03/03/2026
I saw this and it stopped me.
Because burnout doesn’t just make you tired. It makes you lose yourself.
It rarely arrives in a dramatic crash. It happens quietly. You laugh less. You stop dreaming out loud. You stop doing things just because they light you up. You become efficient. Responsible. Dependable. And underneath all of that, something feels flat.
The world teaches you how to survive. How to push through. How to carry more than is reasonable. High performers learn that lesson early. We get very good at functioning on fumes.
Then one day you catch yourself and think, when did I become this serious? When did everything turn into output and obligation?
That moment matters.
Joy is usually the first thing to fade. Identity follows slowly after. You start introducing yourself by what you do, not who you are. The spark that used to feel natural now feels distant.
And if you’re in what I call Cougar Puberty, midlife, peri, that what-the-hell-is-happening-to-me chapter, this can feel amplified. Your tolerance for nonsense drops. Your body starts pushing back. You feel restless, irritated, hungry for something you can’t quite name.
For many women, it’s the first time in years that the question actually comes up properly. Who am I now? What do I actually want? What have I swallowed to keep everything else running?
There’s a difference between being responsible and being erased.
Your wild doesn’t disappear. It goes quiet when it isn’t given space.
If parts of you feel muted, that’s information. Pay attention to it.
“When the world teaches you to survive, don’t forget to dream. Stay wild.”
– Nikki Rowe