You asked, “What causes burnout? Is it inevitable for everyone at some point during their educational career, or are there people who never experience it?”
What we call Burnout, starts when a person starts to question, “What am I doing and why am I doing it?” The goal, if there ever really was one, is lost in the fog.
Burnout is often found in a person who starts something because it seemed like the right thing to do. Everyone else was doing it or it was time to do it. You know, I went to college because I had finished high school and all of my classmates were going off to college. This is not the right reason to go to college.
College is for specific training toward a defined end. Too many attempt to use college as a place to find themselves. Such is a very expensive way to find oneself and it seldom works. When a person uses college as a way to discover himself or herself, it consumes resources that in most cases are limited. Then when the person does discover the right path, too many resources have been consumed.
Middle school is the place to start on the path to specific training. Middle school is where a person learns what his or her areas of interests are, so that when s/he gets to high school, s/he can start taking specific courses. High School then prepares the person for the specific training beyond high school, of which college is just one of many good options. But one thing is for sure, more training is needed beyond high school.
If you do not know where you are going, any road will get you there, and almost assuredly, you will not like it when you arrive.
If your goals are not motivating you to act, then you need new goals. Burnout happens when you realize that you are just turning a crank that is difficult to turn and connected to nothing of any importance or you are running on a treadmill and getting nowhere fast.
As one who has helped students learn for decades, it was always obvious to me who was listening to their Board of Directors and who was not. And in the grand scope of things, it was very few who had tapped into that most important resource.
Your Board of Directors is composed of those who love you and who want to see you be Successful now and in your future. Your board will help you chart your course, make course corrections, and weather the inevitable storms. Those who seek their board’s wise counsel, endure fewer storms. Your board will also put a little extra wind in your sails when you need it most. Your board will help you come to grips with the fact that Success is not a destination, but that Success is a lifestyle.
Those who have a clear focus on a worthy goal understand how the lessons will be used as tools to support their hopes, goals, and dreams; there is no time for Burnout, because their hunger is never fully satisfied.
If you are feeling the pang of Burnout, perhaps it is time to call an adult-level meeting with your board. At your board meetings, listen more than you talk and leave with two things: action items and the date for your next board meeting.
Your level of Happiness really is up to you. Those whom you decide to have as mentors and counselors will be the best decision that you can make.
This information came from a book that you can download for free. The download link is in the description box of many of the short videos that can be seen at www.YouTube.com/c/FromNewToKnew, or you can purchase one at the Marshall County Library. The sale of the book is a library fundraiser.