Chaplain speaks about beating burnout

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jessica Donnelly
  • 131st Bomb Wing
Lambert IAP --  Lt. Col. Scott Doby, 131st Bomb Wing chaplain, spoke about "Beating Burnout" during the Brown Bag Speaker Series luncheon here Sept. 12.

"To understand burnout you have to understand the difference between being stressed out, burned out and then suicidal," said Chaplain Doby.

He explained, a person will become stressed out and choose either positive coping skills, like going for a walk or reading a book, or negative coping skills, like drinking. For the ones who take on a negative coping skill, the stress will continue to build until they reach the 'not giving a care' stage of being burned out. After time, the burned out stage can continue into the suicidal stage because of the constant pressure on the person.

The idea is to stop the process before it gets too far.

Chaplain Doby described his method for how you beat burnout and overcome gridlock by first defining personal goals and developing a mission statement instead of taking on the agenda of others. Second, preserve your 'mission statement' by refusing to get pulled into the other agendas. Third, stay calm under provocation. And the fourth step is knowing the difference between someone's words opposed to their actions.

"Develop you own self definition, 'this is who I am,'" said Chaplain Doby. "If you can self-define, you can self-regulate and if you can self-regulate you will never self-destruct."

The Brown Bag Speaker Series is a lunchtime speaker bureau presented by the Human Resources Administration office, explained Senior Master Sgt. Lisa Troglio, 131st BW HRA. The program encourages Guardsmen to listen to speakers of different backgrounds in a voluntary, informal format.