Remember when the whole world lost their mind over toilet paper?
Stores couldn’t keep it in stock. People hoarded it and treated it like gold.
Did you ever wonder why that happened?
The truth is, toilet paper is nice but not as crucial as most of us felt in the heat of the moment.
People have been “taking care of business” without specialty wipes for thousands of years; we would have found a way to survive.
But it’s hard to think clearly in a crisis.
When emotions run high and mental resources wear thin, sometimes the most irrational options seem to make perfect sense.
And everything goes crazy.
Here’s why this matters if you’re feeling exhausted, cynical, or discouraged about your work.
When you’re in “crisis mode” because of burnout or any other reason, you **CANNOT** trust yourself to make rational decisions!
You may think you’re thinking clearly, making good choices, figuring out a plan to get better, and it may make perfect sense to you.
You may think you can detach yourself from the situation and think rationally about it, but here’s the problem…
Your brain doesn’t naturally work that way, and neither does mine.
All you’re really doing is “hoarding toilet paper” for no need.
Here’s a better option if you really want to break free of burnout: stop thinking by yourself and find someone to think with you!
When you find a partner with a skillset that matches the need of the moment, you not only get the benefit of their perspective and experience.
You also get to level-up your own crisis management skills by learning from them.
That way, the next time you find yourself in a stressful situation you’ll have trained your brain to respond strategically and keep yourself from burning out or blowing up again.
Of course, you don’t have to involve anyone else.
You could just keep buying more toilet paper…
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Photo by Michael Marais on Unsplash