Thanks to latest buzzword originated past fortnight in a column by the American Writer Anne Helen Peterson which has garnered popularity and gained success in seeding a train of thoughts in many a head and created a discussion around it.
The word is – Errand Paralysis!
Technically and in simplified words it conveys – Burn-out!
It would be better to tout it more as a prevalent and widespread condition than merely reducing it to a terminology or “Oh-So Uber Word”.
Coming to the context, Peterson laid an emphasis on how “Millennial’s became the burnout generation”. She detailed how this generation has become a victim of over-exhaustion and stress with depleting energy reserves that is accumulated over a longer period of time and their struggle with it.
Belonging to the same cohort, at an individual level I could not relate to the entire narrate at any level. However, putting into consideration data, information and statistics it not does only acknowledge the state but confirm to it as well.
The Cause? Digging the Mindset!
Keeping aside the external factors and reasons piling up to become the cause for burn-out, we need to dig hard in our heads to understand how at an intrinsic level we are responsible to accentuate it.
From a very early stage many are programmed in a way and are made to believe that if one is not busy then one is not working, is not good enough or worthy.
We fell for the fallacy that staying busy equates moving mountains.
We over-rated the word – BUSY, placed it on a very high pedestal and unknowingly made it sound Cool as well.
And, glorified it too!
Picking up a sub-section from one of the bestseller which accurately provides an insight on the thought process one is made to cultivate – “We have grown to sub-consciously measure a person’s worth based on how busy they say they are, how much is on their plate and whether or not they are running around like a chicken with their head cut-off”
Combating the Self -Fulfilling Prophecy !
Numerous articles are already floating in the virtual world elaborating on the subject and placing prominence on Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, indulging in hobbies and downtime to battle, help reduce or neutralise the effect of burnout.
But, why hit that level and reach the curative stage? Utilizing the power to connect with one’s thinking ability, putting it effectively to the task at hand and mitigating non-essentials is much simple and easier.
Collaborating with Mind to reduce Efforts -With the advent of technological advancement and information readily available at our finger-tips, we are forgetting one essential and natural ability to collaborate with our minds, keeping it on an auto-pilot mode and simply feeding and acting on the served information and thereby sometimes spending more time on the efforts than required.
Here comes application of the power to connect with one’s thinking ability (a very powerful human tool to identify and differentiate between pseudo and bonafide activity) and putting it at use to bring down spending excess energy and time.
Adopting Less is More – Given the limited resources one has in terms of time, mental/ physical energy and attention span, it’s time to bring paradigm shift in mindset with a focus on breaking the conventional way of laying importance on Quantity.
Sooner or later, we must ask ourselves this question – Is the objective to be the busiest or to make a difference?