Dr. Kristen here, I want to talk about my relationship with the origins of burnout:
By the time I was 17 years old, here’s a few things I believed to my core:
– I was only valuable if I was useful
– I was only useful if I worked as much as possible
– I was only working hard if I stayed busy
– I was only important if I was busy
Do any of those things resonate with you?
Growing up outside of Philadelphia, I internalized the American work ethic in my bones. I never questioned it, I just knew I didn’t exactly like it.
Then I moved to Northern Ireland for a gap year. At first, their insistence on 3x/day tea breaks *infuriated* me. How could they waste so much time! Then I realized they weren’t actually wasting *any* time – they were balancing tasks with connections.
I exhaled for the first time in my life.
Since then, I’ve been wondering why Americans have a cultural priority of human output over human life and I finally found the answer.
The Puritans.
The first white folks to arrive here and settle had a few key beliefs that have informed our culture to this day.
– You’re only a good person if you work hard
– You only work hard if you do it alone
– Rest is for when you are dead
Erin and I realized it was this cultural and historical context that was missing from all the conversations about boundaries and burnout. We’re not disordered or disorganized – our culture is. And since we’ve lived in a place that did it differently, we know it’s possible to rewrite our culture to allow us to be human beings and not human doings. When we started writing this book, we knew we had to grapple with the origins of burnout.
Our full explanation will release this fall: “The Culture of Burnout: Why Your Exhaustion is Not Your Fault” from Kardia House . We cannot wait to get it into your hands and help you reframe your busy-ness into something much greater.
If you want to sign up for more information about the book, you can use this link: https://abbeyresearch.biz/burnoutbook
If you want to pre-order your Kindle copy today, here’s that link: https://abbeyresearch.biz/bookpreorder
