How to Simone Biles: Be a Champion and Say No at Work

Before we dive in, I want to let you know that today’s article is all about mental health, and in order to talk about mental health, I need to share the story of when I hit my personal rock bottom and tried to take my own life. Because this story does deal with the topics of suicide and depression, please take care while reading.

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If you have a television, Instagram account, or happened to be walking past a bar that had the news on TV, you probably heard that while in Tokyo, Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympics. In the reports that followed, it became clear that she left the competition due to concern for her physical and mental wellbeing.

Simon Biles is an Olympic gold medalist. She does quadruple flips and impossible jumps and makes it look easy. She’s renowned as the most skilled gymnast of all time. But this moment has established her, not just as a gymnastics champion, but a champion for mental health.

You don’t need to be an Olympic athlete to feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders… In fact, I’ve never met someone who hasn’t experienced stress at work. If you’re the exception to this rule and, for you, every day at work is happy-go-lucky, please comment below because you are a unicorn and I want to have whatever you’re having.

But, if you are a part of this majority of people who are experiencing work stress, this message is for you.

Today, I’m going to tell you how to deal with burnout, and I’m also going to share how I learned these lessons the hard way.

Burnout is a state of physical, mental, or emotional exhaustion - when the demands of your job or life in general have become so overwhelming that you don’t feel like you can cope. It’s often caused by extended stress, but feels its opposite. Instead of feeling “up,” you feel empty and unmotivated.

I’ve had to deal with burnout at an extreme. A few years ago, stress, coupled with depression and PTSD, led to a mental breakdown that ended with me in a psych ward. I remember waking up, not knowing where I was, and being endlessly questioned by a revolving team of doctors, social workers and nurses, asking me if I knew “why I was there.”

I was there because I had been picked up by the police on a street corner in Manhattan after taking a whole bottle of Ambien. Even now, after writing a book about this experience, it’s still hard for me to say, but I tried to take my own life.

In the psych ward, I met everyone from a musical theater star, to an orthodox Jewish man, people experiencing homelessness, and CEOs. There were no padded rooms or screaming in the middle of the night… just a bunch of people like me who were suffering and needed to get better. And I did get better.

This is of course, is the Olympic equivalent of burnout, and I’m not saying that burnout is a one-way ticket to a psych ward. I am saying, however, burnout can be especially challenging if you have a history of mental illness because of the way that stress, anxiety and depression can form a coalition of evil supervillains in your head. So if you’re struggling, please, please, ask for help. Speaking from the bottom of my heart: I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that I got help… and how asking for help made me realize how strong I am.

And help is available. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Line at: 1-800-273-8255.

But regardless of your mental health history, burnout is real, for all of us, and as more and more studies come out showing the negative effects of stress on mental health, the world is listening.

This summer, a joint study from York St John University and University of York found that burnout increases the chance of teachers leaving the profession, with some estimates suggesting that over a third of new teachers leave the profession within five years.

Recent studies show that burnout has been especially difficult to navigate as the pandemic rages on. It’s a phenomenon well-supported by research, but also... don’t you just feel it in your bones? I know I do.

Here’s an example. At Ohio State University in August 2020, 40% of a random sample of students reported experiencing burnout. But in April 2021, from the same random sample of students, 71% said that they were experiencing burnout.The survey also found that students were coping with burnout in unhealthy ways, like vaping and alcohol use.

So let’s talk about how to beat this burnout. If you are not in tip-top mental shape, you are about as useful as you would be if you had the flu. And just like when you have a flu, when you’re experiencing burnout, you need to take a day off of work.

Unsure about the whole mental health day thing? So was I…. Until I took my first mental health day. I, foolishly, had bought into the stigma that they are just an excuse to skip work and slack off. But it's not, and your team will thank you for taking a day off and coming back with a fresh mindset.

Here’s a quick quiz for you to figure out if it’s time for a mental health day:

1. Your boss asks you to help with an additional project this week, you say…

A) Absolutely, I have time. Let me know how to get started.

B) I have a few things on my to-do list to complete first, but I am happy to help with it starting tomorrow.

C) No way, you have me doing too much, go find someone else to do it.

2. It's time for the presentation you've been working on all week, you…

A) Get to the conference room early, notes prepared, ready to show them what you've been working on.

B) Have sweaty palms and feel exhausted from all the hard work you put into this, but you're ready and feeling confident.

C) Have a stress headache that you just can't shake, and three cups of coffee aren't enough to help you feel awake

3. When asked to rank your top three priorities, you list:

A) Myself, family, work

B) Family, work, myself

C) Work, work, work

4. When you're asked to name your hobbies, you say:

A) "Lately I'm super into [insert random cool class you're taking, activity you're passionate about, etc.]."

B) "Spending time with friends and family."

C) "Working."

5. It's Friday night, you are…

A) Spending a night on the couch with popcorn and a movie, it was a long week and it's time to relax before a fun weekend.

B) Going out with the girls for margaritas. The week was rough and you're ready to blow off some steam

C) In bed, by 8 p.m. You're coming down with a cold because you haven't been able to sleep all week.

If you answered mostly As - You are calm, cool, and collected. You have the right super hero mentality going! Sure, take a day off, but call it a vacation and go somewhere fun. Everyone deserves a break from work, but you're not risking burnout just yet.

If you answered mostly Bs - You need to keep a close eye on yourself. You're good at checking your levels and taking care of yourself when you need to. But remember: if you're so immersed with your job or other people that your needs get ignored, you should realize that they don't say "put your oxygen mask on first before helping others" on the plane just to fill time before takeoff. You're not going to be any help to anyone else if you are crashing and burning.

If you answered mostly Cs - It's time to take that mental health day, stat. You meet all the signs that it's time to pump the brakes and give yourself time to recalibrate: You're anxious. You just can't seem to perk up. You're so tired, but can't sleep. You're running yourself to the ground and stress is making you sick. Spending a day off the grid could unwind some of the aggro tension.

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A mental health check is not something that shows up on our calendars, and if it does, it's likely the first thing to get canceled when your schedule gets chaotic. But here's the thing: life will always have some level of chaos, and caring for yourself is the best way to manage it.

Here’s one last study I want to tell you about: researchers in Iceland have tested implementing shorter workweeks (more like 35 hours instead of the standard 40). This study overwhelmingly showed that shorter work weeks improved productivity and lessened feelings of burnout.

So take it from science: taking time for yourself, works. So do it.

Come up with a strategy for taking a mental health day. If you work in shifts, ask someone to cover for you for one day... and even if you’re going to need to make up the time later, like the Icelandic study shows us, you’ll likely return from your mental health day, more productive. So take your mental health day, and you’ll get my Money Minute gold medal.

For now, our Money Minute is up! Until next time, don’t do anything with your money that I wouldn’t do!

xo