Why Your Best Work Might Be Burning You Out

Imagine: Your boss is walking you through your performance review. You can hear the genuine enthusiasm in her voice. The numbers are great. The feedback is glowing. And somewhere in your chest — you feel heavy.

Not ungrateful. Not unhappy exactly. Just... flat. Like you expected something to land, and it didn't.

If you've ever had this experience, I want you to know: it's not ingratitude. It's probably not a simple case of burnout.

It might be a signal that you've been working in the wrong zone.

Here's what I mean. High achievers are remarkably good at doing things well. We learn, we adapt, we rise to the occasion — and we get rewarded for it. Over time, we build an entire professional identity around the things other people have confirmed we're excellent at.

But excellent at and energized by are not the same thing.

When our best work is externally driven — when the validation comes from outside us more than inside — we become vulnerable to a slow kind of depletion.

We keep performing. People keep praising (money, promotions, feedback). And we’re left wondering why it doesn't feel like enough.

That's the Excellence Trap. And it's incredibly common among the high achievers I work with.

If this resonates for you, start with this simple, small step:

Make a list of what you do that gets the most approval from other people.

Then ask yourself which of those things you'd still want to do if no one was watching.

That gap — if there is one — is worth paying attention to.

Much love,

Marijke Ocean

Want to notice your own patterns in real time?

Join one of my free Body Doubling sessions — a focused co-working experience (some people have called it a Study Hall 😂) where we work alongside each other and, often, learn a great deal about where our effort is going. Sign up here.