Draft post title

"What if burnout is a life-saving signal, not just an obstacle to job performance?" - 100% agree. 

Here is my cautionary tale. 

I was in perfect health all my life. 

I was running a business I loved, and that was the purpose of my life. 

I was incredibly successful at it. 

I loved it so much that I chronically ignored my own rest and downtime. 

All was great until it suddenly wasn't. 

I was just getting a bit more tired every day, day after day, month after month. 

Until I realized that:

- nothing excites me anymore. I have zero desires, other than for emptiness. 

- I have mad, insane swings of emotions

- I am chronically angry at everyone, and most of myself. 

And then I crashed so badly, I had to quit my job. 

I simply had no ability to think straight. The cortisol killed me. 

For 3 months straight, I slept for 12-14 hours a day and spent every day walking in the woods and crying. 

Thank heaven for my husband, our savings, and summer camps for our kids. 

I went from being an executive who was running a team of 6 people at the company she built to being a person who had trouble coming up with a grocery list for dinner. 

It took me 12 months to recover to 50% of my previous capacity. 

And another 24 months - to 75%.

And I never want to go back to 100%, because my 100% was 250% for most other people.

My underachieving is overachieving by any sane standards.

So, I plan to underachieve daily to stay out of the red zone. 

Burnout is real, and it is especially cruel to people who think they are invincible to it.