Gregor Rossmann - Intelligent Energy Management

Outsmarting Burnout with Intelligent Energy Management

We all have a limited amount of energy available to us. If we deplete our physical and mental resources, our health and enthusiasm suffer. Only those who maintain a balance between tension and relaxation in the long term can preserve their joy of life and avoid burnout. A prerequisite for high performance and long-term health is intelligent energy management. Here, we can learn from the strategies of top athletes and Shaolin monks.

So what does "Intelligent Energy Management" mean in concrete terms?

One of the most important training principles in competitive sports is the principle of effective stress stimulus. An athlete needs effective stress stimuli to improve. Insufficient training stimuli lead to no performance improvements and performance stagnation. If the athlete applies too high stimuli, it can lead to injuries and ultimately to overtraining. Overtraining is a chronic overload reaction caused by constantly high training intensities, high training volumes, and/or inadequate recovery times between training sessions. The symptoms of overtraining are similar to those of work-related overload. If the athlete wants to improve performance, the training stimulus must be neither too high nor too low, so that the desired adaptation processes can occur in the body. Therefore, targeted training control is an important prerequisite for performance enhancement. In order for you to also develop and grow personally, it is necessary that you set the right stimuli in your life. Growth requires you to step out of your comfort zone. If you never challenge yourself, you will not progress. Similarly, an athlete will not improve performance if they do not push themselves to their limits in training. Don't worry, you won't burn out immediately if you occasionally reach your limits. Almost all professional sectors experience phases of high stress.

What can I do for my well-being?

What matters most for your well-being is that after these phases of high stress, you consciously plan periods of recovery. Just as subthreshold and suprathreshold training stimuli can lead to stagnation or overtraining for athletes, prolonged overload and also under-challenge in everyday life have negative effects on your performance and health. If you perform tasks in your job that constantly overwhelm you, your productivity will decrease in the foreseeable future. Constant high tension depletes your energy reserves, and the classic symptoms of overload set in. You burn out, and burnout inevitably occurs. The same applies if you are exposed to too low demands for an extended period. You won't burn out due to prolonged under-challenge or excessive relaxation without stress, but you will be "bored out". Continuous under-challenge diminishes your motivation, you get bored, become apathetic at times, or just go through the motions. You constantly feel like you could do more than is required. Under-challenge occurs when your job demands are lower than your abilities. Prolonged under-challenge can lead to "boreout."

Setting the right amount of work.

Just as an athlete must set the right training stimuli, you must find the right amount of work. Vitality, enthusiasm, and peak performance are only possible in the long run if you challenge yourself with goals, tasks, and activities and do not over- or under-challenge yourself in the long run. Your goal should always be to design your life and work in a way that keeps you in the eustress zone in the long term (green zone in the graphic), meaning the zone where stress factors positively influence the body.

Energy management also means maintaining a balance between stress and relief.

It is unrealistic to believe that you can stay comfortable in the eustress zone. Life consists of a constant alternation between tension and relaxation, a interplay between high and low demands. However, it is important to allow yourself periods of rest after phases of high stress. This is how you develop performance and avoid illness. Even if you enjoy your work with great enthusiasm, you still consume energy that you need to replenish in your body to stay balanced. This means not only providing your body with energy from the outside through proper nutrition but also recharging your physical and mental batteries with regular relaxation periods and breaks. The systematic alternation between stress and relief is at the core of every training method. Top athletes and Shaolin monks are aware of this because they live perfect energy management. They pay attention to the balance between energy expenditure (stress) and energy production (regeneration). This balance is also important in everyday life and business.

In conclusion:

Intelligent energy management in professional life requires that you know your personal stress factors, perceive your individual symptoms of under-challenge and overload, and above all, handle your energy mindfully. This way, you will always be able to take targeted measures to prevent impending performance declines and maintain your enthusiasm, performance, and health.