I spent last week at Canyon Ranch attending the “Beat Burnout” retreat, which I applied for as an emerging leader and won a fully sponsored spot.

When I applied, I doubted if this would be right for me. I was working a lot but burned out? Not me. I knew that feeling before in corporate after weeks of nonstop working.

But the thing with burnout is that it creeps up on you, slowly and then all at once.

You have a busy season at work, so you power through doing things you normally wouldn’t stand for.

You take an extra meeting past 6pm, then find yourself spending Sunday evenings playing catch up when the week hasn’t even begun. On the daily, you neglect your human needs in small ways, like forgetting to drink water, and then bigger ways, eating poorly due to stress or skipping meals.

And when you’re ready to stop working, your mind comes back to work and all of the things you still need to do.

Burnout is defined as, “A state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged excessive work-related or responsibility-related stress (Maslach & Leiter, 2016).

My first, more painful period of burnout was during COVID-19. While I did enjoy my work as a Product Marketer at Slack, I told myself that work was the #1 priority since socializing was off the table.

And at the time, my work felt more critical than ever.

Everyone was using Slack because the entire world transitioned to remote work. We were launching a global campaign on the future of work, while also launching a new product. If I remember correctly, I was also trying to get promoted that year.

There were many signs of burnout before this, but the one I remember is with my family. I was visiting home, and my dad came into my room to tell me dinner was ready.

Instead of being excited and grateful, I felt stressed and anxious that I needed to leave my laptop. He came back several times until I finally left to quickly eat and return back to what I was doing.

Going into this retreat, I didn’t feel burned out like I have before. I’ve been working a lot, but it was on things I enjoyed. I couldn’t burnout doing that, right?

In my “Cultivating a Life of Purpose” session with a spiritual guidance counselor, I started sharing all of the things I was working on and realized I was repeating old patterns that date back to high school (honestly, maybe earlier than that).

My mind went into self-critical talk, “How could I let this happen again?”

But according to Dr. Laurie Santos, who delivered a lecture on “The Psychology of Burnout”, the causes of burnout are hard for our minds to see. We think burnout stems from a personal failing (“How could I let this happen?”) but is actually a structural problem within organizations and society.

If you’re an over-achiever (like me), it’s easy to think that doing more will help get what you want.

But what I know now is that we have to first feel valued, free, and well-rested in order to have the promotion, more money, and hard work. At least, if we want to do this all sustainably.

Kira Hower, a women’s empowerment coach at Chief who spent the week with us, recommends writing down a “to be” column next to your “to do” list. We need to focus on being humans first before we focus on the task at hand.

The retreat approached burnout from a 360 degree lens. A lot of these are about getting back to basics.

Physical:

Nutritional:

Mental & Emotional:

Spiritual:

Remember that burnout is a structural issue.

Dr. Laurie Santos says to solve burnout, we have to fix six occupational problems that cause it: (1) workload, (2) a perceived lack of control, (3) rewards (both intrinsic and extrinsic), (4) community, (5) fairness, and (6) values mismatch.

Reflecting on these six, which one do you want to focus on first? How can you start to challenge your pre-existing beliefs and change your habits?

Last Friday, we gathered at Soft Bar in Greenpoint for a casual meetup of those in corporate and those who have left to start their entrepreneurship journey.

It was energizing meeting people IRL and inspiring to hear everyone’s stories. Looking forward to hosting a more in-person events 🙂 If you have a topic and want to co-host, let me know!

Events I’m attending or hosting in the coming weeks! I also created this Luma calendar with events on my radar if you want to join me.

Build Your Sustainable Financial Strategy (Virtual) with Jenni Gritters | Nov 10
My biz coach will teach five key approaches to building a sustainable financial model, including both practical and energetic elements.
🔗 RSVP here

Future of Communities Summit with Circle (Virtual) | Nov 18
AI can create content in seconds. Ads can drive clicks. But connection and belonging? Those will truly set you apart—which is why communities are more transformational for businesses than ever. Join Circle to explore how creators and brands can lead that shift, and build what’s next.
🔗 RSVP here

Start Building Your Personal Brand with Maven | Nov 18
Identify your superpowers and unfair advantages, evaluate approaches to showing up, online and IRL, and attract the right people and opportunities.
🔗 RSVP here