Eating Handfuls of Candy

Hey, Cadre fam, Doctor Carey here. Do you ever give someone advice and then realize later on, probably need to take that advice myself? I was actually speaking about a week ago to a group of ER nurses and leaders about burnout. And ironically enough, I realized a few days later after somebody pointed out to me, you might be a little burnt out. And I just wanted to speak a little bit about that topic today because I think a lot of us don't realize when we're burned out. And it can manifest differently for every single person.

For me, it was this person and another person close to me in my life. Pointing out, you've been a little bit more irritable lately and things are bothering you more than they usually do. Like, you're just not coming back down, right? And I was like, oh, yeah, you're right. Yep, that's totally the case. And it took a couple people pointing that out to me to be like, it's okay. Also that you're tired, like, you've been going hard, you've been traveling a lot, you've been doing this, speaking in this place and this and talking to these people.

And, like, I know for me, as an extrovert, like, I love speaking and I love being, you know, in a room full of 100 people and then talking to them afterwards. But then I need to go back to my hotel and I need to just wind down and, like, kind of recoup. And so I have this phrase of being on, right? That's what I call it. And when I have to be on, meaning, like, I have to be, you know, showing up as, like, an energetic, the best version of myself, kind of, you know, kind of personality. It can drain me after a while, and I'm being authentically me, but it can drain me and I need to recharge.

And so it took having a couple people point that out to me to say, you might be kind of like getting burnt out, and maybe it's okay to just recharge for a little bit and just recognize that. So I just wanted to share that with you today. Like, what are your key symptoms of kind of getting burned out? Is it like, irritability for you? Is that what you realize? I think I'm burnt out in one area of my life. Or is it that you're not sleeping well anymore? Is that that your relationships aren't going well anymore?

Maybe you're just easily irritated by everybody around you. Maybe you're starting to overeat. Maybe you're starting to oversleep. I know for me, that's another thing I start to do is to overeat and just go to junk food because I just kind of want some comfort food when I'm tired and burnt out. So I want you to do an inventory and figure out what are the things that make you realize. I think I'm actually kind of getting burnt out. And then what do you need to do to fill yourself back up in this moment?

Because sitting on the couch and eating handfuls of candy is not the healthiest option for that. And I can only say that from experience because that might be what I've done in the past week. But what is it that you need to do? Do you need to take a break? Do you need to take an evening to yourself? Do you need to go for a walk and get out in nature, whatever it may be, just know what those key signs are in you and make sure that you also enlist the people around you to be able to share that with you.

That, hey, you seem a little burnt out, and that's okay because we all get there. So know what those things are. And then have your go to list of things that you do when you get to that place and know how you can get filled back up and get back out there to being the best version of yourself every single day. Day. Thanks for tuning in with me today. God bless.