198. Step Back From The Brink Of Burnout
- cindyesliger
- Dec 25, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Dec 30, 2025
Burnout often sneaks up on us while we’re still performing at a high level, quietly draining our energy, motivation, and confidence long before we realize what’s happening. As we push through exhaustion and ignore the early warning signs, we start unraveling internally even though everything looks fine on the outside. When we learn to notice the signs, set boundaries, and realign our work with our values, we give ourselves the chance to recover and redefine success on our own terms.
The reality is that burnout thrives in silence. It feeds off our unwillingness to admit we’re struggling.
Are you still performing at a high level on the outside while secretly feeling depleted, detached, or emotionally overwhelmed on the inside? Are you noticing subtle shifts—like irritability, brain fog, or dread toward even simple tasks—but brushing them off as “just being tired”? Are you worried you might be edging toward burnout but unsure how to recognize the signs before everything spirals?
You’ll learn that burnout doesn’t only show up when you fall behind—it often appears while you’re still doing everything “right,” and the early signs are much easier to miss than you think. Recognizing these clues early, along with understanding the deeper causes behind your depletion, are essential for reclaiming control and protecting your long-term well-being.
WHAT YOU WILL DISCOVER
Why recognizing the early warning signs of burnout is so important
Practical strategies to help you step back from the brink of burnout
Why burnout isn’t just about being tired
SUBSCRIBE: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | AMAZON | PODBEAN | POCKETCASTS
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Stop Sabotaging Your Success podcast, episode one hundred and ninety-eight. I'm your host, Cindy Esliger. This is the podcast focusing on what we can do today to take control of our careers and overcome the inevitable barriers to success that we encounter along the way.
Burnout doesn't happen all at once. In fact, it can often sneak in quietly, slowly building along with the ever-present pressure to prove your worth. You keep showing up, still delivering, and on the outside, everything looks fine—except it's not. The joy is no longer there. The spark is gone. And, if you're being honest, you're barely holding it together. The scary part is that you're so used to powering through that you don't even realize you're burning out until you're already there.
In this episode, we're unpacking what burnout really looks like when you're still functioning at a high level, but falling apart on the inside. You'll learn how to recognize the early warning signs before things start their downward spiral, understand the long-term personal and professional consequences that no one wants to talk about, and discover practical strategies to step back from the brink of burnout. This is about reclaiming control, protecting your well-being, and building a version of success that doesn't require continued self-sacrifice.
So, let's talk about burnout. I mean the real burnout—the kind that creeps up on you while you're still meeting deadlines, still showing up to meetings, still saying, "I'm fine, just tired". Even when you're completely physically and emotionally depleted, having developed a detached cynical attitude toward everyone and everything, and trying desperately to hide how ineffective you feel in your role.
If you've experienced this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We keep doing the job we're paid to do—until we can't.
And, for many of us, we miss the signs that we're headed down the road toward burnout until we finally realize we're about to collapse. It can be sneaky. In the beginning, it can show up in small ways: forgetting a word mid-sentence, feeling indifferent about something you used to enjoy, or fantasizing about just not showing up at all. Not quitting, just stepping off the merry-go-round long enough to breathe again.
Often, burnout flies under the radar for high-performers. It can be hard to recognize the early signs before you implode and things come crashing down all around you. From my own experience, recovery is not quick and it's not easy. Unfortunately, a weekend spa trip won't be enough. It takes work to come back from the brink of burnout. But it's work that's worth doing.
I remember when I loved my job. There was a time when I actually enjoyed going to work. There was excitement, a sense of purpose, and just enough challenge to keep it interesting. But somewhere along the line, that shifted.
The joy started fading and I didn't even notice because I was so busy doing all the right things. The to-do list was never ending. I was engulfed in chaos but I loved it—continuing to press on, as always. After all, people depended on me and what would it say about me if I couldn't handle it?
People would often ask, "Are you holding up alright?" and I'd take a deep breath, nod, and tell them I was fine, and give them a tired smile.
Because of course I was, wasn't I?
Burnout doesn't suddenly hit you like a truck. It's more like standing outside without a coat while it's raining. At first, it's no big deal. Then, the water from the puddle you're standing in creeps into your shoes and before long, you're more than a little soggy. And, by the time you're drenched and shivering, you realize you've been standing out there in the downpour for far too long.
Let's be honest for just a second. Maybe some of these hit close to home for you:
You've decided you're just tired of dealing with stupid people all the time.
You've fantasized about telling your boss, "I'm done" and simply never returning.
You've realized that common sense is just not so common anymore.
I hate to tell you, you're not just tired, you're unraveling.
The hidden triggers and subtle signs of burnout are easy to ignore when you're a high-performer. You're used to pushing through, being the dependable one, and being the fixer for all troubled projects. You're the one who everyone relies on because you 'just handle things'.
Here's what that looked like for me:
I had a deep sense of responsibility from a very young age.
I learned to suppress discomfort and prioritize others over myself.
I had no concept of boundaries—because if you asked me to do something, I didn't think I had the right to say 'no'.
My coping mechanism was to do more, achieve more, and outperform the exhaustion.
And it worked—until it didn't.
The earlier you can catch burnout, the better. But, the problem is high-achievers are experts at ignoring what their bodies are trying to tell them, because there's always more work to be done.
So, if you're listening to this and wondering, "Wait... am I headed toward burnout?", here are a number of early warning signs to take note of:
You're snapping at coworkers for asking simple questions.
You can't remember key details because your brain feels foggy.
You feel detached from your work, and those around you, even your wins.
You dread meetings, even opening your inbox, because that might mean you've been assigned a new task.
Your usual outlets that help you manage your stress, like working out or journaling, aren't working like they used to.
Your sleep is disrupted—where you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or both.
You're overreacting emotionally, then feeling ashamed about it later because your reaction was disproportionate to the situation.
You feel personally attacked by any type of feedback.
Your weekends no longer restore you, and you start dreading the coming week before the weekend is even over.
You question your competence, even though everyone else thinks you're crushing it.
You don't need to check every one of those boxes to be in trouble. Even if only two or three of those are in play for you, that should make you pause.
Because the consequences are real.
Here are five of the most common outcomes when burnout hits you with full force:
High-Functioning Depression: where you keep performing, but the joy is gone. You feel empty inside and you're simply showing up on autopilot.
Cognitive Decline: where you can't focus. You forget what you were doing mid-task and you second-guess yourself constantly.
Damaged Reputation: whether you step back or break down, people treat you differently, like somehow you're unstable or broken. Now, you're perceived as weak and no longer worth the risk of putting you in front of an important client.
Isolation and Shame: where you think you're the only one going through this, so you don't talk about it. And, even if you did, you wonder who would listen.
Erosion of Self-Worth: where you forget what you're good at. You convince yourself no one else would hire you, so you stay and continue to settle for less.
In my experience, eventually, I did take a break. Not because I wanted to—but because I had no choice. I just couldn't do it any longer. For me, it was already too late.
I was still high-functioning on the outside. I was still meeting expectations, still checking all the boxes. But, by the end of the day, I had nothing left. I was unraveling internally. My motivation was gone. My self-confidence disappeared. The chronic stress had torn through my nervous system like a wrecking ball.
I decided to use up all my vacation days, not to go on a dream vacation, but just to take some time to rest, reflect, and decide whether I even wanted to go back to my job.
The sad part? I had no idea how to rest.
I had neglected myself for so long, I couldn't figure out how to be still. I didn't take short-term disability, even though it was available to me, because I was too afraid of how that might impact my reputation. And yet, in hindsight, I should have. Why waste your vacation days when you don't have to? Because when I returned to work, people treated me like I was made of glass—fragile, breakable, and unable to cope with the demands of my job. It affected my reputation and now I no longer had any vacation left. I felt even more trapped.
I had waited too long to start taking care of myself and I paid the price.
The reality is that burnout thrives in silence. It feeds off our unwillingness to admit we're struggling. And, the workplace culture in many male-dominated fields is not exactly compassionate.
We worry we'll be labeled 'too emotional' or 'not resilient enough'. So, we internalize, we minimize, and we just keep going, even when we're crumbling inside.
I hate to be the one to tell you that, at least in my experience, coming back from burnout is a long road to recovery. Because recovery is a process, not the flip of a switch. There's no cheat code. No fast-forward button. We just have to take one brave step at a time, and it's a journey.
If you're in the thick of it, I want you to know this: you can come back from this. But, not by doing more, and not by pushing harder. But by doing the uncomfortable things like listening to your body.
Here's how I started that process:
I finally set some boundaries and fiercely defended my time—even though I felt guilty.
I redefined what 'productive' meant and sometimes, for me, that meant taking a break to recharge.
I gave myself permission to do less and let others shoulder more of the load.
I stopped trying to bury my feelings and instead started asking myself how I was feeling, several times a day.
I started doing a few things just for me during the workday—like listening to a curated playlist with headphones and going for a walk alone during my lunch break.
These tiny acts helped to remind me that I still mattered.
If you're teetering on the edge or just ready to build something more sustainable, here's one key strategy that changed everything for me: set structured work hours—and stick to them. Otherwise, your job will eat into your evenings, your weekends, and your sanity. Work expands to fill the time available, so put some constraints in place. Then, do something intentional and fun with the time outside of work.
This is just the first step. In some cases, it won't have any effect because what many people don't realize is that burnout can be a symptom of something deeper: misalignment between your values and your work, a toxic work environment you've normalized, or a role that demands so much shape-shifting it has disconnected you from who you are.
Recovering from burnout isn't always about recovering your energy so you can go back to the same job and tolerate it better. Sometimes, it's about realizing you've outgrown the job—or it was never a good fit to begin with—and giving yourself permission to move on and to want more.
One of the most dangerous myths about burnout is that it shows up as falling behind or dropping the ball. In reality, many high-achieving women keep hitting their targets while quietly unraveling inside. Just because you're still getting things done doesn't mean you're okay. In fact, the more competent you are, the easier it is to miss the warning signs—until it's too late.
Burnout can have long-term consequences that go beyond exhaustion. It can lead to high-functioning depression, cognitive decline, isolation, and a serious erosion of self-worth, as well as a damaged professional reputation, no matter how you try to handle it. And unfortunately, recovering from it isn't as simple as taking a long weekend to recuperate and reset. It will sometimes require making some difficult choices about what you're willing to continue tolerating in your work life going forward.
While getting quality sleep and taking your time off matter, true recovery often means reassessing what's fueling the burnout in the first place. That includes identifying the emotional energy drains, setting and defending your boundaries, and asking yourself whether you're in a role or environment that actually aligns with who you are. Sustainable success isn't about learning to push through pain—it's about creating a professional life that doesn't depend on self-sacrifice to succeed.
What I really want you to remember is that experiencing burnout doesn't mean you're broken—it means you've been carrying too much, for too long, without enough support, rest, or recognition. It's not that you couldn't cope. It's that what you were trying to manage was more than anyone could handle. And yet, you did it, perhaps for far too long, and it finally took its toll.
By learning to recognize the early signs, set better boundaries, and realign your work with what truly energizes you, recovery is possible. You don't have to wait until everything falls apart to make a change. You can choose to protect your well-being and redefine success on your own terms, starting today.
And that's it for this episode of Stop Sabotaging Your Success. Remember to download your Guide to Recognizing the Career Cost of Pushing Through at cindyesliger.com/podcast, episode one hundred and ninety-eight.
Thank you to our producer, Alex Hochhausen and everyone at Astronomic Audio. Get in touch, I'm on Instagram @cindyesliger. My email address is info@cindyesliger.com.
If you enjoy listening to this podcast, you have to come check out The Confidence Collective. It's my monthly coaching program where we dig a little deeper into what's holding you back in your career and we find the workarounds. We help you overcome the barriers and create the career you want. Join me over at cindyesliger.com/join. I'd love to have you join me in The Confidence Collective.
Until next week, I'm Cindy Esliger. Thanks for listening.
