Burnout Is Quiet...Until It Isn't

Burnout isn't immediate (like a heart attack) - it's a pattern. It looks like skipping lunch because you “don’t have time.” It sounds like telling your friends you’re just busy, again. It builds slowly, like weight in a backpack. Project by project and week by week. One day you notice you’ve been walking uphill the whole time, and you simply can’t carry it anymore.

When I first started my career (and journey), I used to think burnout meant being weak. I thought if I just kept pushing, one more meeting, one more deadline, one more late night, I’d power through. It isn’t like that.

When you’re young, it’s even harder to see. People say this pace is normal, that exhaustion is the price of ambition. You start to believe the only way to matter is to keep moving, constantly. You tell yourself you can outrun it. You can’t.

A few weeks ago I finally slowed down. I spent a weekend with my family. No projects. No goals. Just time. We cooked. We talked. We laughed about nothing important. For the first time in months I felt still. I did not realize how much I missed that feeling.

That’s when it hit me. Burnout doesn’t just drain energy, but it also steals moments. The quiet, ordinary ones that never show up on a résumé but end up meaning the most. The ones you cannot get back.

No award will remember you. Your people will.

So here is what I learned. Taking care of yourself is not selfish. It is necessary. You cannot build a future if you are too tired to live in the present.

Put the weight down before it breaks you. Call your mom. Sit with your dad. Eat dinner at a table without your phone. Go for a walk with no purpose except the walk and just admiring nature.

The world will keep moving. The people who matter won’t always be there when you look up. Make sure you look up every now and then.