Is it better to burn out or fade away?

How do you combat burnout?  I changed how I helped people.  I once believed that it was my job to help anyone who asked for help.  That is the credo of medicine, at least that is what I was taught to believe.   I found this set of beliefs was the fastest way to ruining myself.  While it’s tempting to take on everyone who wants to work with you, doing so in reality,  limits your long-term success, and leads to burnout of the person doing the helping.  This is counterproductive because who is a healer good for if they are not good enough fro themselves?    I say this from personal experience.  In my first several years in practice, I turned no one down who wanted me to work with them or on them.   This habit is learned in medicine in residency;  I took this habit with me when I opened my web business too.  That was a mistake.  I learned that in neurosurgery and my web business when I did this, it was leading to same problem.  Burnout and frustration was the result. I soon realized I had to rethink how I was going to do things in both worlds I chose to participate in. I realized I didn’t enjoy working with everyone I worked with as a patient, and I found that I did not like every member of my website either,  when it began.  I also realized, more likely than not, they didn’t all like working with me either.

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