Feeling burnt out

“You don’t burn out from working too hard. You burn out from meaninglessness.”

That line lands like a splash of cold water. For years, burnout has been framed as the natural consequence of excessive effort, late nights, relentless ambition, and pushing yourself beyond reasonable limits. The solution, we’re told, is balance: take more breaks, go on vacation, reduce your hours, learn to say no. While rest is essential, that advice misses the deeper truth. Burnout doesn’t simply come from the amount of work we do—it comes from the absence of meaning in the work we’re doing.

The Myth of “Too Much Work”

Let’s be honest: human beings are capable of extraordinary levels of effort when the cause feels worthwhile. Consider the scientist who spends ten years in a lab trying to solve a medical mystery. The entrepreneur who builds a company from the ground up and pulls 16-hour days. The parent who stays up all night with a newborn and still shows up for work in the morning. These aren’t people who burned out because of effort alone. They endured because meaning carried them.

Now contrast that with someone who clocks a standard 40-hour week in a job that feels purposeless. Even if the workload is manageable, the sense of emptiness gnaws at them. Every task feels like wading through quicksand. Eventually, motivation erodes, cynicism sets in, and exhaustion follows. That’s burnout in its truest form—not exhaustion from overwork, but depletion from doing work that feels meaningless.

Why Meaning Fuels Resilience

Meaning is the invisible fuel of resilience. When our work aligns with our values, passions, or a cause greater than ourselves, we’re willing to endure discomfort, stress, and long hours because the outcome matters. Purpose creates an energy reserve that sleep alone cannot replenish.

Psychologists often refer to Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, who argued that people can endure almost any “how” if they have a “why.” In other words, when you know why you’re doing something, your capacity to withstand challenge expands dramatically.

The Modern Burnout Epidemic

So why does burnout seem more widespread now than ever before? Part of the reason is the way many modern workplaces are structured. Too often, work gets reduced to numbers on a spreadsheet, performance metrics, or endless meetings about tasks that feel disconnected from real impact. Employees lose sight of how their efforts contribute to something meaningful.

Technology compounds the issue. The constant stream of emails, notifications, and deadlines fragments attention, leaving little room to reflect on the “why” behind the work. We’re sprinting on treadmills that never stop, but we’re not moving toward anything that feels significant.

Finding Meaning in What You Do

If burnout stems from meaninglessness, then the antidote is not simply fewer hours but more purpose. That doesn’t mean everyone has to quit their job and join a nonprofit. Meaning doesn’t come only from grand missions. It can be found in small, everyday ways:

• Connection: Who benefits from what you do? Can you draw a line between your daily tasks and the people whose lives are improved by them?

• Growth: Does your work challenge you to learn, improve, or stretch into new skills? Growth itself creates meaning.

• Contribution: Do you feel your efforts add to something larger than yourself, even in a small way?

• Values alignment: Does your work reflect what you stand for, or at least avoid contradicting it?

Sometimes, meaning is discovered by reframing how you see your role. The classic story is of the janitor at NASA who, when asked what he was doing, replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” His tasks didn’t change, but his perspective did.

Practical Steps to Restore Meaning

If you feel burnout creeping in, here are a few practical steps to reconnect with meaning:

1.    Clarify your why. Write down why you do what you do. If you can’t find a compelling reason, it may be time to reevaluate your path.

2.    Seek impact. Ask how your work touches others. Even seemingly small contributions can have ripple effects.

3.    Align your values. Identify your top values—then look for ways to integrate them into your daily work.

4.    Redesign your role. Where possible, shape your responsibilities toward areas that energise you.

5.    Invest in relationships. Colleagues, clients, or communities can bring a sense of shared purpose that solitary effort cannot.

The Hard Work That Heals

When your work has meaning, hard work isn’t the enemy—it’s the pathway to fulfilment. The exhaustion of a long day can feel deeply satisfying when you know it was in service of something that matters. That’s the kind of tired you can sleep off. The burnout that lingers, the one that makes you dread Monday mornings and question your worth, stems from a deeper hunger.

So the next time you feel burnout closing in, don’t just ask, “Am I working too hard?” Ask instead, “Does this work matter to me?” The answer to that question—not the length of your to-do list—determines whether your efforts will deplete you or energise you.

Because in the end, it’s not the hours that drain us. It’s the absence of meaning.

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