Suffering from burnout

Geertjan Wielenga: There's an argument that because there's so much variation in what we do, the possibility of getting burnout is smaller. Some people say that burnout is mostly from doing the same thing under high stress over and over again. Is that true?

Kirk Pepperdine: Not necessarily. There's a repetitive stress thing happening if you think about it. If I'm flying from one engagement to the next, then I'm doing the same thing repetitively, it's just not for the same employer or client. Yes, the scenery will change, but the rhythm is still the same. You can still suffer burnout from just exhausting yourself. If you get to a point where you're too exhausted, then you're not going to be effective anymore.

This morning I did my reading and I clocked in a 6 km walk. It's really important to do that and I think walking is, for me, the best thing to do. If you're on the road, you can just throw on comfortable shoes and out the door you go.

I just went through 10 time zones, so that really helped me to adapt to this particular time zone. Now I can be productive here.

Geertjan Wielenga: Thank you, Kirk Pepperdine.