Once, a polar bear living in a zoo suddenly stopped eating. The situation grew serious, and its life was in danger. After examining it, an animal psychologist discovered the reason it had gone off its food: it found life in the zoo unbearably dull. So the keepers began hiding its food each day, leaving it to hunt the meals out for itself. In the end, the polar bear's hunting instinct and zest for life were rekindled, and it started eating normally again! Hunting is in a polar bear's nature, and the zoo keepers' daily hand-feeding had robbed it of the primal drive to chase down its prey — even its very will to live had been snuffed out.
Do you dread going back to work? Do you spend every day repeating work that holds no challenge? Even when you succeed, you feel no satisfaction, and a part of you is always longing to "escape"?
You may be experiencing "Supernova Burnout" (Supernova Burnout)
Coined by clinical psychologist Dr Steven Berglas, "Supernova Burnout" describes a psychological state of chronic anxiety, disappointment, distress and depression. Those affected are usually successful people: even when their careers flourish, they feel no happiness or confidence as a result. Instead they feel anxious and listless, sometimes even helpless and afraid, no longer able to draw any spiritual fulfilment from their work.
The causes
Is being too driven a bad thing?
When people are exceptionally driven and ambitious, holding to a must-succeed-at-all-costs attitude, they can paradoxically slide into apathy and weariness. By pinning every goal on "success", they lose sight of the purpose and meaning of the work itself. They are full of anxiety before they succeed, and when success finally arrives they have also lost the goal they were striving towards, leaving them feeling empty. Some even fall into depression because of it.
You've succeeded — what now?
Some high achievers never receive the psychological payoff they expected: having reached their goal, they find it brings none of the change they had hoped for. Society sings the praises of their career success and material abundance, yet they do not find happiness in any of it. Instead they sink into an anxious cycle of gain and loss.
Don't assume this predicament is reserved for the successful. Living in fiercely competitive Hong Kong, every one of us carries the expectations of the people around us — parents who want you to get ahead, a company that expects your performance to keep climbing. These unavoidable expectations rarely bring only the benign kind of stress. When we have grafted away in the workplace for years and reached a certain height, the responsibilities you shoulder only grow heavier — and at that point you cannot simply rest when you want to. Higher income comes hand in hand with greater burdens and the weight of expectation. When negative emotions and stress take over your life, success becomes the golden handcuffs that bind you to it.
The tell-tale symptoms of "Supernova Burnout"
1. Anxiety
Having poured in years of effort and time, longing to become the elite that everyone admires, you also accumulate a relentless anxiety about success — afraid you have achieved nothing, or not succeeded enough. This anxiety fails to ease even after success is genuinely won; the problems in your life do not melt away in the face of your accomplishments.
2. A lack of drive
Losing motivation after success: having reached a certain achievement, you lose the goal you once had and lose your drive for the things around you. People in this state may want for nothing materially and may command others' respect, yet find no motivation left to keep striving.
3. Self-imposed limits
Success can win the trust and respect of those around you, yet for fear of letting them down, you give up the things you are genuinely interested in, lest you lose their approval. People who set such limits on themselves waver between the achievements they already have and others' expectations, trying hard to close the gap between the two — and this too can give rise to "Supernova Burnout".
Tired of feeling worse and worse the further you go down the road to success?
Use psychology to ease Supernova Burnout and rediscover your purpose in life:
A shift in mindset: pursue eustress rather than the comfort of success
The success most people yearn for is having enough money to live a comfortable life. Yet while a stable income and lifestyle can bring a sense of security, no one can feel motivated and fulfilled by work that is monotonous or that simply doesn't interest them.
Even a high-paying, prestigious job can lose its meaning when success only serves to maintain the success you already have. The success you cling to becomes nothing more than monotonous work. A stable life weighed down by distress is not enough to make a person happy — it can in fact harm mental health. It is eustress that gives life meaning and drive.
Distress (Distress)
Stress brought on by unpleasant experiences — the fatigue or oppression felt when challenged, the negative psychological state that arises when we face change and fail to adapt, such as dread.
Eustress (Eustress)
When a person strives towards a meaningful goal, they have enough capacity to cope even when faced with all kinds of challenges and psychological pressure — and grow ever more positive for it, forming an experience that is stressful yet enjoyable.
Self-assessment and self-knowledge:
"People always hold themselves to the wrong standards, and so undervalue the true worth of their own lives."
Many people search their whole lives and never find life's meaning, but the true worth of a life is certainly not defined by workplace status alone. Only by truly knowing yourself can you satisfy your own spirit. Blindly chasing achievements by society's definition of success brings only fleeting happiness from material things and reputation.
Open yourself to a wider range of choices
Beyond your existing career, you can take part in activities in different fields — broadening your knowledge while seeking new challenges, and stepping away from your usual environment for a while to find a fresh sense of life.
Rest when the time is right, then set out anew
One of the main causes of Supernova Burnout is being overly tense and anxious about your own performance. So learn to rest at the right moments amid the busyness, recalibrating your state and direction at different stages — only then will you know where you ought to put your effort.
We hope you won't toil your whole life only to discover, in the end, that what you gained was never what you truly longed for — and that by then you no longer have the courage to let go of stability and pursue your ideals. Some people believe the reason they are trapped in their current situation is that they don't have enough money, convinced that only by earning more or becoming more "successful" will life offer a "way out" and more possibilities. But in truth, much of the time, what you lack is the will to fight — what you lack is a sense of life's worth beyond your career.
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【Know Thyself: Psychology of You — a foundational psychology course】
(Begins 24 March) http://treehole.hk/event/know-thyself/
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Reference
Berglas, S. (2001). Reclaiming The Fire: How Successful People Overcome Burnout (1st ed.). Random House.
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