A broken robot: the face of a burnout

Rise and grind and how the urge to hustle is destroying my creativity

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My whole life I’ve always been told that my face reads like an open book.

Unable to hide my feelings and emotions, what you see is what you get. Can you tell what I’m thinking here? If you’re first guess was “fuck mornings, give me coffee” then yes, you are correct. But it’s also so much more than this.

As I look at my face in this picture, it really sums up the past few months for me. I’m chronically exhausted, stressed to the max and beyond tired, and yet trying to find a little glimmer of something to make me smile, which is harder every day. My work as a creator that used to always bring me so much joy is not sustaining me anymore. Turning 30 in May of last year I felt like I was solid and where I was meant to be after dealing with what I thought was my worst burnout, and not too much later I feel lost like a little girl again. How does that happen?

Being burnt out doesn’t begin to cover what I’ve been feeling. Without realizing it I’ve slid into a depression-like bog, where I’m stuck in the mud and it’s getting increasingly harder to try and pull myself out on my own. I know I need help yet I find myself pushing everyone away from me.

Sparked by my terrible experience with the beached whales in November, and now with my insomnia back in full swing, my anxiety keeping me company every waking hour, and a punishing travel schedule that I just couldn’t say no to, I only blame myself for getting to this point.

Living in a competitive world if you’re not “busy” or “great” than you’re “lazy” and “unsuccessful” and the pressure of this path I’ve been on is often suffocating, and it often feels like my creativity has gone forever. Without realizing it, I’ve slipped into the habit of only showing the glamor of travel, of my world. Obsessed with success and staying on top of an industry I love, I forgot my roots in imperfection.

I feel like I’ve built this incredible and seemingly perfect life online that now I can’t actually live up to

Lately I’ve been feeling like a broken robot, like I’m programmed and going through the mechanisms and motions of my life, but I’m not really there and things keep breaking. I feel like an iPhone frozen on an update (damn you, Apple, you can’t make me buy a new phone yet). I’m lost.

Normally I would have posted a different version of this shot on Instagram, where my tired face is hidden or later on when I’ve had three coffees and put on makeup, perhaps with an inspirational caption about following your dreams. I would have photoshopped my eye bags and brightened my face, sticking my chin out to make myself look thinner and less puffy.

But being the honest cynic that I am, I can’t keep this to myself any longer, and I’m tired. I’m tired of everything.

Here’s the real me, right now. I know I won’t be in this place forever, but right now I am, and this is a glimpse of my emotions and feelings as I work to find balance and happiness again. I feel like I’m in between chapters of my life; things are fundamentally changing for me, but I haven’t come out the other side of the tunnel just yet. I’m still in the bog.

So here is a moment of reality of where I am right now. I look and feel like shit, but I’m trying to do my best to do my job. I love it but it’s hard. We are all imperfect humans full of complex emotions, me included. You are not alone.

Now where is the coffee?

Liz xx

How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation via Buzzfeed

Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work? via the NY Times

Here is my original post on Instagram from a few weeks ago, the community and comments are pretty heartwarming and incredible

work burnout

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52 Comments on “A broken robot: the face of a burnout

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      1. I had the same issue :/. I basically just said that I freaking hate the culture where sacrificing your whole life for work is glorified and rewarded. I often feel like it’s all a big trick, as those articles point out how these large corporations gain by exploiting their employees, but making them feel valuable. I used to work for a company like this, and leaving was the best thing I ever did. I just want to roll my eyes so hard at those people who brag about their hustler lifestyle of pulling all nighters and such. Ugh!!

  1. Girl, I can relate. I recently left a toxic work situation I was at for about a year. While the work was interesting, it wasn’t enough to sustain me to keep working there due to the incompatibility of my and my supervisor’s personalities. I feel like I’m back to square one all over again since I literally job searched all of 2017 to get this job. And now I’m unemployed and I have to start all over again and facing the prospect of moving back in with my parents. I obviously don’t have a blog/social media where I need to generate content to keep my readers’/followers’ interests but I feel the burnout all the same. Thinking about traveling just for myself for a few weeks (not within the US, abroad, can’t afford it right now!). It sucks but at least my family has my back. Without them I’d be screwed. Here’s to… er… whatever the opposite of burn out is! Cooling in? Whichever it is, I hope we both figure it out!

  2. Thinking of you❤️I felt this with my passion a few months ago, sold my successful business and just followed my gut feeling that it no longer served me, and had to let go and explore other routes. I think something significant shifts when youre around the age of thirty, if you’re spiritual it’s called Saturn Returns, it’s different for everyone…but consider, or just become aware of what your intuition is telling you. Obviously this is something, give yourself the space and time, you owe it to yourself, you deserve peace, and there’s no shame in seriously taking a time out to explore whatever it is your feeling. Sending love and light

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