9 Signs Of A High-Performer On The Verge Of Burnout

1️⃣ You have more control over your time than anyone, but you’re always busy.

2️⃣ You’re getting stressed about your stress.

3️⃣ Your emotions are “getting in the way,” so you tamp them down and ignore them.

4️⃣ Your body is nagging at you throughout the day, and there’s always an excuse to put off dealing with it.

5️⃣ Your business has stalled, and you’re the obvious bottleneck on its growth.

6️⃣ You find yourself in petty fights with your team, your partners, and your spouse - unsure if it’s you or them.

7️⃣ You’ve started to self-medicate to wake up, to fall asleep, to feel ok (even though nobody would guess it when they look at you).

8️⃣ You tell yourself that, because you’ve always figured it out on your own, you can figure this out in your own too - you wonder if other people feel guilty about asking for help too.

9️⃣ The high standards you set for yourself have become a whip rather than an inspiration.

I’ve been there - it’s not good. It’s not good for you. It’s not good for your team or your clients. It’s not good for your friends and family.

It’s not sustainable.

As the philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff put it:

The first thing you need if you want to escape from prison is to know that you’re in prison.

What is it that keeps so many of us from feeling ok?

There are two components...

One is ecological. We humans have created a strange environment for ourselves, one that’s totally disruptive to our organismic health and functioning. This “crisis of context” sets us up for an uphill battle, struggling to feel good in our bodies.

The other is somatic. The body/mind disconnect forces us to put on masks and play games - long enough that we forget what’s underneath those roles in the first place! We inhibit parts of ourselves and stifle free expression of who we are.

Untangling this mess for myself is what led me to develop the Ecosomatics practice.

I was curious about what made a good human animal, and at the same time I wanted to understand how to foster and develop the emotional and creative aspects of our experience.

We’re so far from the limits of what we’re capable of - as individuals and as a species. There’s tremendous room for growth. It’s incredibly exciting.

And I’m convinced that the first step to mobilizing that potential is to get back to wholeness, starting with the body.

In doing so we reshape our self-image. The best way I’ve seen it described is a “broadening and deepening of the self.” We enter into a new relationship with ourselves and the world around us. We become the generous & generative leaders the world needs.