Feeling stressed? So frazzled and frantic that you don't even have time to read this?
Relax. Breathe. And keep reading, because below is a superb summary of key ways to battle against burn-out.
Our most recent Planter Session featured psychologist Grant Bickerton, who has had
more than 15 years experience working in and with full-time ministry roles. Click here to watch the entire session, as Grant provides excellent insights into perseverance, prevention and propulsion.
As a handy taster of what his Planter Session expands in vital detail, see below for Grant's Top 5 Tips for Beating Burn-Out. Reflect on them. Aim to implement them swiftly, to assist long-term gains in the short-term.
Top 5 Tips For Beating Burn-Out
Understand the Demands
1. Have the “right job demands”. Identify what are the motivational challenges for your role, and how to reduce or shift the hindrances.
Recovery Time
2. “Work in season and rest in season”. Manage your job demands by taking recovery time daily, weekly, and throughout the year. Reduce ambiguity and expectations, by developing short-term goals and clear plans of what you need to be doing to get there. These should be things you can control, not those out of your control.
Be Resourceful
3. Seek out specific job resources that can help reduce felt demands and/or help you with your goals. Access relevant information, learning and support. For example, you could find a mentor who can give straight feedback and provide ideas. Or you could meet with people who will encourage you as a Christian, and also with those who just love you regardless.
Let God in
4. Make time for personally meeting with God as He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus and through His Word. How do you do that, and how can you continue to grow in your personal knowledge of God? That's what you must determine. We all need this – both as children of God, as well as for our ongoing “conviction” about what we should be doing.
Let God in – everything
5. Involve God in all aspects of your day and work life. Explore what it means to practice Colossians 1:28, amid the stresses and strains of church planting.
