Sometimes you tire of your favorite food. You may still love it, but if served lobster, pizza, or whatever you love to eat too often, you'll find yourself craving something else.
The same thing can happen at work. You may love your job, your co-workers, and your boss, but you can still find yourself less enthused, bored, or even burned out. In many cases, just as you will eventually come to crave your favorite food again, you will eventually get over how you feel in the moment about your job if you truly love your work.
There are, however, ways to beat burnout and even ways to stop it from happening in the first place. Some are obvious but sometimes ignored, while others take a bit of planning.
It's possible to burn out on a job you love. Image source: Getty Images.
Take a break
When you love your job, it's easy to put off taking time off. That's a mistake. A break not only lets you recharge, but it also gives you the opportunity to miss what you do.
Sometimes all it takes is a long weekend or a week away to be fired up to come back. Remember, though, that if you spend your time away endlessly in contact with the office, you're not really taking a break.
Throw yourself into new projects
One way to avoid burnout is to regularly be doing something new. Sometimes that's as simple as being open to taking on new projects or being willing to be part of experiments. Of course, not all companies will ask. Sometimes, you need to pitch your boss and make a case for trying something new.
He or she won't always say yes, but most companies, at least good ones, will value that you proposed a new idea. Even if yours gets shot down, that can lead to being asked to be part of something else or having some other door open.
Learn something new
Ask your boss if there are skills he or she wished a team member had. If the answer is something that you could learn how to do, volunteer to do it.
Maybe that means learning new software or getting certified in something. Really, it could be anything, depending on where you work and what you do. Smaller companies specifically may lack needed skills and not have an opening to add someone with them.
Accept it and power through
Sometimes you hit a wall and can't take a break or find a way to vary up your work day. When that happens, you need to just accept that sometimes work feels like work. That may mean something you normally love takes more effort, but you can get through it and eventually get to one of the steps above.
Know yourself
The most important part of getting through burnout is identifying what you're experiencing. If your job has become boring because you've done it for too long, then none of these things will help. If, however, you just need some time apart to fall back in love with what you do, then the methods discussed here should work.
Remember that you may love watching football or seeing superhero films, but if that's all you watched, at some point most people would want a change. Burnout isn't about no longer enjoying your job. It's about not enjoying it at the moment. You can fix it and find yourself happy to go to work again.
