Burnout
The Smouldering Wick
How I Show Up
Waking up already tired — the night's sleep didn't refill anything, and the day ahead feels like a wall you have to climb in slow motion.
The work that once felt meaningful now feels mechanical. You're producing, but something has gone quiet inside the doing.
Small requests feel disproportionately heavy. A two-line email sits unanswered for days because answering it requires a kind of energy you no longer have.
Cynicism creeping in where care used to be — about the work, the people, the point of it all. A protective numbness pulled over what once burned bright.
What I'm Signalling
Burnout is not a personal failing. It is what happens to a system that has been asked to give more than it can replace, for longer than it can sustain. The exhaustion, the cynicism, the sense of futility — these are not character flaws. They are the smoke from a wick that has been burning at both ends.
Most people meet burnout with the very strategies that caused it — pushing harder, taking on more, promising themselves they'll rest after. But burnout doesn't yield to effort; it yields to relief. The invitation is not to fight your way out, but to stop adding to the fire and let what is already alight slowly settle into embers.
A Wiser Way to Meet Me
Name it honestly
Burnout often hides behind "I'm just a bit tired" for months. Say the actual word out loud — to yourself, to someone you trust. Naming it accurately is the first act of caring for it.
Subtract before you add
Resist the urge to fix burnout with more — more supplements, more routines, more productivity hacks. Look first at what can be removed from your week. One meeting cancelled outright is worth ten optimisations.
Protect the recovery, not just the work
Recovery is not what happens once the work is done — it is the precondition for the work mattering at all. Treat sleep, time without screens, and slow meals as load-bearing, not optional.
Reconnect with what was true at the start
Burnout often comes when output gets disconnected from purpose. Gently ask: why did I begin this in the first place? Sometimes the way back is remembering. Sometimes it is honestly admitting it has changed.
Try This
The Energy Audit
A 10-minute weekly practice to see what is actually depleting you, and what is quietly giving back.
Draw two columns on a page: Drains and Restores.
List the past week's recurring activities, meetings, and obligations under whichever column they belong in. Be honest, not aspirational.
Pick one item from Drains to remove, reduce, or renegotiate this week. Just one.
Pick one item from Restores and protect it on the calendar like a meeting you cannot miss.
Burnout doesn't lift in a single grand gesture — it lifts when the daily ratio of what depletes you and what restores you slowly tips back the other way.
Meet Another Lemon