Conquering Burnout in Adulthood and Embracing the Daily Grind
Is life all about the daily grind? If so, how do I be okay with that and prevent burnout? How do I make a game plan for my life and make my grind work for me?
In this article, I discuss the daily grind, burnout, and how to deal with it. I’ll also guide you through how I wrote a game plan for 7 areas of my life goals. These are:
- Financial
- Career
- Recreation
- Health
- Relationships
- Personal Life
- Community
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Is Life All About The Grind?
After getting hired for a normal 9–5 job post-startup, I started to get into a routine. Personally, this was the first time I experienced some semblance of work-life balance, and it took some getting used to.
But I noticed that a lot of my weeks were more or less the same. Unlike startup and student life, this life was kind of repetitive.
This is called the daily grind.
What is the Daily Grind?
The daily grind is that rinse-and-repeat cycle to life — the one where you wake up, do some work, eat, exercise and socialize (maybe), and doze off to sleep at the end of the day. And then it starts all over again the next day.
When I first searched this, an article on LinkedIn came up that had this quote:
“There’s something very wrong with a system that constantly tells us that we need to optimize our lives (“the daily grind”) to be successful, as if we were machines.” — Rachel Tng, Thoughts on Millennial Burnout, the Daily Grind, and a Life Worth Living
According to the article, life was a “never-ending to-do list” that was “always on, always working” and that people, including the author herself, would constantly “feel guilty about not ensuring that every single available time slot is filled with something ‘useful’.”
Unfortunately, this feeling of frustration and being overwhelmed is a common one experienced by many in today’s workforce.
This is the feeling of burnout.
What is Burnout?
Burnout is the mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.
For me, I characterize it by a lack of energy to do things I normally do.
In fact, it’s all too easy to occur even with projects and activities we love if we’re not careful about setting personal boundaries.
What can we do about Burnout?
Why are some people able to cope with the daily grind seemingly burnout-free while others struggle day-to-day?
I would argue that people who have achieved inner peace, balance, or whatever you want to call it with their lives have direction.
They’ve spent the time to map out exactly where they want their life to take them, which is why they’re fine with the grind.
They have a plan.
And that’s exactly what we’ll do next!
How to Draft the Master Plan for Your Life
Back in university, I was generally content even though I was broke, working and/or studying for 18 out of 24 hours each day, and living in a basement.
By all accounts, I should’ve been miserable. But I wasn’t.
Only now did I realize it was because I had a massive 2ft x 3ft canvas that was my 5-year plan. This canvas was hung up in my room so that I could wake up to it every morning. This little reminder of what I was trying to accomplish served as a “jumpstart” to fill my energy for the rest of the day.
We need something like this for our adult life!
7 Areas of Life Goals to Think About
Instead of a huge canvas, let’s start small with writing 7 goals. These are 7 areas of life (which I got from this blog) that you may not have thought of, and are missing from your life. Along the way, I’ll give you my goals to serve as examples.
1. Financial Goals — How much do you want to be making? How will you be making it? Where will you live? What car will you drive? What will be your lifestyle?
For me, the most important thing is financial independence and multiple income sources (passive and active). Specifically, I want to be a millionaire in disguise, a concept borrowed from the book The Millionaire Next Door. Tae Kim, Financial Tortoise on YouTube calls this stealth wealth, which I believe is the path to true freedom.
2. Career Goals — What do you want to be known for? Where do you want to be working? At an office or at home? Do you own a business? Who do you work with? Do you work in a routine or when inspiration hits?
Meaningful work was the most important aspect for me. I also thought about my strengths and what I did/did not want to do. For example, I’ve been told I’m an excellent teacher but I also prefer to work in long sprints with lots of autonomy. So I became an AI technology consultant (at least that’s the best fit for now).
3. Recreation — What does your free time look like? Any hobbies? Where would you go on vacation and how often?
I really enjoy acquiring skills and training in various martial arts. For example, my next (actual) vacation is going to Japan to train in karate and kendo, and to walk the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Route, a 1000-year old trail taken by samurai and emperors. Ideally, I’d want to take 1–3 month long vacations if possible.
4. Health — What are you doing to stay healthy? What do you want to look like? What are you eating? How are you exercising? What does peak fitness look like to you?
For this one, I’m trusting my frequent martial arts training to take care of my health. I like the weathered skin and toned muscles warrior aesthetic. Could improve my diet though.
5. Relationships — Who do you hang out with? What do your family relationships look like? When/where do you see friends? Are you in a romantic relationship?
I have a small group of close friends, but I do wish we hung out more regularly. In my head, I picture a coffee shop like in Friends (I’d probably be the Chandler of the group).
In terms of romance, I’m still looking for a relationship that can both challenge and support me while at the same time giving me butterflies in the stomach (also has to be someone financially savvy with good money values). Although, I’m only 80% sure right now about being ready to share my life with someone special.
6. Personal/Spiritual Life — How am I improving myself as a person? Am I working on mind, body, and soul?
I don’t personally feel like I’m lacking in this department, minus perhaps the spiritual one. But if I didn’t have a decent relationship with myself, or if I had too many negative self-talks, I’d work on that.
7. Community — Where do you belong? How do you contribute to others? What is your role in each community you’re a part of?
Contrary to most people, I don’t believe I’m the hero of my story. Rather, I think I’m the old hermit on the hill that’s meant to mentor the protagonist when they come along (hello there, Ben Kenobi?). Whatever it ends up being, teaching something valuable will be a part of it.
Conclusion
Life can be a grind, but there’s no reason we can’t be unhappy with it. For me, writing down goals to work towards made my daily routine a lot more bearable, or even exciting.
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Thank you for reading!
— Ricky
