Alex Hormozi’s definition of burnout

“You’re not getting out of it what you wanted to get out of it. I think that is when people will “get burned out.” I don’t think it has anything to do with the amount of work you are doing. 
–Alex Hormozi, in this video

This is an interesting way to think about burnout. I recall times in my life when I was working hard, spending long hours and late nights trying to produce a commercial. Early in my career, I wasn’t burning out. I can recall other times, later in my career, when I felt burned out by the thought of merely getting on another phone call. Early in my career, I was getting so much out of my effort. Later on in my career, I had been on so many pitch calls, that the thought of one more didn’t seem valuable to me. 

So, hard work and overwhelm doesn’t necessarily lead to burnout, while simple tasks can still leave you burned out? 

“[Burnout comes] when the cadence of that reward, which is meaningful, has continued to extend, in terms of how frequently you get rewarded,” Hormozi says in the same video. I experienced this the I started my career right after college. In school, every six months, at the end of every semester, for eighteen years in a row, someone told me, “Good job! You’re moving on.” But when I started my freelance career, I didn’t log any big wins for about eighteen months. This left me feeling like I wasn’t moving quick enough. It made me feel dumb. 

No one wants to work without any reward in sight. When we feel like we’re putting in a ton of effort, and we aren’t seeing results, we quit. It’s the logical thing to do. This is why balance is crucial. Things will take longer than you daydreamed, and you need to enjoy your life while you’re working, and while you wait for the results.