"So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything, I've got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I'm going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever."
The full acceptance of burnout seems important. ie, rather than cling to old ideas about who you are and what you want, at a certain point it's best to let go of your ambitions and simply embrace life in whatever way you can. I remember one conversation I had on a bus in Thailand some years back:
"What do you do?"
"Oh, I'm a burnout from China. I mean, I was starting a company there, and I sort of imploded. Oh, the business didn't fail, it's still running... I just failed. At being me."
It was the first time in my adult life that I didn't have an impressive story to tell about what I was achieving.
Failure, instead of driving people away (as I'd feared), led to more empathy and deeper relationships. And instead of harming my career, it gave me the freedom to explore my interests without the pressure to achieve, which helped me figure out what I really enjoy. I'm now working crazy hours again, but it's so well aligned with my values and interests that I rarely feel stressed. (And I take better care of myself, because I know what can happen if I don't.)
I've solved my burnout problems slightly differently. I too made the conscious choice to stop pressuring myself into performing above and beyond what I was able to deliver and decided that my programming work was hence forth strictly going to be done as a hobby. I stopped working in IT completely because it simply was too stressful and no fun at all anymore.
I decided that it was time for a very radical change. So I deliberately went and looked for a profession I would otherwise never even have considered. A friend of mine invited me to a book binding workshop. The old fashioned kind that is. Before that I have never ever done anything with my hands. I was utterly convinced I didn't have this sort of thing in me at all, but I gave it a try anyway because this was exactly the kind of radical change I was looking for. I fell in love with it immediately and have never looked back again. It turned out to be such a wonderful and fulfilling job. No more stress, no more over-ambition. Instead I get to learn a fascinating profession and I go home every day feeling utterly and completely satisfied.
I do still write code, but strictly in my spare time and strictly those projects I know I will enjoy doing. This ensures that it will always remain as much fun as it was when I first started out.
The full acceptance of burnout seems important. ie, rather than cling to old ideas about who you are and what you want, at a certain point it's best to let go of your ambitions and simply embrace life in whatever way you can. I remember one conversation I had on a bus in Thailand some years back:
"What do you do?" "Oh, I'm a burnout from China. I mean, I was starting a company there, and I sort of imploded. Oh, the business didn't fail, it's still running... I just failed. At being me."
It was the first time in my adult life that I didn't have an impressive story to tell about what I was achieving.
Failure, instead of driving people away (as I'd feared), led to more empathy and deeper relationships. And instead of harming my career, it gave me the freedom to explore my interests without the pressure to achieve, which helped me figure out what I really enjoy. I'm now working crazy hours again, but it's so well aligned with my values and interests that I rarely feel stressed. (And I take better care of myself, because I know what can happen if I don't.)