The gist: The most important mindset shift you could make about burnout is that it's not your fault. Society makes it so that it's almost impossible not to.
The reason you burnt out has nothing to do with you.
It's not a personal failure.
It's not a professional failure.
It's a societal one.
This has been the most freeing mindset shift I've made since I left in-house marketing after 2 years of burnout.
I burnt out hard very early in my career.
So often that by the time I was 25, I realized our average 40-hour workweeks were too much for me. At the time I felt alone, but I've seen it happen to so many trends since.
I guess I was just ahead of the trend, per usual, as the super cool person I am. 
But at the time, no one else around me had gone through something like this.
So when it happened, all I could see was my own experience and those of the people directly around me.
All I could see was that everyone around me seemed to be able to handle the demands of our toxic hustle culture, but I couldn't.
That it seemed like everyone else was working just as much as me, trying just as hard (or not even needing to), and they were doing fine.
Why wasn't I?
But over the 3 years since then, I've watch so many—SO FUCKING MANY—people go through the same thing.
We really are in a burnout epidemic.
The reason I fell ahead of my generation's curve and burnt out sooner than my peers was because in addition to Hustle Culture working against me, I also had chronic physical and mental illness teaming up with it.
Not only was I facing unreasonable demands from society for any human, I also had significantly less energy and stamina than most other humans in the workforce.
(So, NOT just cause I'm ahead of the trend, like when I started wearing jeggings YEARS before anyone else.)
But since other people around me have started burning out too, it's happening too much, too often, and to too many different types of people for it to always be a personal failing.
Nope, I'm not blaming myself anymore. And if you've burnt out, you shouldn't either.
At this point, it's the fault of the culture we're living in.
The one that applauds workaholism, glorifies entrepreneurship, and prioritizes productivity over all else.
Hustle Culture.
I used to say that I burned out of hustling, when I was still ashamed of doing so.
Now, I say I escaped.
I say I'm free from it.
I get to work a different way. I don't just work smarter, I work brighter.
Are you ready to start working brighter too?
Working brighter is about escaping Hustle Culture and its obsession with capitalist productivity over all else, and resetting your relationships with work, play, and rest.
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