The hardest thing to do is to take a moment and reflect on how your work and career are going. Many times, business professionals are running at lightspeed where they are traveling, working late and running from project to project. They don’t see the close calls or the bumps in the road.  If you’re not prepared for the possibility of career burn out, it could send you out of control. When you were working long hours with a heavy workload and a lot of pressure, we don’t see the signs right in front of us. With our smartphones always in our hands 24/7, we never disconnect from the office.

Over time this type of regiment and stress will take its toll on your mind, body, and spirit. While everyone hits bumps in the road, it does not mean that they are going to crash. In order to avoid the crash, working professionals need to be prepared for the signs they are seeing along the road signaling the possibility of burning out.

There are three key areas to keep an eye out for. They are physical, psychological and behavioral signs. With physical signs, it could be a stomachache, chest pain or more frequent illnesses for you to name a few.  With psychological signs, one may begin experience loss of enjoyment in activities, more anxious about going to work, or even loss of concentration at work to name a few. With behavioral signs, you could have no appetite, be drinking more alcohol regularly or not finishing the project to name a few.  This a very short list as there are many more signs to look for.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you may be heading towards or already in the burnout phase. Try taking a weekend off and see how you are when you come back on Monday.  Do you still have these feelings from the week before? If you do, you’ll probably need to do some changes in your life, but you can recover and thrive again in your life.   It will take some work and commitment on your part.