About You

People see you as a smart, kind, dedicated woman, working in an international organization. You’ve always worked hard and the high pace and never-ending work pressure have started taking their toll. The constant effort to prove yourself and keep up with demands is leading to physical and emotional exhaustion – you’re starting to burn out.

You’ve been looking for support, but most coaching seems to be aimed at looking at your career path. But what about you as a person? How can you get yourself out of these same patterns of feeling overworked? Who is going to protect you, look out for your well-being?

Do you recognize this?

  • Your alarm rings, it’s time to get up. You feel that familiar sense of dread creeping in. What will be expected of you today? How many tasks will be added to your to-do list now? If you could, you would just hide under the covers and not face the day. But it’s not an option. You have a family to run, an employer and colleagues who count on you. You want to be able to do all the tasks you’re supposed to do, but it’s hard. Hard not to drown in the work that lies ahead.
  • With every passing day, you’re doubting yourself more and more. Your colleagues don’t seem to experience that all-encompassing feeling of exhaustion. So what’s wrong with you for not being able to deal with the same work pressures? You’ve tried some short term remedies – taking a yoga class, doing some mindfulness exercises – but you know it’s not going to make a lasting difference. You’re not addressing the real problem, and deep down you know this.
  • At work, you’re in a constant struggle to determine what you should and should not take on. You want to contribute and just be able to take on whatever task comes your way. Yet at the same time, you know you need to find that balance for yourself to keep it manageable and not fully overdo it. So you feel torn and on edge throughout the day, which in itself costs you more energy than you can afford.
  • At home, the demands of being a partner and a mother weigh heavy on you, and you feel guilty for not being able to do what you would like to be able to do. Being at home with the kids feels like another job, not something that gives you energy, but that drains the energy from you. This is not the mom you want to be. You want to be happy and full of energy around your kids, not feel so drained all the time.

If you continue this way, you will never gain back your energy and get out of the burnout cycle. You will get yourself back just enough to function, but the real problems, the real reasons why you ended up in this exhaustion in the first place, will still be there. So you manage to keep functioning – surviving – knowing that burnout is just around the corner.

And when it hits, you really feel you have failed: failed your family, failed your work, and failed yourself. Not able to pull your weight, not able to support yourself, let alone others. People expect you to do what’s needed, being able to rely on you. Are you really that weak? You know deep down that you’re not, that there is another solution – you just haven’t found it yet…