Journaling Prompts for Recovering from Career Burnout
Career burnout is not just being tired; it is a deep, bone-aching exhaustion paired with a frightening loss of caring. When your job consumes your identity, a setback feels like a personal failure, and the endless demands drain your capacity for joy. This state tricks you into believing you must push harder to fix the exhaustion. Writing breaks this destructive cycle. It provides a quiet space to separate your self-worth from your productivity. By documenting your limits, you can objectively view the unsustainable nature of your workload and begin making the hard choices required to reclaim your humanity.
Journaling Prompts
List the specific tasks at work that drain the most energy from you. Which of these can you drop, delegate, or do with 20% less effort without getting fired?
Write down the core belief driving you to overwork. Is this belief actually true, or is it a fear-based assumption you adopted to feel safe?
Imagine a colleague came to you describing your exact physical and mental state. What boundary would you urgently advise them to set?
What are three activities outside of work that used to bring you peace? Schedule exactly when you will do one of them this week, treating it with the strictness of a mandatory meeting.
Define what a "good enough" day looks like. How can you practice accepting "good enough" instead of striving for perfection tomorrow?