Avoiding Enthusiast Burnout

[G.Irish]

As I was chatting with some of the MM crew at VIR we got on the subject of burnout. Several of us have gotten to the point with the whole trackday, volunteering, racing, or autocrossing thing that we burn out. So much work and money put into it that you just end up stopping doing it altogether.

For me, I got burnt out after my Integra got stolen, I bought another partially prepped car, tried to get that out racing, only to find out there was a bunch of shit wrong with the car I had bought. That was the same time I had bought a bike and I just basically just starting doing exclusively bike stuff for awhile. Meantime I avoided dealing with that effed up car for years.

Looking back on it, had I not been so hasty to get another car maybe things would've been different. I think at the time I just didn't consider how much effort I had to put in things as a factor. After a certain point I just didn't feel like putting that much effort into it, not to mention the racing series I wanted to do was basically falling apart. Then there were the various trailer mishaps I had...

If I were to give anyone advice on how not to end up the same way, I'd say that you've gotta find a setup that doesn't take so much effort to participate that it sucks the fun out of it. Get something that's not going to need a ton of maintenance or fixing to get on track, isn't gonna break, and is easy to get to the track. Something that is not going to take all of your disposable income so that you're not stressing it.

I also have to wonder if maybe another way to avoid burnout is to simply have more balance in your life. Do other things that are fun so that the fixation on speed doesn't ruin your enjoyment.

Anyway, just some thoughts, I know some other people have ended up getting to the burnout point at one time or another, hoping you can share some thoughts.