To figure out the root of your burnout, take the time to make some honest observations. Try to identify the source of your distress by asking yourself some frank questions:

• How long have I felt this way? Did something precipitate it?
• When do I feel poorly—at work or all the time?
• Has this ever happened before? How did I get out of it?
• Is there a pattern to how I feel—e.g., worse after I eat? Bad on Mondays? Then, ask people whom you trust to give you honest feedback to questions like:
• Do you see any difference in my general behavior or demeanor?
• Am I less pleasant to be around than I have been in the past?
• Have you ever felt burned out, and if so, how did you overcome it?

Finally, you will find it helpful if you actually document your own feelings and patterns of behavior. Keeping a journal, even for just a month, will give you good insight into what may be precipitating your bad days. Try to write when you first wake up in the morning. Writing in the morning when your thoughts are your own and not jaded by the day’s events will yield the most insights. Jot down what you ate the evening before and how you feel in general and specifically about the day ahead. What are you worried about? What are you looking forward to? What do you want to accomplish? Who do you want to see? Who do you hope to avoid? Rate your energy level and your enthusiasm level on a scale from one to ten. By documenting your days, you’ll begin to identify predictors for how you feel; this allows you to search for ways to address what’s ailing you. Don’t look at your entries until the entire month has passed, then read the entire journal, with an eye toward finding the root of the problem, or at the very least clues to when it seems worst.