You are split between feeling refreshed, happy you made wonderful memories and dreading the work chaos you are about to walk into, knowing that everyone saved all their "let's circle back on that" for when you got back. It's all still waiting for you, it was just tabled until you got back. 

You spent your time off managing everyone else's good time and came back needing more time off from your time off. And now you realize the break just highlighted how exhausting your normal pace really is.

Fine, we'll say it: That wasn't a vacation, that was functional burnout with sand between it's toes.

You coordinated everyone's itinerary, made sure the kids had sunscreen AND still fielded a few "quick" work calls between poolside margaritas. 

Meanwhile, everyone else actually relaxed. Weird how that works.

Here's what nobody tells high-capacity leaders: Taking time off doesn't fix the thing that makes you exhausted. It just gives you a clearer view of how you've designed your life around everyone else...

Most burnout advice is designed for visible burnout*, but yours is disguised.

Yours still looks like executing at a level no one questions. You’re the one no-one is worried about AND that’s the real problem.

It feels like burnout*. But what is happening is far more dangerous. 

It’s harder to see from the outside, because it doesn’t look like burnout. From the outside it looks like success, but from the inside you are feeling the internal cost. 

Because burnout shuts you down. But you, you’re still showing up.  

The kicker is the solution isn’t just doing less, it’s doing things differently. In ways that work with your energy instead of against it. 

Most leaders are not in traditional burnout*, they’re in Functional Burnout caused by chronic sustained self-override.

The painful irony is that for years, you were rewarded for pushing past your limits. Being available, being responsive and carrying more load than you should. And it worked, until it didn’t, because you hid it w...