Microstress and Burnout

I had someone say to me the other day, “You need to figure out how to measure happiness.”

This individual is renowned in his profession, very well respected and highly regarded as one of the best in his field, I was a little shocked to hear him utter those words. As our conversation progressed, I realized he’s experiencing burnout and all that it encompasses: complacency, frustration, and fatigue. There wasn’t a big blow up, there wasn’t a tipping point-it was a cumulation of many small things that compounded over the years. Now, we have a term for this: microstress.

I asked him if he could pinpoint when he was the happiest in his career and his answer was shocking to me. He told me it was a time when he made substantially less than he was making currently, but he felt his time and talents were more valued and appreciated then than they are now.

It got me thinking about my bout with burnout, and how similar my experience was to my friend’s. In hindsight, I can point out exactly when it began, and it was when my company went through a merger resulting in realignment of territories.  I just knew I was going to be fine- I had been working with the company for seven years up until that point, had documented success, grown my business and built a thriving territory. Why would they even think about moving me? But because of the merger, there were two reps in the same territory, so that meant one of us had to go.

Guess which one they chose? Me. I went from being able to basically work in my backyard, pick the kids up from school, cook dinner and be at home each night to traveling 2.5 hours to a different time zone and spending the night away from home for the majority of my accounts. I was hurt that my company chose me to be realigned, and it made me feel like I wasn’t valued (life was happening to me, not for me). My husband and I were able to figure out how to make it work, but after that, it seemed every little critique, criticism or obstacle compounded into...microstress.             

This term originated from a study done by researchers Rob Cross and Karen Dillon on high performers, a project initially intended to better understand how certain people were able to be more effective at work, for a sustained period. They discovered many high achievers suffered from a relentless accumulation of unnoticed small stresses that negatively impacted these people who otherwise appeared to “have it all.”

But the “Ten Percenters” were different. This was a small group of high-performing individuals that seemingly found a way to escape the powder keg of stress. How? They had a palpable sense of purpose linked to their work, and most often it came in the form of giving. It could be as simple as acknowledgement of someone’s contribution, asking them how they are doing and meaning it, showing empathy, passing on a small note, or sharing an article that gave this group a purpose beyond making a nice income.

These successful individuals were used to the accolades and recognition from their career achievements, but it wasn’t the focus of their identity.  It makes perfect sense: their purposes seemed to transcend the external societal pressures (which are short term) and instead found their more sustainable, innate “why” linked to the success and happiness of others (long term).

So, can we measure happiness? I think if we focus on the right things, we don’t have to. Our “why” is a primal brain survival mechanism that provides us with perseverance and resilience during the difficult times, minimizing distractions to keep us on track to pursue our goals. And that’s what I believe microstress really is…a build up of micro-distractions that- if we allow them to- will guide us away from what it is we are trying to achieve and instead down the ugly path to burn out.

Find your why, and you’ll find your way. And what’s even better-you can help others along the way.

xo,

Court