Burnout is usually something we talk about at the end of the year, when calendars are full, batteries are empty, and everyone crawls toward the finish line hoping a Christmas break will fix everything. But I’m writing this in January because burnout has been on my mind this month because I’m already seeing a lot of it.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working with several people who are clearly exhibiting early signs of burnout, emotionally flat, physically depleted, mentally foggy and we’re only just getting started with the year. That’s a warning sign. Not just for them, but for the systems, environments, and expectations they’re operating within.
This is something I understand deeply because I’ve lived it and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this:
Burnout rarely arrives overnight.
It tends to creep in quietly, disguising itself as commitment, professionalism, and the familiar mindset of “just getting on with it.” This is particularly true in high-performance organisations and elite sport, where there can be an unspoken belief that acknowledging fatigue or struggle is a sign you’re not cut out for the environment.
Over time, that silence allows burnout to take hold, not because people aren’t resilient enough, but because they feel they’re not allowed to be human.
How Do You Recognise the Early Signs?
Burnout rarely starts with collapse. It starts with disconnection.
You might notice:
- Persistent fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix
- A short fuse or emotional numbness
- A sense that everything feels harder than it should
- Reduced motivation for things you used to care about
But beyond the physical and mental symptoms, there are some more uncomfortable questions worth asking yourself:
- Do you genuinely enjoy what you’re doing?
- Do you like spending time with the people you work with?
- Do you struggle to find joy in your relationships outside of work?
In my experience, if you don’t like, let alone love, what you do, it’s incredibly hard to keep doing it day after day, year after year, without it costing you something.
Why Burnout Comes Faster Than You Expect
When we love what we do and we’re fully engaged in the process, we can operate at full throttle for weeks or even months at a time. Energy feels abundant. Effort feels purposeful. Pressure is stimulating rather than draining.
But when you’re dragging yourself to work each day, relying on caffeine and willpower to get through, it’s a very different story. The same workload feels heavier. Small stressors feel overwhelming. Recovery takes longer.
Burnout doesn’t come from hard work alone, it comes from hard work without meaning, autonomy, or recovery.
What Can You Do Physically?
First of all, understand that burnout isn’t just “in your head”. It’s a whole-body experience.
Physically, start with the basics:
- Sleep: Not just quantity, but quality. Consistent bedtimes, less late-night stimulation, and real downshifting.
- Movement: Not punishment. Not performance. Just movement that supports circulation, mood, and nervous system regulation.
- Fuel and hydration: Under-fuelling an already stressed system accelerates burnout.
- Recovery signals: Time outdoors, light exposure, understanding how to breathe for effective recovery and prioritising moments where your body genuinely feels safe to relax.
Most people need to change the script on what they belief high performance should look like… You don’t need more intensity. You need more regulation.
What Can You Do Mentally?
This is where perspective becomes everything.
One of the most powerful shifts is learning to find joy in the process, not just the outcome. Outcomes are often delayed, unpredictable, and crucially, outside of your full control. Burnout thrives when identity is tied exclusively to outcomes you can’t control.
Instead:
- Control the controllables
- Measure effort, behaviour, and progress
- Detach self-worth from results
If you work in sport, how much control do you really have over the result at the weekend?
If you work in a huge corporate organisation, does the end-of-year result truly define you as a person?
We all know the answers to these questions and yet, detaching our sense of self from outcomes remains incredibly difficult. Not because we don’t understand the logic, but because over time we’ve allowed who we are to become tightly fused with what we do.
In high-performance environments, the badge matters. The logo, the role, the title, they carry status, belonging, and identity. Slowly and often unconsciously, that badge becomes a shortcut for self-worth. When things are going well, we feel validated. When results dip or pressure rises, our sense of self takes the hit too.
One of the most important, and often uncomfortable steps in recovering from burnout is learning to understand who you are without the badge. Who are you when the season ends, the contract finishes, or the job title changes? What remains when you step away from the environment, the deadlines, and the expectations?
Burnout thrives when identity is one-dimensional.
When everything flows through one role, one outcome, or one environment, there’s nowhere to hide when that system becomes demanding, unstable, or unsupportive. Re-establishing personal boundaries, emotional, psychological, and practical, creates space to reconnect with the parts of you that exist beyond performance.
This isn’t about disengaging or caring less. It’s about building a broader, more resilient sense of self. One that allows you to perform at a high level without sacrificing your wellbeing when things fall outside of your control.
Refill the Cup Outside of Work
One of the biggest mistakes I see is people trying to get energy from exhausted colleagues or from environments that are already depleted.
That rarely works.
Energy has to come from somewhere else first.
Focus on wins outside of work:
- Relationships that nourish you
- Activities that light you up
- Environments where you feel more like yourself
Top up your cup away from work and then bring that energy back in.
You don’t need your job to meet every emotional need.
And when you find that clarity you’ll realise you get more say than you think in how you respond to the environment you’re in.
A Final Thought
Burnout isn’t a personal failure. It’s not a signal that you need to push harder, it’s often just a reminder that something needs adjusting,
And January isn’t too early to pay attention. In fact, it might be the most important time, because the earlier you listen, the less likely you are to end up running on empty
