"Burnout is the result of too much energy output and not enough energy invested. In other words, it's burning too much fuel than you've put in your tank."
- Melissa Steginus
How to manage #burnout part two. All #athletes, young and old, experience some form of burnout throughout their career. Burnout is part of the ebb and flow of sport.
Today’s tips will give you ideas on how to manage mild symptoms of burnout:
1. #selftalk can be the first thing that brings you down. #selfgratitude is a way to focus your thoughts on what’s possible. At the end of each day, identify your #successes and #challenges you have overcome on a daily and/or weekly basis. At the start of each new day, remind yourself of how you will commit to build on your successes and chip away at your challenges.
2. Create #weeklygoals that allow you to shift your focus onto different areas of your sport (#technical, #tactical, #physical, and #mental). You don’t have to do it all at once, emphasize one area to work on.
3. Make it #fun ! You can do this by keeping it fresh, unpredictable, and creative. An example of this is Steph Curry’s pre-game routine. His routine includes taking crazy shots from half court and from the entrance to the court. This is what I call creating a game with in the game. You can apply this to practices and competitions. It’s a way of making it personally fun and challenging.
4. Find moments each day to just #breathe and #relax. This can be as easy as going for a walk, meditating, and taking a nap.
5. Make time to just #laugh each day. As a college athlete, I would spend time the training room before and after practice. One, it was to help take care of my body, stretch before and ice after. Two, it was a great place to hangout with other athletes to just talk and joke around. It was one of my favorite sport sanctuaries.
In the end, stress compounds stress, and at some point #stress in one area of your life will start to bleed over to other areas as well, be it work, relationships, or in life. IF you don’t find the time to commit to a rest, recovery, and renew plan, your mind and body will shut down at some point.
We hope you enjoyed today’s tips for dealing with burnout. Tune in next week for tips on how to manage medium symptoms of burnout.