Burnout comes from a gap between what you do and what you believe in

That slow erosion of inner presence is the heart of The Thinker’s essay on burnout. Drawing on philosophers Byung-Chul Han and Heidegger, he writes about how modern workers are conditioned to optimize, perform, and self-regulate until their labor becomes disconnected from any internal source. Meaning isn’t lost through exhaustion, it rather slips a... See more

Psychologist Mark Travers calls the exhaustion that sets in when your work consistently diverges from your values “misalignment burnout.” He writes that when our behavior is driven by external rewards — money, status, other people’s expectations — rather than internal alignment, we gradually lose our sense of self. That dissonance builds into cynic... See more

Travers suggests that recovery begins with clarity: unplug, reflect, and realign your behavior with your values. Without that step, even success can feel empty. But when alignment returns, so does a sense of direction. You stop just managing tasks and start acting with purpose again.

Both writers stress that burnout comes not from overwork but from ... See more