Burnout after high school is a real thing, and it’s not acknowledged often enough. While some people might spend their high school years messing around, many of us spent them working our asses off to get into a good college. After four years of a constant hustle, it’s only natural to feel exhausted.
Going into college, this can be a formidable thought. You have four more years ahead of you, and then it’s time for the workforce. Anyone would be stressed out by this. While burnout after high school isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to cure, it is definitely possible. The good news is that it’s in your control. Here are seven things that you can do to address it.
#1: Make Time for What You Want to Do
One of the main causes for burnout after high school is that you didn’t make time for what you wanted to do. It’s understandable. High school brings so many demands with grades, college apps, sports, volunteering, etc. However, it takes a toll on you eventually, and it’s usually not sustainable. As much as you might try, you are not a machine. You need rest, and you need things to make your life meaningful.
I’m often hesitant to use the word “self-care” because I feel that it is overused. However, doing the things you want to do is a great form of self-care. You get more in touch with your true self, you work towards your meaning, and you build self-confidence. All of these things are objectively good.
Often, we have a sense of guilt when we are not being “productive.” This is something that I experience often, and it’s something that I experienced all throughout high school and college. Even today, I often find myself restless when I am doing something that doesn’t feel productive to my immediate success. Pleasurable activities like reading, writing, and just watching TV can often feel like they are time sucks. However, it is necessary to do these. They are part of what makes us who we are. Take it from me–this is one of my big regrets from my university years.
#2: Create a Change of Scenery
This can be a trip, working in a different room of a house/a coffeeshop, or spending more time outside your house. Sometimes, we get stuck when we work in one place. It produces a feeling of mental staleness, and it also gets boring physically. You’ve seen that same setup a million times. Why would it be any better the next?
When I feel burnt out, I often go to work at a local coffee shop or park. Even if it’s just for one day, it helps to clear your mind and to not look at the same wall for one more day. This isn’t a permanent solution, but it can help to create that separation of work and life. It can help your mind to think differently (more creatively), and it can also lessen that gut-clenching feeling of not again. While this is a temporary fix, it really does help when combatting burnout after high school.
#3: Walk More
Many of the great creatives have credited exercise, or walking in particular, to their great ideas. While you don’t necessarily need to do it to achieve something brilliant, walking is excellent to just get you moving. It makes you healthier, it gets you out of the house, and it also gives you time to think while not being occupied with something else. While you are walking, you usually aren’t looking at a screen or being yelled at by people or facing all of the distractions of a home/work environment. If you walk in nature, there are many additional benefits for your happiness, as this interesting Yale study explains.
Like with a change of scenery, walking more can help to combat these feelings of burnout after high school. It can also set you up for healthy habits in college, which is incredibly important. At the very least, you exercise a bit. At the very most, you lessen anxiety and feel more creative. What is there to lose?
#4: Plan for the Future*
It helps to have things to look forward to. Do you have travel plans that you will enjoy? Do you have a career in mind? Start figuring out ways that you can get there. The important thing is that these are things that you want to do and that you feel will bring your life meaning. When you’re looking forward to something outside of the necessary and have “a reason to be,” so to speak, it’s a lot easier to get through the mundane. Suddenly, doing that boring homework or office job doesn’t seem like it’s your reason for being. It’s not the end goal, and it’s not the center of your life. You have other things–brighter things–to look forward to. Connect them to the things that you want to do and make them ongoing goals.
Some examples include:
- Planning a trip (in city, in state, in country, international)
- Searching for a dream job (in your field OR out of your field)
- Dreaming up a business venture
- Making a vision board for the future
- Thinking about what it means to achieve your personal dreams
#5: “Plan” for the Moment
While looking ahead is great, as aforementioned, many of us who run into burnout often live our lives in the future. We’re obsessed with success, security, control–you name it. We always want to be our best, do our best, and make people proud. However, this can often result in not living in the moment. What are some things that you want to do in the immediate future? What can add some variety to your life?
For me, it helped to sort of create a bucket list. With each birthday, I generate a new list of X amount of things I want to do before I turn X age (i.e., 21 things I want to do before I turn 21). I enjoy the commitment of not having to really plan specific things, but I still have the challenge of accomplishing new, spontaneous things by the next year.
For me, burnout has been an uphill battle. Allowing this spontaneity into my life but still making it feel like it “counts” has been revolutionary. I find myself trying to outdo my initial goals in spontaneity, and it has brought so many fun and unique experiences into my life. Because of this, I would definitely say that “planning” your spontaneous events and focusing on the present is a great way to address burnout after high school.
#6: Give Yourself Grace
With the feeling of burnout after high school often comes guilt, anxiety, and frustration. You’re mad at yourself for feeling this way and not knowing your limits. There’s guilt about continuing to push yourself or “giving up.” There’s anxiety about what will happen if you just stop pushing so hard. All of these emotions make sense.
However, you need to think long term. What will happen if you keep pushing so hard? You’ll only face more burnout, which will result in less productivity. This is a hard pill to swallow, but it’s a necessary one. Sometimes you need to lose the battle to win the war. Whether this is giving something up to lighten your load or cutting back on the hours you do something, you need to forgive yourself for not being able to carry the weight of the world.
Someone once told me that I wasn’t a machine and that I couldn’t keep working myself like one. I was a sophomore in college, trying my best to pile everything on. In the process, I’d neglected myself and stopped living in the present. This was something that I needed to hear, and it’s something that I still think of when I feel the exhaustion starting to creep in.
#7: Try New Experiences
A lot of burnout is because you have pushed yourself too hard for too long while doing the same things.
College offers so many opportunities for new experiences to cure this burnout after high school. You meet new people, live in a new place, get used to a new type of school…novelty is common. However, beyond that, you have the opportunity to extend yourself as an adult. Do you want to study abroad? Learn a language? Try a new hobby?
Now is the time to do it. Novelty often brings enlightenment about what you like and don’t like, and it can provide more outlets for you. If anything, it can distract you from the feeling of burnout. Don’t wait until “xyz happens.” If you do that, the finish line will keep getting further and further. It’s not a crime to allow yourself to enjoy things and to indulge in novelty (common sense provided). Do it now, and see the results in the long run.
A Final Word
Burnout after high school isn’t easy to solve. Despite this, it is absolutely essential to address it as soon as you can. By doing this, you can pave the path for healthier, happier habits during your university years. As you go through this journey to reconnect with yourself and to find balance again, just know that you’re not alone. So many of us have gone through the same struggle. More of us are going through it still. Balance doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process, just like so many other parts of growing up.
How have you responded to burnout in the past? Let me know in the comments below.
