Burnout Prevention Pt 3: Employ Your Passions
“People who experience the least burnout are working in their values. Not just good things, but specific things about which they are passionate.”
What Are Your Core Values?
I had never even heard the phrase “core values” before, and now I was being asked to identify and name them.
As I looked through some sample lists of values, I thought, “Aren’t these all important? How can I say one is more important than the others? Why can’t I choose them all?”
Fast forward a few years, and now helping individuals identify their core values is one of my favourite – and important – parts of my role in worker care.
Why? Because to know, and work from, one’s core values is a recipe for flourishing!
What is a Core Value?
When I coach a person around their core values, we usually start broadly and funnel down to a list of 3-5 values that they are most passionate about. There are many good values, but we try to get to the heart of how God made them and how he has instilled in them a passion for certain, specific things.
For instance, I value justice. I think it’s a very important thing! But I have had to be honest that it isn’t something I have a drive and passion for. If I tried to work in a role that was orientated primarily around justice, I a) wouldn’t do as good of a job at it as someone else who has a zeal for justice, b) would be drained over time by working on something that doesn’t align with my own passions, and c) would be taken away from working on something for which I could bring my own enthusiasm and fervour.
Let’s be clear, I always want to be obedient to the Lord Jesus, and sometimes he asks me to do things about which I am not super enthusiastic. But I am learning that this is the exception, not the rule.
When I do the hard work of identifying my core values, I can harness them as part of my discernment process for what I take on.
Real discernment is led by the Holy Spirit, often with a wise guide or coach along the way, and takes into account what those closest to us see and notice.
When I was attempting to understand my own core values during participation in a leadership cohort, I reached out to family and friends to ask them what they thought was important to me. I also went through a pretty rigorous process with a mentor/coach who asked questions and helped me gain insight, and all of this was done with an awareness of, and making time to sit and listen to, the Spirit.
Know Your Passions
If we attempt to ward off burnout by being more organised, having better priorities, and establishing boundaries, but fail to recognise and operate out of our passions, we end up with well-organised, prioritised, and boundaried life-suckers. It may help in some ways, but it won’t solve the underlying issue.
Just like in the last blog post, when I wrote about how we must do what fills us (even if we have to make radical changes to do so), so we must also know our core values and employ our passions – which does end up being life-giving anyway. Sure, not every task that I work on as co-director of member care is super fun: the emails, scheduling, and organising of resources is something I’d rather do without. But when it’s all working toward my overall goal of providing excellent care for workers, because I am passionate about them flourishing in their unique call as the healthiest version of themselves, then it makes those less-savoury tasks part of an all-important goal.
Tool: Start Brainstorming
I find that the most helpful practice to start identifying your core values is to find a quiet place to just think. Focus on what you think you are most passionate about and try to name the top three. It’s best to do this without looking at lists of core values, to let your mind be clear and focused on hearing the Holy Spirit.
After that, you can start looking at values lists and highlighting the things that are most important to you, also writing down values that seem to be unmentioned and missing.
Tools: Worksheets and Assessments
There are a number of worksheets out there to help with identifying core values, I found this one to be particularly useful.. Sometimes our strengths can clue us in to what we are passionate about. You can take simple assessments like this one that can help shed some light on your values.
Tool: Get Coaching
The single most helpful thing for me to narrow down and clarify the myriad of values I was looking at was to have a professionally trained coach guide me through a process. A good coach doesn’t put any ideas in your head, they help draw out what is already in your heart and mind. I find such joy and fulfilment in helping someone find ‘just the right word’ that fits as the perfect descriptor of the value that they are trying to articulate.
You Have Choices
Here’s the problem that I ran into. I had identified my core values, I had a calling statement and everything. Awareness was high.
But awareness wasn’t enough. As I was trying to find a path away from burnout, I learned that I wasn’t making choices that aligned with my core values. The mistake that I was making, like many others, was that even though I had high awareness, I wasn’t applying that to my life. It’s only where awareness and application meet that we can be growing towards maturity.
Many of us feel stuck. We think that even if we were to become aware of our core values, our deepest passions, we cannot change our lives because we’ve worked ourselves into a corner and made too many commitments, or we will be letting other people down, or things will be left undone.
But Jesus made you and me uniquely in his image with the ability to choose.
I have way more choices than I think I do. I have said yes to far too many things that do not align with my passions. As I’ve made shifts in this area, taking up again my ability to choose, I have begun to find my way out of burnout and toward a flourishing life. I still have a long way to go… But I’ve made a start. How about you?
Is the concept of core values a new one to you?
What makes you want to clarify your values?
What would cause you to not want to identify your core values?
How can you begin to employ your core values in your life?
In what ways have you given up your power to choose?
What’s one next step you can take?