Burnout as Misalignment

When life starts to feel heavy, frantic, and strangely hollow, it’s not a sign to push harder. It’s a signal. We explore burnout as misalignment—what happens when our days are ruled by shoulds, constant reaction, and the stories we once believed about success. Instead of glorifying hustle, we slow down, cut the noise, and listen for what our inner compass has been whispering all along.

Across this conversation, we unpack the “universe handbrake” moment when energy drops, motivation vanishes, and even simple tasks feel uphill. Rather than treating that as failure, we frame it as feedback. We cover practical steps to reset: disconnect from social media and opinions, make space for silence, and ask the cleanest question we know—What do I want? From there, we get specific about journaling prompts, visualising a day designed by desire, and translating that vision into one brave, concrete action. No grand overhaul required, just a daily practice of alignment that respects your season and your nervous system.

We also speak to the fear of change, especially when identity and income are tied to an old path. You’ll hear how to build small pivots that add up, why joy is not frivolous in meaningful work, and how alignment fuels creativity, clarity, and genuine service. By the end, you’ll have a grounded method to move from burnout to resonance: imagine, write, choose, and repeat. If you’re feeling the end‑of‑year fatigue, take this as your gentle permission slip to reset and rewrite. Listen, reflect, and tell us: what will you say yes to this week?

If this resonated, follow the show, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs a nudge back to themselves. Your words help more people find their way to alignment.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Rethinking Burnout
• 1:13 From Hustle To Misalignment
• 2:40 Hitting The Universe Handbrake
• 3:30 Breaking The Should Cycle
• 5:10 Disconnect To Reconnect
• 7:30 The Question That Realigns
• 9:40 Visioning A Different Day

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Something I want to talk about today is the topic of burnout. Now, I'm pretty sure I've done an episode on this before, but my whole thing has changed on the way that I see burnout. And I really wanted to do an episode on this because the way I see it now is completely different to when I went through it. I don't even know how many years ago it was now, but the way that I think about it is completely different. And I wanted to share that with you and know that it's okay to change the way that you think about things, the way that you evolve. Like that is the best thing that we can do is remembering and evolving and changing the way that we think about things because we're getting curious, we're learning. It's actually a good thing because then we know that we're growing and developing into a new way of thinking instead of being the same all the time. So for me, burnout now is really misalignment. It is somewhere along the way we've got so caught up in the rat race, in the doing, doing, doing, living in this responding, responding, responding, responding, responding, responding, responding, and we get to a point where everything gets to be too much. Universe puts on the handbrakes, everything comes to a halt, our energy is depleted, we're feeling unaligned, we're just feeling like everything is all too much, and even talking, even being, even living, it all feels really hard. And this is universe putting on the handbrakes. It's like okay, full on stop. We are misaligned. Burnout is just misalignment. And what do I mean by that? So it essentially means that somewhere along the way, we've gotten on this path of should. We've gotten on this path of I should be doing this, I need to be in here, I need to be responding. We're constantly on that reaction. Reaction, reaction, reaction, responding, responding, responding, and not just taking a moment to check in. Taking a moment to really check in and be like, okay, is this really feeling aligned? Is this the work that I want to be doing anymore? What's happening? Am I, you know, what do I need? It might be ignoring the signs of, okay, we need to rest today. Okay, we need to go out for a walk. Okay, we need to just sit and breathe and connect. And then our human brain might be like, but we can't do that. No, no, no, we've got to be here. We we've got to be constantly on, we've got to be constantly in this activation mode of doing, doing, doing. Because the more that we do, the more success that we have, the more that we're in this, the more that we can achieve, the more that we can do, the more that we can be successful, blah, blah, blah. Like, even in that, even in saying that, part of me is just like ew. That just does not align anymore. It is not in the frequency that I want to live my life. And it is misalignment. And the thing that we can do when we get to this point of burnout, when we get to this point of misalignment, is to take a couple of steps back. Universe is put on the handbrakes. We need to take a couple of steps back. We need to reconnect. We need to disconnect from the outside noise, from other people's opinions on what we should do. We need to disconnect from social media, we need to disconnect from our phone, and we need to connect inward. And sometimes that's hard. Sometimes we resist, sometimes we don't want to because we know that it's hard. We know that we've got to look ourselves in the eye and like connect with ourselves, but it is the greatest gift. Because on the other side, when you sit, when you allow time to be with yourself, when you allow time to sit and look at yourself and ask the questions, pull out your journal, pull out whatever it is you might want to voice it out. Like, what do you want? What do you want? Ask yourself this simple question and just let whatever comes through, whatever desires, if it might feel scary or it might feel so far away, let it come through. What do I want? If anything was possible, if you could have anything in the world, what do you want? What do you want to be doing? What do you want to have? What do you want? Sit with yourself, ask this question, and it will come to you. And you will get realigned. You'll realign to what you truly desire. You will get realigned to the way that you want to live, to what you want to do, and it might change, and it might be scary because you've been doing this thing for so long, but it just isn't aligned anymore. You pivot, and this is your own. To move, to say yes, to get realigned again. Because burnout is just misalignment. We we want to get realigned, we want to do what we desire. Life is too short to be doing these things that we should be doing, that we have to be doing. That, oh no, I need to be doing this because this is where the income is coming in. This is the universe is gonna put on the handbrakes. At some point, mentally, physically, in any way, it's gonna put on the handbrakes because it knows that you are not in alignment to what you are here to do. You are not in alignment to your soul work, you are not in alignment to what feels good. It's okay to be doing things that feel good, that you're passionate about. What do you want? What is it that you want? What do you desire? Be in fantasy world, be in fantasy land. Imagine. Imagine a day that you could be doing anything. Anything is possible. Close your eyes, imagine that day. Imagine it. Live it. What are you doing? Who are you with? What are you experiencing? What does it feel like? Tap in. Write this out. You're a writer, you are the author. Write it out, vision it, tap in. What do you want? What are you doing? What are you experiencing? Tap into that. And you will rewrite your story. This is one step, one step to rewriting it, one step to reconnecting to you, to yourself, for seeing yourself, seeing yourself before the world sees you. Connecting with yourself to what you truly desire, to what you truly want. And this is the work. This is the work that is scary. But do you know what? This is the work that changes your life. If you say yes and you connect and you move and you grow, like this will change your life forever. Because every day we deserve to be living, doing what we desire, what we want to do. Not in a state of surviving, not in a state of burnout, surviving, being misaligned, and everything feels heavy. That is not normal. That is not normal. And when you say yes and you reconnect, you find your spark again, step by step, by the simple question, what do I want? That is a first step in reconnecting your spark, realigning. And it might look completely different to the story that you're living now. But how exciting is that? Saying yes to the hero's journey, saying yes to the adventure of what you truly desire. And that is the magic. You are the magic. And this is what changes everything. And that is my thoughts around burnout and my what I've experienced. We're now seeing it as misalignment. And when I reconnected to my alignment and what I truly desired, everything changed. And now every day is a story. Every day is an adventure. Not every day is sunshine and rainbows and butterflies. But I'm living here, I'm experiencing it all. I'm using what I'm feeling, using what I'm living and experiencing to express, to write, to be the author. And what joy is that? So much joy. So as you lead into the end of the year, you might be feeling a little bit fatigued. You might be feeling these little niggles that we need to just re-rest, reset, reconnect. So during the holiday period, I strongly, strongly invite you to ask the question: what do I want? Be in that imagination mode. See what comes through. Share. Share it with me. I'm my DMs are always open if you feel called to share this or if you have any questions. But it's my like deepest desire for you to step into this. If you're feeling deflated, I see you. I know how it feels. And you have the opportunity to say yes, to reconnect. And that is all. That is what I'm gonna leave you with today.