Patriotman’s Cigar Talks – Avoiding Burnout When Preparing

I have toyed with the idea for a while now to do a bi-monthly post in which I pose some questions or thoughts to the AP readership and get their feedback and ideas on it. I know that AP has a diverse and educated readership and I am very interested in seeing your responses (as would the rest of your fellow prepared citizens).

For this inaugural post, I thought I would expand upon a comment I made a few days ago on JC Dodge’s “Murica” post. I know that for nearly everyone in the Preparedness community, burn out is a real thing. This burn out could be for a wide variety of reasons:

  • Being pulled in too many directions
  • Getting overwhelmed in another area of your life – job, family, etc
  • Feeling like everything you are doing is pointless anyways
  • Having a To-Do list a mile long and never seeming to make progress on it

I experience this too. I started off the year going to a bunch of training with NC Scout as well as making some progress on things at the house. Between a house move and a side job picking up, however, I soon found my capacity overwhelmed and began to get slightly discouraged. I felt like I was stuck at an impasse and could not dig myself out to make progress on the preps. A few weeks ago, I had a three day weekend from work and imbibed my fair share of Jim Beam at a bunch of family gatherings we had. It was waking up the next day after all of this that I got my proverbial “slap in the face” and instantly got refocused. It was almost like my mind said “okay Patriotman, you had your fun party time – now get back to the grind”. I soon found that my PT and workouts were getting back to the old intensity. My To-Do list suddenly started to actually move in the right direction and shorten. I was back on my game and ready to do work.

This isn’t an isolated incident. This happens to me a couple times a year, when for a few weeks I just give myself a mental freedom binge and get my wilder crazier side out of my system. It seems to keep me moving forward on the right path. Sometimes, it manifests itself as a couple nights of drinking and playing video games (Counter Strike, if you are curious). But it really helps me with keeping myself going (as counter intuitive as that sounds).

I am sure that there are those out there who don’t need to do such a thing. I suspect it depends on their previous lifestyles and history, but I am not mental health expert. I certainly applaud anyone who can do that, but I don’t think that most of us fall into that category.

So my questions are:

  1. What do you do to avoid getting burned out from your preparedness activities?
  2. If you do get burned out, how do you deal with it? How do you get yourself back into the game?

I know that I am not the only one who gets discouraged and overwhelmed from time to time. I want to hear your experiences with this topic, so please share in the comments. As for the theme song for this post, I don’t think there is one more fitting:

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C4pWfyH6os]

 

God Bless, and enjoy your weekend!

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16 Comments

  1. JohnyMac July 7, 2019 at 10:42

    I do believe Patriotman we all get “burned out” on occasion – It is human nature.

    When I reach that point I sit down and make a list of things that need to be accomplished and then prioritize that list.

    Priority “A” are MUST DO’s – Life or death. “B” are lower case must do’s and then “C” are… if the stars align would like to do.

    A current example is; my tri axle of logs arrived 2-weeks ago. It needs to be cut, split, then stacked. This item on the todo list is a “B”.

    The walk lanes of my garden need to be tilled and then the plots need to be weeded. This is a “A” priority if I want my garden to produce the goal of 80% of our yearly vegetables.

    Anyhow, that is what I do.

    73 & God Bless Brother

    • Patriotman July 7, 2019 at 11:15

      I like this idea. It really gets you focused on the “Must Do To Survive” tasks. I normally just have a single running list but I may try to divy it up as you suggested.

      Thanks for sharing brother.

  2. Matt in Oklahoma July 7, 2019 at 11:43

    Burnout is real and effects everyone. Take a break. Make sure you enjoy life otherwise what’s the point? If your miserable and preparing then all you are doing is extending your miserable.
    Preparedness isn’t something “I do” it’s a lifestyle. I live this way because I want to. I’ve been at it since the 80s. The world hasn’t ended, no zombies, no Russian invasion of Red Dawn but I’ve lived thru earthquakes, tornadoes, job loss, etc. and I work “in the business” that is dangerous and I’ve done it as the Alpha. Not the arrogant one we see daily but as the guy who’s always gonna walk out ok.
    I’m 53 and still on top of the game at work because I work out, train, fight, etc.
    I’m on top in my personal life because I prepare, stock up, train, carry etc.
    and yet I’m still the grandpa who’s in a furniture box with the grandkids putting glow in the dark stickers on and playing with a chemlight ball. (Who has chemlight balls? A preparedness grandpa that’s who lol)
    Love, Live, Breathe, Prepare

    • Patriotman July 7, 2019 at 12:05

      Amen, brother. I think that is a great point – work it into your every day life instead of something you just do, and the chancefor burn out goes down.

      I always look forward to your replies on our articles because they are thoughtful and articulate. Thanks for bring a regular here, and God Bless.

  3. JohnyMac July 7, 2019 at 12:13

    One last point…My boss of 20-years told me several times during my career that “burn-out is a self inflicted disease.”

    Peace!

  4. Matt in Oklahoma July 7, 2019 at 16:07

    Appreciate it. I like the mix of content here.
    Just take a “balance in all things” approach and you can find a happier medium.
    I had squirreled away several hundred dollars a while back for a prep by working OT. I noticed things were so so in the relationship with me n the wife. I took it and went on a weekend getaway instead. We reset and had a great time. I relaxed as well and hadn’t realized my stress was that high. I’m back to square one on the prep but my house is in order. Next week is 32 years marriage for us. Burnout happens in all things.
    Balance

    • Patriotman July 7, 2019 at 18:46

      I think that is a wonderful story and something for us all to learn from. Congratulations on 32 years! That is truly special these days, and I wish you the best!

  5. Bryce Sharper July 7, 2019 at 16:22

    I end up spinning my wheels a lot because I don’t know which priorities should be the highest. Once you’ve found the highest priorities, set a time limit for how long you work on them which is a trade-off with recreational time. You definitely need guilt-free recreation. Take at least one hour off per day, one day off per week, and several weeks off per year. We live very out-of-tune with daily, weekly, and seasonal patterns of life since we have electricity to give us light after the sun goes down, we no longer keep the weekly Sabbath day, and most of us aren’t farmers anymore. People of the past used these patterns to take appropriate down time. Ironically, they seemed to get more done.

    • Patriotman July 7, 2019 at 18:47

      Your comments mirror JohnyMac’s in that it is important to set priority levels for our tasks. Perhaps that will help put things into perspectives. Thanks!

  6. Kilo July 7, 2019 at 18:10

    On the 7th day, God rested. He did it for a reason. I just try to follow his example.

    Genesis 2:2-3 New King James Version (NKJV)

    2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

    So, in context, I need to earn my rest day after doing an appropriate amount of work beforehand.

    • Patriotman July 7, 2019 at 18:48

      Amen, brother. By working hard you earn your rest. I think this mentality can apply to a lot, and not just in preparedness.

  7. tropicthunder81 July 7, 2019 at 22:07

    One i got a decent level of preps i found i could relax a little and take more time and money to use on other things. I’m a checklist person and i have spreadsheets for all my prep categories so even little successes help me feel accomplished.

    • Patriotman July 8, 2019 at 06:21

      I see. Getting a basic level of supplies helped take the stress off a little, which makes total sense. Thanks for sharing!

  8. James July 21, 2019 at 08:51

    I usually live a life of “Live for today/prepare for tomm.”.Lately helping me mum,gonna need to move her closer to me due to many med issues ect.,will be honest/mentally killing me a bit but at least have start of plan and money within reason is not a issue,trying to keep her out of “assisted living”ect.,just me,no brothers/sisters thus less help but can make decisions and just do them!

    I recently helped add new members to a buddies orchard(have grazing privileges)/working on another friends new course for walk on/run on targeting which will be very helpful to all of us/recently cured a FTF issue with a tool.I just keep doing little things along with very slowly reading ham radio licensing book(will happen,just not sure when!).I also just keep adding/rotating larder ect.

    I get a lot of folks have families and we have worked together with kids hiking/building brush shelters/a little gardening ect. while also getting a better layout of the lands we use regularly.Allows folks with kids to spend time with them and pickup a few skills along the way.

    In the end,more burned out a bit on life at moment,just keep trying to move forward and during said time accomplish little goals as the smalls add up and am starting to find the mindless repetition of labor doing tasks is very helpful to me mentally in that things accomplished and clears the head a bit.

    I feel the best we can all do is move forward,some days we will find it is in leaps and bounds/other days crawling just a few inches but still moving forward.

  9. MechMedic July 30, 2019 at 17:02

    I generally get a chance to go a little wild and blow off steam when I can get away from work and all of the family drama and just unwind. Not unlike what we did those nights of the TC3 class. I generally get those chances when I’m at drill weekends that don’t require us to go to the lovely field training area of Ft Bragg. But lately we’ve been super busy both at drill and and home. So I haven’t had much time to relax. It’s important to make time for activities you enjoy. Personal time is massively important and also massively understated in our community.

    • Patriotman July 30, 2019 at 20:43

      Great advice. That is generally my method as well.

      And yeah that TC3 class was fun during the day and then a whole different kind of fun after hours. :D

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