Book Review – Avoiding Burnout

Avoiding Burnout: The Seven Principles of Self-Preservation by K.A Mann (Reach Publishers) ISBN 978-0620694056

Kathy Mann felt compelled to write this book about what led to her burnout and autoimmune disease. She wanted to help other people who may be reaching the same crisis point. The old adage, prevention is better than cure, rings true.

Kathy had a difficult upbringing with an alcoholic father who had an affair. Her parents’ acrimonious divorce when Kathy was a teenager was the first major trauma in her life. This spiralled into worse situations when her mother’s boyfriend became abusive, and both parents became more focused on their new spouses and children than their original children.

Kathy had to grow up fast and take control of the situation. This meant she did not have anyone to support and care for her when she should have, so she never learned how to ask for it when she became an adult.

After she married, she started running her father’s business to assist him in building a nest egg for his retirement. This was a disaster from the beginning because her father refused to change how anything was done. After five years of struggles and abuse from her step-mother, and the final straw of her burnout, Kathy resigned.

In those five years, Kathy had also had her two daughters, so she was trying to juggle her family and work lives by herself. After being diagnosed with her autoimmune illness, she knew she had to take action to save her life and become a happier person.

The methods she used to find her happiness are the seven principles discussed in the second part of the book. She uses examples from her life to illustrate how she could have escaped her illness and burnout if she had realised sooner that this was her downward spiral.

Avoiding Burnout is an interesting story with lessons to take to heart.

Amanda Blankfield-Koseff
3.5/5