Do You Get My Drift?
The next burnout quiz question asked if people annoyed the reader by telling him he didn’t look so good lately.  The follow-up question read, “Do colleagues call the paramedics when you stop moving?” I wrote margin notes for discussing this question.

1) Unless there was some life-changing upheaval like an injury, most people didn’t become overwhelmed, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, overnight. Usually they stopped caring for themselves a little at a time.  They drifted into exhaustion.

2) Being tired and drifting are part of life.  Unless the oldest child was a terror, the youngest child enjoys freedoms his siblings only dreamed of.  His parents have drifted as they aged. (A comedian once said when the first child drops the pacifier you boil it. When the second child drops it, you rinse it in warm water. Should the third child drop her pacifier, you let the dog lick it -  their mouths are cleaner than ours.)

3) Too many recovering people drift into relapse.  They don’t take care of themselves and they get tired of the struggle. They have one little drink. They place one bet just to break the boredom. They text the abusive ex because it’s just a text, really.

I’d presented this training many times before.  Most people would agree they needed to take better care of themselves. They’d admit they tended to drift into self-neglect.  The majority would know they needed to beware of this drifting.  And at least a few would drift into not watching for drift. 

Today I’ll beware of drift.

Burnout Training ©2018 by Ken Montrose

Burnout Training is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/