28/09/2026
Two years ago I sat in my hotel's back office at 11 p.m., staring at a spreadsheet I'd already checked three times. I wasn't tired. I was hollowed out.
For eight months I told myself the tightness in my chest during morning site visits was just caffeine. It wasn't.
Here's what I wish someone had told me: burnout from work isn't weakness. It's a recovery debt. Stress kept spending my energy faster than rest could replace it, and my body finally collected.
What helped was embarrassingly simple: a 20 minute walk before opening the laptop. No phone. Six weeks in, my sleep and my patience with my team had both changed.
If you're doing everything "right" and still waking up tired, this might be why. I wrote the full breakdown, including the early signs and the mistakes to avoid :
https://liveoptimum.com/burnout-from-work-the-shocking-debt-your-body-must-pay/
(Personal experience, not medical advice.)