Wednesday, October 1, 2008

My counselor's latest discovery


Recently, I've had a few of the hardest days of my year.

At first I thought I was losing my mind: small comments seemed to irritate me, my heart felt strangely heavy, and I couldn't focus on simple details.

My counselor suggested that I might be experiencing the initial stages of burn out.

So, I reflected on my current workload and realized that I have no margin.  My time is split between church ministry and teaching.   I'm working 3/4 time as a worship and arts pastor.  Our church is in transition (we lost our lead pastor in the summer) so it means all of us as staff are feeling a bit stretched already.  At the same time I'm teaching 3 Bible College courses: 2 of which I've never taught before.  That means my evenings are consumed with research and class prep. 

I think my counselor is absolutely right.

She's smart.  And very kissable.  That's why I married her.

So, for the rest of the year I'm going to ask for help.  And I'm only going to do what I'm good at.  The rest can wait.    

2 comments:

Tim Good said...

I don't know about you but I seem to have to learn and re-learn the idea that you have written...

It would also be great if everyone could say publicly that we are doing so much... Then we wouldn't look across the room at the person burning themselves out and think that is the standard that we also have to hit. It sometimes becomes peer pressure only not over what kind of car to drive, but on how many irons we can get into the fire.

Luke said...

Amen dude.
As long as you are aware of it and know how to stop yourself from getting burnt out you've solved most of the problem/
Also be aware of how many people WANT to help you. And how many people happily will if you just ask.
Friends are here to back you up buddy.
And I am sure we will have this whole projector thing fixed real soon, probably, well most likely, at least this year, i hope.... ;)

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