Journaling Prompts for Recovering from Career Burnout
Burnout doesn't announce itself politely. It arrives quietly—in the way you start dreading Sunday evenings, in the flatness that settles over work you used to find meaningful, in the exhaustion that sleep stops fixing. It isn't laziness. It isn't weakness of character. It's what happens when a person gives out more than they take in, for too long, with too little control. And the hardest part is that burnout tends to make you blame yourself, right at the moment you most need compassion. Writing won't fix your job. But it can help you figure out what you actually need.
Journaling Prompts
Before burnout set in, what did your relationship with work feel like? Describe a specific day or project where you felt genuinely engaged—what was present then that isn't now?
What is the story you've been telling yourself about why you can't slow down or set limits? Whose voice is in that story—is it yours, or did you inherit it from someone?
Make a list of everything work is currently costing you—sleep, relationships, hobbies, health, sense of self. Now ask: what is it giving back in return, and is that exchange honest?
If you imagine continuing exactly as you are for another twelve months, what does your life look like? Write that scenario out in full, without softening it.
What is one concrete, specific thing you could protect—a morning, an evening, a hard cutoff—that would create a small boundary between you and work this week? What has stopped you from protecting it so far?