Burnout is Self-Directed Resentment

What’s the difference between being high achieving versus overachieving? It usually has to do with how sustainable it is. An overachiever is someone who pushes themselves past their comfort or limits for a long time, usually trying to avoid feeling worthless. Then eventually, they burnout. That exhaustion they feel when they’ve finally reached burnout isn’t usually physical, but it is an emotional exhaustion from trying so hard to feel good enough and never feeling that way. In a quote from Marissa Mayer (former Yahoo! CEO and Google executive), she says, “I have a theory that burnout is about resentment. And you beat it by knowing what it is you’re giving up that makes you resentful.” One day you realize that in an effort to avoid feeling bad about yourself, you’ve given up so much of yourself to working and achieving, and even with praise, you never get what you wanted. You wasted years of your life chasing a feeling that you’ve been holding back from giving yourself. YOU need to recognize your own worthiness. If that is hard (and for most of us it is), then that’s where therapy helps.

“I have a theory that burnout is about resentment. And you beat it by knowing what it is you’re giving up that makes you resentful.”

~ Marissa Mayer (former Yahoo! CEO and Google executive)