Last Updated on June 11, 2025
Momentum
You’re delivering. You’re in every meeting. You’re replying fast, solving problems, being dependable.
People call you a machine. You call it momentum.
But if you’re honest? You’re exhausted.
That’s the tricky part about burnout: it often looks like high performance—until it doesn’t.
Why It Happens
Burnout doesn’t just come from overload. It comes from misalignment—between effort and impact, between energy and purpose.
We push harder when:
- Our value feels tied to output
- We don’t trust things will move without us
- We’re afraid to slow down in case the momentum stops
And it works—until our clarity drops, our frustration spikes, and we lose the ability to zoom out.
The Cost
Burnout erodes what made you valuable in the first place:
- Judgment
- Creativity
- Patience
- Presence
Worse, it becomes the norm others try to emulate—leading to team burnout, not just individual exhaustion.
Signs You Might Be Burning Out (Even If Things Look “Good”)
- You feel resentful but can’t name why
- You’re always behind, even when delivering fast
- You’ve stopped thinking long-term
- Small asks feel heavy
- You can’t remember the last time you felt genuinely clear
What to Do Instead
1. Redefine Progress
Stop defining a good week by how much you finished. Start defining it by what moved that actually mattered.
2. Protect Creative Time
If your calendar has no white space, your thinking has no space either. Carve out time to think—not just do.
3. Start Naming the Pattern
Burnout thrives in silence. Talk to a peer, a mentor, a lead. Name what’s happening.
4. Normalize Sustainable Pace
Model what sustainable delivery looks like. Encourage others to step back without shame. The culture shifts when someone goes first.
A Leadership Reflection
In Special Forces, you learn to push past discomfort. But you also learn when to reset, refuel, and recalibrate—because no mission succeeds on empty.
That mindset stayed with me. Today, I lead with this principle: you can be high-performing without running on fumes.
Closing
If you’re burning out while looking like a top performer, you’re not alone.
Step back. Zoom out. Redefine progress.
Your impact matters more than your output. And sustainable pace is a leadership skill.
If this resonates—reach out. We don’t have to white-knuckle our way through it.
