The Truth about Burnout

Examine the pressure behind your work and make room for a sustainable plan.

You can spend an entire day feeling busy and end it with almost nothing you have actually created. You can also produce an enormous amount of work and feel energized enough to keep going.

The number of hours does not tell you which experience you are having. You have to look at the thinking that is fueling your work.

When my students ask whether they need to take a break, I want to know something more specific: Are you overwhelming yourself, or are you producing results while rushing toward a future you think will finally feel better?

Those are different problems. They need different solutions.

More money does not have to mean more effort

When I coach people on money, one of the objections I hear is that they do not want to work that hard. They assume making more money means putting in more hours, giving more energy, and eventually burning themselves out.

But effort is not what creates money. Results and value create money. The more effectively you plan and create value, the less effort you need to put into producing it.

You do not have to choose between earning more and enjoying your life. You do have to understand the attitude you are bringing to your work.

You can work many hours and work hard without burning out. What matters is the energy behind that work. Are you creating from abundance and purpose, or are you trying to work your way out of a feeling you do not want to have?

Look at what is fueling you

I teach that burnout comes from stressful thinking, poor planning, and scarcity thinking. When those are driving you, you react to your life instead of deliberately creating it.

You are constantly putting out fires. Everything feels like an emergency. You do not give yourself enough space to think, coach yourself, or remember why you are doing the work.

I experienced this when I planned a series of webinars from a place of hustle and effort. My thinking about producing them was negative. I changed how many I was doing, but the important work was changing the attitude behind them.

I could have done all those webinars with different thinking. I had done that before. Adding more work while keeping the same negative thinking was not the answer.

Burnout can come from trying to outrun negative emotion. You trade this moment for an imagined future moment when you will finally feel better. But you cannot work hard enough to arrive at a life without negative emotion. Changing how you think is what changes how you feel.

Overwhelm is not the same as working hard

Overwhelm often looks like confusion, procrastination, low productivity, and an unclear plan. You keep thinking you do not know what to do, and you feel exhausted by how busy you are.

But being busy is about what is happening in your brain. It does not necessarily tell us what you have accomplished.

When someone tells me they need a break because they are overwhelmed, I ask what they have created. That is a very different question from asking what they have been doing.

Have you recorded the podcasts? Created the program? Built the website? Written the book? Or have you spent your time thinking about everything you need to do?

If you have produced very little, the solution I teach is to solve the overwhelm. Plan more, then create more results. Taking a break from work you have not been doing does not solve the thinking that has kept you from doing it.

Planning ahead lets you use the part of your brain that can think deliberately about your future. You stop leaving everything to the part that wants to react in the moment.

When it is time to slow down

The other pattern looks different. You know what to do. You have planned and followed through. You are productive, and you have results to show for it.

But the result is no longer satisfying. You are already rushing toward the next one. Achieving more has become more important than enjoying the journey because you believe there is a better life waiting at the finish line.

That is when I want you to slow down.

Life will not suddenly become better when you get there. It will still include positive and negative emotion. We create success for the experience of growing, not to escape the experience of being human.

If you are not enjoying that growth, you need to make space for it. Plan relaxation on purpose. Release the urgency around the result. Remind yourself that you are not in a hurry.

Create space for energized productivity

When I recognized this pattern in myself, I stopped and reminded myself that no achievement was going to make my life permanently better. Rushing served no purpose.

I adjusted my schedule, relaxed, and built in more space. Then I was able to produce twice as much as I had thought I could.

That is the distinction I want you to understand. If you are overwhelming yourself instead of producing, clarify your plan and follow through. If you are producing but chasing a future where you think you will finally be satisfied, slow down and enjoy the journey you are already on.

Ask yourself what you have created and what has been fueling that creation. Your answer will tell you much more than the number of hours on your calendar.