Beat Burnout
As we come to the end of October and enter into November, we are creeping into what we call in the soccer world, Burnout Time. When you started your season, you were motivated and pumped up. Then school started and you added another layer to your load. And as the season and school have progressed, your levels of stress and exhaustion have grown a bit.
For soccer players, it is important to have a level of self awareness to know when you are crossing over from the typical stress you feel into burnout. If you struggle to tell the difference, we recommend more practice in self reflection and journaling to notice your emotions and habits that come from them. Some simple differences between the two include:
Stress: Typical stress includes over engagement, loss of energy, reactive emotions, anxiety, physical exhaustion.
Burnout: But burnout is different. Burnout is disengagement, detached emotions, helplessness, lack of motivation, depression, anxiety,
So what can you do about it? Here are five things we recommend to help combat feelings of burnout as you enter into the end of your fall season:
Self Awareness:
It is incredibly important for players to be self aware of how they are feeling throughout their seasons. Being self aware helps you notice your emotions and the habits you create and practice as a result of those emotions. One way to practice self awareness is to journal your feelings. Written words or doodling, its more about the practice of taking time to self-reflect rather than the quality of your writing or drawings.
2. Meaning and Purpose:
When you are feeling burned out, it is important to add or invest your time into things that fill your heart with meaning or purpose. By doing this, it can help shift your perspective and get out of the monotony of your world. Some examples of adding meaning or purpose is to help others, join community causes, involve yourself in things you care about outside of soccer and school. Take time to figure out what else you care about as deeply as you do soccer.
3. Set Boundaries:
Boundaries are ways to protect ourselves from things that add more stress or pressure to our lives. Learning to create boundaries is hard but is important for your well being. Learning to have hard, honest conversations when you are feeling overwhelmed and out of energy or control is a life skill that will help you forever.
4. Find Detached Hobbies/Interests:
I know you’re thinking that you don’t have time for this, but you do. Hobbies and Interests don’t need to be something you do all day. It doesn’t need to be another activity or sport. It can simply be something you enjoy doing that is outside of your sport or school. Examples include, cooking, yoga, hiking, listening to podcasts, TV, art, etc. Create a plan for yourself on how to implement these detached hobbies into your daily and weekly routines.
5. REST
The biggest way to beat Burnout is to REST. How are you supposed to do that when you have no time for it? You make time for it. You decide to skip a practice. You decide to not do the extra training one week. You decide to shift your thinking away from “Rest means I’m not pushing myself,” to “Rest is part of how I make it to the highest level.” Skipping one practice for your mental health doesn’t mean you are not committed or that you aren’t passionate. It means that you are self aware of your needs and you are putting those needs first. By prioritizing your well being over the worry of what your coach or teammate thinks, is putting yourself on the path to the highest level. If your coach thinks you’re soft for skipping a practice, you can say this: “I will play better and be more focused if I am feeling less burned out. Part of being an elite level player is having a high level of self awareness. I am aware that I need a minute to rest.” A great analogy to use is the Airplane Oxygen mask. We can’t be our best for our team or others around us when we put ourselves last. It's putting on our own mask first that we then get to help the others around us. Tell them that when you are your best self, you are able to be better for the team as a whole. And being aware of that makes you a great player.
There is nothing good that comes from a burned out player. If you are starting to feel that way, it’s not going to magically disappear without doing something about it. Most often when you play burned out, you will lose all motivation and are very prone to injury. You are a person first and a soccer player second. Players that put all of their eggs into the soccer basket are the ones who have the hardest time through injury and the ones who have the hardest times when the sport ends. There are many elite high level players that know how to do these things to prevent burnout. Its not easy, its not a one time thing. It takes practice, consistency and will power. But remember, you can do hard things.