It’s 5 in the morning, the executive is already rehearsing the field that will make the board later that week. She is not tired, she is hyperfocated. But under that strong edge of productivity is something else: not the fear of failure, but a deeper fear of Not enough.
This moment is not unusual. Many ambitious and high functioning leaders are found here before dawn, driven by urgency, and slowly captured by the same force that helped boost their ascent.
Exhaustion is discussed in terms of long hours or stress. But that is just a part of the story. Exhaustion is not just a condition, it is a state of consciousness. It is formed by internal pressure, performance identity and compulsive effort. Until we learn to name and manage this state, it ends up managing.
How does exhaustion feel inside?
Burnout is rarely announced clearly. It arrives subtly, manifesting as irritability, disconnection, interrupted sleep and a vague sensation of dragging you every day. You are doing more than ever, but feeling less.
For candidates for CEO, it’s not just fatigue-It is internal pressure without pause. A constant internal whisper: it should be doing more. I can’t relax. I have still won it.
Often, the voices of exhaustion of a structure that did not realize that I was building, one in which its value is tied to performance, enamel, speed and achievement.
That is why Burnout feels so personal, even shameful. Because in essence, it is a child or identity crisis. It’s not just “I’m tired” but “if I stop, who am I?” And more “What could I never become?”
Executives rarely say this out loud. They do not need to do it, in part because it is uncomfortable and in part because they are so competent that they can continue to function while they run empty. Until they can.
The candidate for the identity trap of the CEO
The high performance do not burn because they are weak. They burn because the same features that promote them to make success, ambition, excellence, compulsions, when they merge with the highway.
Many future ceos that begin with a true inspiration and impulse. But somewhere along the line, the work ceases to be something you love doing and becomes something you have to do.
This is the true exhaustion engine: when it is only fine if you have a performance, success and achieve. Achievement becomes a form of survival.
This is the identity trap of the CEO:
- If the speed decreased, I will stay behind.
- If I am not always “on”, I will be exposed.
- If I do not exceed expectations, I will become irrelevant.
These beliefs are not always aware, but they are powerful. They drive a constant need to turn on performance and produce, even when the body is exhausted and its inspiration is exhausted.
Until your identity is unbuilt with your performance, exhaustion will always be waiting.
So what is the alternative?
How does the centered feel?
If exhaustion is a compulsive effort, centered is an intentional state. It does not mean doing less. It means doing what matters, without problems, being governed by pressure.
A focused executive is not passive. They are precise. They still lead, decide and deliver, from a place of clarity, not compulsion. They are anchored. Its own sense of value does not increase and decreases with each result. They know that triumph and disaster, success and failure are the two sides of achievement.
The focused is felt:
- Clarity about urgency
- Inspiration action, not fear
- Presence at the time, not anxiety for next
You know you are centered when you are productive, not frantic. Committed but not reactive. Energy, not exhausted.
It begins with intention, and is maintained through daily self -consciousness learning to interrupt the internal pressure loop before it is needed.
A simple daily practice to focus
A simple habit can help executives return to the centered, not changing what they do, but how they relate to what they do.
This is a check-in twice a day in the morning, and once in the event. Interume the internal effort loop and helps to turn your conscience again.
The method is simple: use reflective questions to balance your perceptions, whether you feel inflated or exhausted.
When you feel up, too safe or at a stop:
Use questions to rely on humility and awareness.
- What opportunity did I miss today?
- Who did I overlook or take for granted?
- What exaggeration task did not complete?
When you feel depressed, exhausted or not enough:
Use questions to raise your conscience and re -connect to your impact.
- What idea or action did I follow today?
- What challenge I faced and learned?
- Who did I appreciate or thank today?
- What progress did I do or my team, even if it is small?
This practice works because it changes from reactive thinking to conscious reflection. Approximately time, strengthens emotional balance and reorient its energy towards a significant commitment.
Try it for 21 days. Five minutes in the morning. Five at night. Write it if that helps. Around time, your mentality will change, to fight a founded action.
It is not about perfection. It’s about raising awareness. Because exhaustion is a breakdown or awareness. The centered is the return route for a resistant executive.
Burnout as a teacher
Exhaustion is not a failure. It is a message, it is not that you are not suitable to lead, but that your internal success model has reached its limit.
He is asking him to evolve-memorandum only in skills, but in self-awareness. Use each symptom as a feedback mechanism on your trip to the CEO.
Because the most powerful leaders are not the ones who never burn. They are the ones who learn to lead from within. They understand that their performance cannot overcome their self -knowledge and self -government.
If you feel the fatigue of the signs, the disconnection, the doubt does not move them away. Hear. Reflect. Recentr.
Your future leadership can defend less about how much you can do, and more about how deeply you can be present. Because being more aware, you give the space for others to do the same.
Written by Barbara Wilby.
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