"When you work you are a flute through whose heart whispering of hours turns to music. To love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. All work is empty save when there is love, for work is love made visible." Kahlil Gibran

The idea of "right livelihood" originally comes from Buddhism and refers to work that is consciously chosen, performed with full awareness and care and leads to enlightenment. It means we show our love for world through our work and should avoid work that hurts or exploits others. Work provides us with an opportunity to put our beliefs into action.

Conscious Choice

In my consulting practice, I often work with people whose work, through a series of circumstances, has chosen them. Sometimes these career choices seem arbitrary. One person liked a professor he had in college and therefore took up that person's occupation. What many deemed "practical" dictated their direction. Some chose a professional graduate school so they would be qualified to do something, only to realize in their first job that that they do not like work itself. Sadly, career choice is often not inspired from a passion or a particular talent or need of expression.

"We like to think that we have chosen our work, but it could be more accurate to say that our work has found us." Thomas Moore, Care of Soul

A married person with a family sometimes makes career decisions based on what is best for family. Work that does not harm others and supports our family is important. If we find our options are limited while we raise a family, we can be thankful that we have a well-paying job, and can plan for a career change to more fulfilling work when children have left home.

Mindfulness

Right livelihood is also about being present in moment and doing work that needs to be done. I t means concentrating on each task at hand. All parts of work are important, including paperwork many of us would rather not do. It means being willing to do "grunge" work. Mother Teresa said that there is too much preaching and not enough doing. "Take a broom and clean someone's house," she says. "That says enough."

"In order to burn out, a person needs to have been on fire at one time." Ayala Pines

What is burnout? And how do you know if you're suffering from it? Burnout is various physical, emotional and mental reactions caused by repeated stress.

Effects of Stress

The negative affects of stress have been documented by research studies. Prolonged, unrelenting stress can produce psychological and physiological consequences including:  Anxiety  Depression  Hypertension  Impaired Immune System Functioning and  Increased risk of coronary heart disease and cancer

Who is at Risk?

Therapists, lawyers, health care professionals and others in various service professions are frequently at risk for job burnout. Also at risk are executives, and those who work long hours or get little fulfillment from their work.

With a greater percentage of single parent families and longer workweeks, more people today suffer from burnout. Single working parents are often stressed from pressures of working equivalent of two full-time jobs. Corporate downsizing has placed increased responsibilities on those who survive, adding more pressure and longer hours. Small business owners are at risk since there are fewer people to do all work.

Certain personality characteristics often make some people more susceptible for burnout. These include perfectionism, idealism and workaholism. People with these characteristics sometimes have difficulty delegating and frequently feel that there is too much work for them to do. Service professionals can suffer from not setting limits with work hours and availability to clients, and from taking work home with them.

"The sun will set without thine assistance." Talmud

Symptoms of Burnout

How can you tell if your are suffering from burnout? If you are experiencing three or more of following, you probably are.

 Feeling overwhelmed  Having trouble making decisions  Short-tempered  Low energy-tired all time  Loss of enthusiasm for work  Increase in use of cigarettes, alcohol and caffeine  Moodiness and irritability  Insomnia  Depression