Why you don’t have to burn out to be successful

Looking back, the warning signs were there: constant tiredness, emotional flatness, skipping the things that brought me joy because there was 'no time'. I didn’t connect them to burnout until my body made the connection for me, says wellness coach Gillian O'Gorman who supports people in developing clear boundaries in their professional and personal life

Fri, 10 Oct, 2025 - 01:16

Gillian O'Gorman

A groundbreaking international study involving organisations in Ireland has found that shifting to a four-day workweek can slash burnout by 67%, improve sleep and wellbeing, and even boost productivity, all without cutting pay. This finding is a powerful reminder that the key to “getting life right” isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing better.

This morning, I spoke with a lady who confessed to overcommitting and overscheduling, leaving barely a moment to breathe.

“That’s just who I am,” she said. “I’d be worried if I wasn’t busy.”

It made me think, why is this quiet addiction to busy-ness so normalised, particularly among women? We wear our packed calendars as badges of honour, always listing what we’ve done, still need to do, and hope to accomplish. It’s all about doing, and rarely about being.

Yet research consistently shows that true accomplishment isn’t about how much we do, but how effectively we focus, rest, and recharge.

In Ireland, women are more susceptible to burnout than men, yet paradoxically less likely to name it or seek help. A 2020 University of Limerick/OMT Global survey found that 67% of women reported heightened stress since COVID, compared to 45% of men. Nearly half (49%) struggled to balance work and home, versus 35% of men, showing how pandemic pressures disproportionately impacted women’s wellbeing.

Cultural norms reinforce this. Women are praised for their 'resilience' and 'self-sacrifice'... making it harder to pause and prioritise self-care without guilt.

Many don’t even recognise when they’re approaching burnout because the symptoms feel so familiar. It creeps in quietly, the fatigue you dismiss as 'just being busy', the low mood or irritability you put down to stress, the creeping sense that you’re achieving less despite working more. It can appear physically, recurring headaches, stomach issues, tightness in your chest, or socially, when you start cancelling plans or letting hobbies slide because you’re “too tired.”

Arianna Huffington once said: “We have to stop believing that we can only be successful if we are constantly working. The truth is, when we are rested, we are more productive, more creative, and more effective.”

She speaks from experience. In 2007, at the height of building The Huffington Post, Huffington collapsed from exhaustion, hitting her head on her desk and breaking her cheekbone. That wake-up call forced her to reject the cultural belief that constant hustle is the only path to achievement. Her recovery led to the founding of Thrive Global in 2016, promoting sustainable high performance. Her message: creativity and productivity flourish not through overwork, but by protecting energy, prioritising rest, and leading with wellbeing.

I, too, know burnout intimately. At 30, I told myself: This is what I need to be to be successful. I believed the only way to 'get life right' was to climb the career ladder, hit the financial milestones, and keep proving my worth.

But burnout isn’t always a single dramatic collapse. It can be an ongoing negotiation. For me, it became a constant inner conversation: What is enough? Am I enough? What do I need to do to feel enough? And why do I feel I need to do anything at all to prove it?

For years, the answer was always to do more. And for a while, it worked. I achieved, I was praised, I felt in control. But by 38, I’d burned through my energy, my joy, and my sense of balance. Looking back, the warning signs were there: constant tiredness, emotional flatness, skipping the things that brought me joy because there was 'no time'. I didn’t connect them to burnout until my body made the connection for me.

What I now see so often in the women I coach is that this pattern starts young. At an early age, they negotiate with themselves about their capacity to achieve; they push, stretch, and say yes to more because it works, for a time. But as we get older, our responsibilities grow, careers, families, ageing parents, financial pressures, while our capacity naturally changes. The same level of output we once prided ourselves on becomes unsustainable, and boundaries erode.

In a recent stress management workshop I facilitated, a woman proudly declared she was a workaholic. She said it with a smile, almost as if it were a badge of honour, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long that smile would last. or how authentic it really was.

Too often, what we celebrate as drive and dedication is really a mask for exhaustion, pressure, or the fear of not being enough. Over time, the body adapts to chronic 'go' mode, and urgency becomes the default, something that feels normal, even when it’s not healthy.

The good news is these patterns can be unlearned. By slowing down, reassessing, and making intentional choices, we can choose balance over constant busyness. Imagine redefining success not as how much you do, but how deeply you live. Imagine asking yourself: 'What if the most productive thing I could do right now is… rest?'

Because real productivity, creativity, and presence don’t come from a body locked in constant fight-or-flight, they come from a balanced nervous system, one that has the space to recover, reset, and respond with clarity.

Perhaps 'getting life right' isn’t about doing it all, it’s about knowing when to stop, when to breathe, and when to protect the energy that allows us to live it fully.