3 Warning Signs You’re Burning Out in the Name of “Excellence” By Cherlette McCullough

Let’s talk about what burnout really looks like behind the high-functioning habits people often praise. These are the quiet red flags I see all the time in therapy, especially with leaders, entrepreneurs, and women who carry it all without letting anything drop.

If any of this sounds like you, I want you to know you’re not alone, and you don’t have to break down to be worthy of a break.

1. Chasing Perfect, Losing Peace

You spend hours tweaking things that are already more than good enough.

Not broken, not messy just not “perfect” in your eyes.

You rewrite the same email, rework the same plan, revisit the same project. Not because it’s wrong, but because you can’t release it.

That “just a little better” mindset is dressed up as excellence, but it’s really perfectionism keeping you stuck.

Perfection feels productive, but it robs you of peace and progress. Letting go is growth.

2. Doing More, Feeling Less

Your to-do list keeps growing, no matter how long your workdays are.

You’re crossing things off, but somehow you still feel behind.

It’s that exhausting cycle of overachieving while under-feeling.

You're accomplishing things but not connecting to them. You’re present, but not fully there.

That numb, disconnected feeling? It’s not laziness it’s burnout whispering louder than you realize.

3. Hustling Through the Guilt

You feel like rest has to be earned.

If you’re not the first one in and the last one out, guilt creeps in.

You answer emails at midnight just to stay ahead, weekends are blurred with work, and slowing down feels uncomfortable.

You’ve built your pace around pressure and now your body and mind are begging you to slow down.

Let me say this with love rest is not a reward, it’s a requirement.

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