Jessie is a 36-year-old global worker in Central Africa. She is a wife, mother of three, and actively serves in her community. Jessie loves getting to pour her heart into others, but struggles at times to balance serving as a wife, mother, and friend.

One day, Jessie came home after serving breakfast to children in the community, teaching literacy classes, and helping a couple work through marital disputes, to find that her son had broken a lamp and scattered pieces all over the floor while the babysitter was in the bathroom.

What does it take to reach the finish line—to fulfill your calling with joy? Track with me for a minute here. We can learn something from marathon runners about going the distance while serving cross-culturally.

The first two articles in this series have focused on recognizing and treating burnout, but what if you are not burned out and just want to take healthy steps to prevent reaching a state of burnout?  Here are a few ideas on how to start consciously making choices that will help prevent burnout in the long run. 

If you read and resonated with the description of burnout in part one of our series on burnout, you may be asking yourself, “What should I do if I’m already burned out?”  As mentioned previously, burnout symptoms can be very similar to the symptoms of depression - meaning ‘doing’ anything can be an uphill battle.  So what can you do (or not do) to start on the path towards becoming balanced instead of burned out?

What Causes Burnout?  For those under the continual stress of living in a new location, adjusting to a new job, and juggling their own and other people's expectations - burnout is a real and looming risk.  With all the new stressors to adjust to, prioritizing or even determining what your new self-care system needs to look like can be extremely difficult.  So, what is “burnout” and how can we catch signs of burnout early?