Burnout Quotes

“How well I know with what burning intensity you live. You have experienced many lives already, including several you have shared with me- full rich lives from birth to death, and you just have to have these rest periods in between.”
― anais nin

“The entire belief was insulting to many of us, but nonetheless, the term “top trained,” which would come to be regurgitated with great regularity by hospital administration and by Dr. Kowatch, would eventually evolve to become what I would describe as an unhealthy infatuation, one that I now understand represented the developing disconnect between the majority of the Heart Center team and hospital administration, which would ultimately have detrimental effects on the program, which would become visible to all in the near future.”
― DEAN MAFAKO, M.D., Burned Out

“They remained imprisoned in the CICU, kept alive in physicality by mechanical devices and medicinal support, inexorably suffering. I revered their resiliency, though I struggled to understand whether they were truly resilient or if this was a descriptive term I used to assure myself that what we were doing was just. Could they merely represent physical beings at this point, molecular derivatives of carbon and water, void of souls that had moved on months prior once the universe had delivered their inevitable fate, simply kept alive by us physicians, who ourselves clutched desperately to the most favored of our prehistoric binary measures of success: life?”
― DEAN MAFAKO, M.D., Burned Out

“Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.”
― Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man

“Burnout…occurs because we’re trying to solve the same problem over and over.”
― Susan Scott

“Just because you take breaks doesn’t mean you’re broken.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“I sit, tired of reading. I am sick of books. I can't tell where I leave off and the books begin. I'm nobody. I'm a polluted nothing. A confessed sin, an open door, the clutterer in the clutter.”
― Katherine Dunn, Truck

“Dust sleeping on your bookshelf
and all your plants are drying out
you are too busy to save yourself
is your mind heading for burnout?
Coffee rings on your bedside table
anxiety pills under your pillowcase
working round the clock to foot the bill
is there no time for breakfast these days?
Friends haven't seen you in a while
your phone is always out of reach
you're slowly forgetting how to smile
is your silence a figure of speech?
Life can sometimes seem to be unfair
but hoping is better than you think
send the message in a bottle if you dare
is it so hard to not force yourself to sink?”
― Akash Mandal

“I'll always choose a teacher with enthusiasm and weak technique over one with brilliant strategies but who is just punching the clock. Why? An enthusiastic teacher can learn technique, but it is almost impossible to light a fire inside the charred heart of a burned-out teacher.”
― Dave Burgess, Teach Like a PIRATE: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator

“I'm getting old, thought Eileen Calder. Old and worn out and cynical. And being cynical is a lot worse than being old or worn out.”
― Charles Sheffield, Brother to Dragons

“As helpers, we often feel the need to see our impact in tangible, measurable ways. We allow negative language into our head about the “broken system;” we look through a lens of “it doesn’t matter, I can’t make a difference”. These ideas are surely contributing to our burnout.”
― Jenn Bruer, Helping Effortlessly: A Book of Inspiration and Healing

“Relaxing brings weakness, when done by a muscle; but brings strength, when done by a person.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“In short: there are limits. Morality plays a big role in a rich and full life, but it's not everything. And if your inner fire burns bright, no need to stoke it hotter. In any case, don't let yourself be fuelled by a sense of guilt or shame, but rather with enthusiasm and a lust for life. Be ambitious, not perfect. There comes a point when you're fine just the way you are.”
― Rutger Bregman, Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference

“We've been taught to search outside ourselves, but the real solution was never out there. It's not about finding more energy, it's about learning to access and direct it.”
― Dr. Suzanne Bober

“Anyone who’s worked in this industry knows it’s blood, sweat, tears, high-functioning anxiety, and questionable decisions held together by resilience like no other.”
― C.R.., To Those Who Make the Tea: A Memoir of Burnout, Burgers & Behind the Scenes in F&B Life

“We’re taught to push through everything.
No one teaches us when to pause.”
― Joren Dorne, You Are Allowed to Slow Down: Finding calm in a racing world

“Strength that never rests eventually forgets how to feel.”
― Dr. Siidarth Bhattacharya, The Fire That Remakes You: A Proven Roadmap to Overcoming Burnout, Rebuilding Resilience, and Rising from Life’s Hardest Setbacks

“If your caring for others is deeply hurting you, it’s not actually caring for others but self hatred disguised as selflessness. When you’re caring for people, make sure to begin with yourself.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“Self-care is what makes caregiving sustainable.”
― Eleanor Brownn, The Other Serenity Prayer: Meditations on Self-Kindness

“Cada época possui suas enfermidades fundamentais. Desse modo, temos uma época bacterológica, que chegou ao seu fim com a descoberta dos antibióticos. Apesar do medo imenso que temos hoje de uma pandemia gripal, não vivemos numa época viral. Graças à técnica imunológica, já deixamos para trás essa época. Visto a partir da perspectiva patológica, o começo do século XXI não é definido como bacteriológico nem viral, mas neuronal. Doenças neuronais como a depressão, transtorno de déficit de atenção com síndrome de hiperatividade (TDAH), transtorno de personalidade limítrofe (TPL) ou a síndrome de burnout (SB) determinam a paisagem patológica do começo do século XXI. Não são infecções, mas enfartos, provocados não pela negatividade de algo imunologicamente diverso, mas pelo excesso de positividade. Assim, eles escapam a qualquer técnica imunológica, que tem a função de afastar a negatividade daquilo que é estranho.”
― Byung-Chul Han

“Overgiving isn’t kindness. Overgiving is fear dressed up as a good personality.”
― K. Arbidane, Inhale. Exhale. F*ck It.: Stop Overgiving. Start Living.

“Burnout is too much emotional responsibility.”
― K. Arbidane, Inhale. Exhale. F*ck It.: Stop Overgiving. Start Living.

“Tolerance is not love. Tolerance is a timer”
― K. Arbidane

“Burn it up, burn it bright, and burn out.”
― ian kirkpatrick, Bodymore Zero

“She simply decided that at seven, she would stop. Whatever she was doing, whatever she thought she should be doing, whatever she had convinced herself she ought to be doing — she would stop.”
― Belinda Kelderhouse, 21st Century Intolerant: A collection of short stories about the struggles of modern life, from the trivial to the terrifying.

“The people most likely to burn out are not the weak ones. They are the strong ones. The disciplined ones. The reliable ones.”
― Ronen Dancziger, The Elastic Advantage: How High Achievers Stay Flexible, Beat Burnout, and Win in a Rigid World.

“Healing doesn’t begin when the cup is finally full, but when it is finally set down.”
― Amani Mohsen, The Sages of the Hidden Road: A Parable for the Weary Soul

“Happiness is not a destination you reach by working harder. It is a frequency you tune into by remembering who you are.”
― Amani Mohsen, The Sages of the Hidden Road: A Parable for the Weary Soul

“Anxiety is the arrow that flies too far, missing the target of 'Now' in its hunger for 'Then.' Happiness is not the prize at the end of the race; it is the rhythm of the heart during the run.”
― Amani Mohsen, The Sages of the Hidden Road: A Parable for the Weary Soul

“Your body whispers first. Ignore it, and it starts texting in ALL CAPS.”
― Anette DeMattio