Ashish Kothari argues that serving others doesn't require burning yourself out. He challenges the idea that meaningful work demands personal suffering, noting that burnout actually reduces your ability to help anyone.
Don't convince yourself that if you're serving others, I'm not going to burn. A lot of people think the way to happiness is to have more meaning. No, like the way to happiness is a much more holistic thing and I want to get into that with Elia because he wrote about that in his book. So it's not just service. In fact, people in not for profits and doing work who are healing others are more burnt out and more stressed and struggle more than actually those who are actually doing it in quote unquote for profit capitalism. Right. Somehow we convince ourselves, especially in the not for profit world. I've talked to so many people and they're like I am willing to suffer because I'm helping others. You don't need to suffer to help others. If you choose, that's fine, that's great, but you don't. In fact if you are suffering, you are helping others less because you're not at your fullest potential.
Reducing Regrettable Attrition in Organizations by Fixing the System, Not the People Reducing Regret
