Why Burnout Isn’t Just About the Hours

(And why I don’t feel burned out even though I’m working a lot.)

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what burnout really is.

Most people think it’s about hours or workload. But it’s actually not about that at all. It’s about what those working hours

cost you emotionally.

Right now, I’m working a full-time, demanding job in a leadership role and running a business that I care deeply about. It’s a lot. I wake up at 4:30am most days. I work on weekends. I juggle a lot of responsibilities.

And yet—I don’t feel burned out. I feel energized. Because this work feels meaningful. Because I chose it. Because I believe in what I’m building and I’m building it for myself.

But I also know this: If someone else were asking this of me—like say my 9-5, without choice, without recognition or support— I’d burn out in a week.

Because burnout isn’t just about doing too much. It’s about the stress of constantly giving more than you have…while feeling like it’s never enough.

It’s about feeling undervalued, unmotivated, or disconnected from your impact.

It’s about saying yes when you want to say no, working late when what you really want is to be with your family, or believing ‘If I don’t do this, I’ll fall behind’ or worse, ‘If I don’t do this, I’ll lose my job’.

It’s the emotional tug-of-war between what you want, what you feel you should do, and what you think will happen if you don’t.

That’s what wears you down. Not just the hours, but the story you’re telling yourself while you’re working them.

So if you’re feeling exhausted, ask yourself this:

Is it really the work? Or is it the emotional weight of doing it all without choice, without recognition, or without fulfillment?

Because that’s what leads to burnout. And the first step out of it is reclaiming your agency.

If you want to learn how, I made a worksheet to help you with exactly this. You can download it here.