Why Modern Society Creates Collective Burnout

If you study the history of human beings—through all it’s horrific tragedies and triumphs—an indisputable constant will reveal itself.

Humans love making progress. (Or at least, what we consider to be progress in the moment.)

With that obvious fact, the question is:

Why doesn’t anyone want to work anymore?

There’s a narrative being pushed right now amongst older generations that Gen Z/Younger Millienials are lazy.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The younger generations are dealing with a world that has hijacked their sense of progress, meaning, and attention. They’re also much less willing to be exploited, because they have access to so much more information (and shady practices) thanks to the internet.

Trust me, these young people want to work. Everybody likes making progress in something. But when society becomes so untrustworthy and devoid of meaning, and you can’t feel the difference you’re making in the work you do end up engaging in, that’s when burnout creeps in effortlessly.

So what do we do? Well, one of the greatest minds I’ve heard discuss this topic is Stanford professor Cal Newport.

In his book, Slow Productivity, he highlights 3 key ideas that replicate the type of productivity from the past that made us genuinely excited to work:

1. Do fewer things 

Most modern humans at your typical office job experience what is called, “Chronic Overload”. The best visual representation of this is a browser with a million tabs open. Zoom meetings that don’t achieve anything, and being constantly available for ever more projects are some of the greatest culprits of chronic overload. By focusing on just doing 1-2 things right (no matter what job you’re in), you will go farther, get more done, and do higher quality work.

2. Work at a natural pace

The unrelenting pace of modern jobs is not what we evolved to do. Hunter-gatherers would often spend hours in between hunts napping, or simply doing nothing. We need seasonality in our work at all scales. That means some weeks are easier than others. Same goes for months, and years. You are not a computer, and the amount of work that is necessary/feels good for you must vary in tenacity.

3. Obsess over quality

You may have heard of something called the 80/20 rule. It’s the idea that 80% of the results you will get in something will come from 20% of the work. There is something out there that will take advantage of your unique skill set. When you intersect what makes you feel fulfilled the most, with what you are naturally excited to work on, and obsess over those very few things, you make better work, while getting more done.

Collective burnout is a response to a modern world that is so detached from the type of lifestyle that naturally makes humans want to grow and progress.

And If you want to start shifting away from burnout culture, you have to start working in the way you were always meant to.

That also requires you to not be so hard on yourself when you’re not being the most productive person alive.

I had this problem for years, until I finally did the work on myself to heal from this toxic mindset, and teach myself how to get back up immediately from any setback.

Now, growth comes as natural to me as brushing my teeth in the morning. And I know you can develop a lifestyle that makes you feel the same way.

I wanted to give people the tools to finally break the cycle of watching self-improvement videos, trying to make progress, and then self-sabotaging when you don’t get the results you want. (A cycle I was in for years.)

And that is why I created my community, Self Mastery School.

Self Mastery School is a place for those who want to actualize their greatest potential, strengthen their self awareness, build better habits, and break the cycle of self-sabotage.

When you join the school, you’ll get access to:

• Full length courses/eBooks

• Weekly coaching calls and lectures (related to self-awareness, making money online, social skills, etc.)

• An exclusive community of ambitious, open-minded people

• In person meetups (coming soon)

The friendships in there feel genuine.

And I have a feeling you’re going to find your tribe in there, too.

Here's some wins from our community:

I’ll see you in there.

Quote of The Week

Thanks for reading, everyone. Hope you enjoy your weekend.

-Cole