A summary of the book “The Burnout Fix” written by Jacinta M. Jimenez

This is a book that talks about how to overcome overwhelm, beat busy and sustain success in the new world of work. One would think that burnout is a problem where a solution is screaming at you but there is no rapid relief ointment without systemic changes. The book recognizes burnout as a pervasive social problem in the United States. Jacinta M. Jimenez attributes it to factors that must be addressed by both the individual and his/her organization. The organization must treat the symptoms of burnout and need to prevent it altogether. The individual must foster resilience with her science-backed PULSE practices. These practices help to lead a more purpose driven life and support team members’ well-beings.

We see rightaway that there is a shift of focus from grit to resilience. A hyperconnected world demands more from an individual besides their own beliefs to take on unsustainable volumes of work and remain available to tackle tasks. When this goes on for too long, burnout results. Even if we work harder or smarter, we neglect to nurture a steady personal pulse which makes even our successes short-lived.

There are five capabilities suggested to avoid burnout and lead to improvements in the following areas:

1. Behavioral – where we boost our professional and personal growth by developing a healthy performance pace.

2. Cognitive – where we rid ourselves of unhealthy thought patterns

3. Physical – where we embrace the power of leisure as a strategy to protect and restore the reserves of energy

4. Social – where we build a diverse network of social support to make ourselves more adaptable and improve our thinking.

5. Emotional – where we don’t control our priorities or time, evaluate the effort we exert and take control of ourselves.

Most people tackle their goals by breaking them into smaller concrete steps to help avoid cognitive and emotional exhaustion. There are three P’s involved which are 1. Plan where we assess our skills and progressive towards bigger goals using progress indicators. 2. Practice where we commit to continuous learning by experimenting and receiving feedback while journaling our progress. 3. Ponder where we reflect on what worked and what did not work.

We must reduce distracting thoughts and work towards mental clarity using three C’s 1 Curiosity where we identify recurring thoughts and check if they are grounded in reality, 2. Compassion for ourselves where we treat ourselves to our kindness and 3. Calibration where we switch between showing ourselves more compassion to needing more information. We can cultivate this by stacking habits including new habits, scheduling reminders for mind space, breathing, writing down thoughts and learning from binary thinking, sticking with self-compassion and being consistent.

We must prioritize leisure time The ability to enjoy stress free leisure time is essential to keep calm and centered.

We focus on how fast others respond rather than the quality of responses. To give more space to ourselves, we must practice three S’s which are 1. Silence to eliminate duress from devices or going on meditation retreat 2. Sanctuary to go and spend time in nature or to improve our mood and 3. solitude to spend time by ourselves to slow down sensory input.

Social wellness is equally important and rather limited by symptoms before burnout. We feel we belong and can securely access support from community, we reduce the stress on our brain and create conditions for improved productivity. This can be done with three B’s: Belonging where we strengthen our sense of belonging by actively working to be more compassionate. 2. Breadth where we create a visual map of the circles of support and 3. boundaries where we reflect on our personal values.

Energy is finite so we must manage it carefully. We do this with three E’s: 1. Enduring principles where we determine what guides us in our current stage, 2. Energy expenditure where we assess how we spend our energy and 3. Emotional acuity where we resist the tendency to ignore our emotions. 

Similarly, we lead healthy teams by embracing 1. Agency, 2. Benevolence, and 3. Community. When leaders demonstrate and implement techniques to increase resilience, it percolates through the rank and file.