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(6 minute read.)

'Danger, Will Robinson!'

(continued… page 3 of 3)

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Adaptation?

You learn the new rules by paying attention. You track energy like cash. You stop pretending adrenaline is sustainable. You work in cleaner lines. Fewer priorities. Fewer false urgencies. You get suspicious of anything that requires you to 'just push through'.

You stop idolising intensity. You start respecting consistency.

There's grief in this. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You are mourning a version of yourself that could burn hot without consequence. That version was real. It's also gone.

Grief doesn't mean weakness. It means accuracy.

Some days you'll feel almost normal. You'll think 'maybe I'm past it'. That's when you're most dangerous to yourself. Burnout relapses don't announce themselves. They arrive as enthusiasm.

Other days you'll move slowly and think you've lost something essential. You haven't. You've lost excess. The surplus that made you impressive and expendable at the same time.

Here's the quiet upside no one puts on the brochure:

Burnout strips your tolerance for bullshit.
It sharpens priorities.
It kills vanity projects.
It forces honesty about limits, which turns out to be a strategic advantage if you accept it.

You become harder to manipulate. Harder to rush. Harder to dazzle with empty urgency.

You may never be tireless again. That's fine. Tireless people break things and call it progress.

The goal isn't to be who you were.
The goal is to be effective without self-destruction.

That takes longer than a sabbatical and more humility than most careers reward. It also beats the alternative, which is learning the same lesson twice.

Burnout doesn't end. You just stop fighting the scar and start fighting smarter.

That's not defeat. That's survival with intent.

This should perhaps be the point at which I light a cigarette, stare at the sea a bit too long, and say nothing more.

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Added December 18 2025 by g.

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