the Rest Revolution is not.
It’s not about not working or about being lazy. And by the way, laziness doesn’t exist. What we call laziness is just lack of motivation, and there’s nothing wrong with having a lack of motivation, unless you want to be motivated. In which case, you can work on that.
I just want to be clear on that because the word lazy is too often used as a way to shame ourselves and others and is a contributor to maintaining burnout culture. So I think we need to eliminate that word from our vocabulary.
That was a little side note, but yes, the Rest Revolution is not about laziness since that doesn’t exist and it’s not about not wanting to work.
And it’s also not about not working or not wanting to work. There’s nothing wrong with working or even working hard. We just need to develop the skills to rest so that we can continue to work and show up as our best in our work, because if we don’t get the rest that we need, our performance starts to decline. It’s not always noticeable because we’re usually too tired to be able to see clearly what’s happening, right?
So, I don’t want anyone to write off this revolution by saying, “oh, it’s just a bunch of people who want to sit around and not do anything and don’t want to work. No no no. That’s not what it’s about.
It’s about having the awareness and the intelligence to recognize that living this way, working too much and not resting enough is bad for us, it’s not serving us well, and it’s lowering the quality of our work, and it’s about having the courage to say “no more” and to start taking care of ourselves the way that our bodies and minds need and deserve.
And not just us, the world and the others around us. Imagine a world where everyone is less stressed and overworked, not lashing out at others because they’re too tired to regulate their emotions, and where they’re instead getting the rest they need and can put out quality work when they do work. I mean, doesn’t that just sound amazing? I feel myself wanting to just go off on this because I could talk about it all day. But I feel like I’ve made my point.
I’ll just say one more thing about that. I think you’ve probably heard about the top 5 regrets of the dying. I don’t know the name of who wrote the book, but I think she was a hospice nurse. Anyway, I do hear people repeat somewhat often, or I used to hear people repeat that one of the top regrets of the dying is that they wish they hadn’t worked so much.
So, we’ve all heard that, and if you’re like me, that probably resonates. I remember the first time I heard it, I definitely felt that if my life continued the way it was going at that time, that I would definitely have that regret at the end of my life.
And I’ve heard a lot of other people say the same thing, but it took me many years to actually do anything about it. In fact, I didn’t do anything about it until I burned out and actually couldn’t physically or mentally go on the way I was.
So we have a great opportunity right now to change the trajectory we’re on and make sure we don’t get to the end of our life regretting the fact that we worked too much and didn’t enjoy life as much as we could have.
So, let’s recap. We’ve talked about the burnout culture we’re currently living in and how we might have gotten here, and about how we need to create a bigger movement to shift culture away from treating humans like machines.
And of course, my suggestion is that we create a Rest Revolution. I can’t do it myself of course, because a revolution of one person isn’t going to make much of an impact.
So I’m inviting you to join me. Shifting culture takes time, but making changes in your own life takes less time, so by joining the rest revolution, you can experience the benefits even before the culture shifts.
So you’re probably thinking, ok, sounds great, but how do I join and what do I have to do?
Well, the first and simplest thing you can do is to do nothing. Just slow down, rest, do less stuff. I know that’s maybe a bit obvious or overly simplistic in the sense that if it was just that easy, we’d already be doing that, right?
And I acknowledge that it is easier said than done, because if you’re used to being in work-mode or used to operating from a place of constant stress and doing things. It can be really hard and uncomfortable to rest, at first. So next week, I’m going to talk about how we can rest when it feels hard or impossible because we just don’t know how or can’t stop the racing thoughts and worries in your brain. So stay tuned for that next week.
Aside from that thought, maybe the most important thing you could do right now, is to make a commitment to yourself, and maybe even to the world, or to your family. It’s up to you if you want to say it out loud or just silently to yourself, but make a commitment that you’ll do the work needed to disentangle yourself from burnout culture and embrace the way of life of the Rest Revolution.
Embracing the fact that in order to perform our best, show up the way we want to in the world and have both success and happiness, that rest is a vital component.
Our worth is not tied to our work output, and we don’t need to work to exhaustion to succeed.
And if you want to join me over on Instagram, I actually started a 2nd Instagram account in addition to my main account. It’s at jointherestrevolution. I thought this deserved it’s own account rather than just posting about this on my own account, so you can follow that account if you want posts and updates just about the Rest Revolution. I have a lot more to share about this, so if you want to work less, rest more, give burnout culture the boot, and enjoy life more, I can’t wait to see you over there.
And as I mentioned, I’ll be talking next week on how to actually start resting or getting more rest when it’s difficult.
And please share this episode with anyone you know who needs it and send them over to at jointherestrevolution on Instagram.
And, last thing, my dream is to build up as many resources for people on rest as possible, so I would love to hear from you on IG, send me a DM at either of my accounts, what do you do for rest?, what prevents you from getting rest, what feels hard for you about resting? Or any other thoughts or questions you have from me about this. It will help me know what to talk about either here on the podcast or on the jointherestrevolution Instagram page, so that we can all help each other. And with that, I can’t wait to continue this conversation next Tuesday.