“If you’re not tired, you’re not trying hard enough.” We’ve made exhaustion a measure of our ambitions. We applaud those who push themselves to their limits. Rest is failure–or so they say. However, burnout isn’t proof of dedication; it simply indicates a lack of balance.

Burnout goes beyond just feeling tired; it is an ongoing state. It involves emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion resulting from relentless pressure without adequate recovery. According to the National Library of Medicine (NLM), burnout is a syndrome that develops as a prolonged response to emotional and interpersonal stressors. The National Center for Biotechnology Information identified burnout as having three key dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism/depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.

If you place these three dimensions within the context of society, the idea of burnout being a factor of success doesn’t seem too radical. For one, emotional exhaustion is often framed as ‘dedication’–like the student who pulls an all-nighter to finish a project, then gets praised for their hard work, despite the toxic toll it took. Secondly, Cynicism or detachment is interpreted as independence. You probably know a student who purposefully ignores help, only to be seen as self-sufficient, when in reality they avoid asking for support because it would make them look incapable. Lastly, reduced personal accomplishment– the third and most common dimension– is brushed aside only if effort is visible. 

The whole idea of struggling publicly diminishes the look of success. As long as they look like they’re trying their hardest, though, right?

Wrong.

Effort on display isn’t proof of real success. Peter Abelard, medieval philosopher and theologian who was known for his tragic love affair with Héloïse, suffered at least two nervous collapses due to burnout. Biographers wrote that “his memory became very confused, his reasoning blacked out, and his interior sense forsook him.” Yes, society admired his intellect, but it was at the cost of his life.

An obsession with overwork isn’t just a thing of the past; it persists today as well. The same pressure shows up in the world of sports. Lewis Hamilton, one of the fastest drivers in Formula 1 history, spends countless hours in lap simulators. Although the sport is often overlooked, F1 drivers are constantly under extreme physical and mental strain–enduring high G-forces and heart rate spikes over 150 bpm.

Hamilton himself has opened up about the toll this constant pressure takes. He admitted, “It’s been mostly a battle of the mind, life is really about how much pain you can experience and keep going.” This precisely embodies the trap of glorified overwork. He said it himself: grinding nonstop isn’t a free card to success. It’s only accepted if effort is visible; then the results are celebrated.

Sure, although burnout can contribute to success, it must be equally balanced with adequate rest.

Even at the peak of his career, Hamilton admits that he “definitely needs to get away and recharge.” If one of the world’s fastest, most successful athletes needs to step back at times, it must be true that pushing on even past your limits isn’t the ultimate measure of dedication.

And this isn’t just a “Hamilton thing.” Female athletes face these pressures even more intensely. Women in general are expected to be perfect physically, mentally, and publicly. 

Take Simone Biles, a 37-time Olympic and World Championship medalist, also well known as the greatest gymnast in history. For years, she carried the weight of an entire sport while simultaneously forcing herself to push through injuries. She went through injuries that would end most athletic careers: fractured ribs, repeated ankle sprains, and shoulder injuries. These injuries, along with the mental stressors she endured, made her hit her breaking point at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. In the middle of finals, Biles experienced what gymnasts call the twisties. The twisties are a mental block in which your body disconnects from your sense of air awareness. This may sound minor to you, but for a gymnast flying several feet in the air, it can be fatal.

In a later interview, Biles stated that “she couldn’t tell up from down,” which means a single misstep or miscalculation could lead to the most paralyzing injuries to both the neck and spine. And even then,  when the world watched her body reject and her mental well-being circle, people still asked why she couldn’t just “push through it.”

That reaction proves my point.

We’ve tied success to suffering and expect people to break themselves in the process. Who said stepping back was a weakness? You only achieve success once you know when to stop. 

The NLM makes one thing clear: burnout is a psychological response that’s elevated by cortisol, chronic inflammation, and cognitive decline. This, in turn, builds up when stress massively outweighs recovery. It’s basically your body keeping score–something that’s inevitable despite your efforts to ignore it and pretend you’re fine. 

These are the words of Kylian Mbappé, a French professional footballer. Mbappé, by the age of nineteen, had won a FIFA World Cup and multiple Ligue 1 titles. He admitted that he holds himself to sky-high standards–a common theme throughout all athlete interviews.

“I am much harder on myself than most people are. I’ve never wanted to accept failure.” Mbappé said.

Despite his unparalleled success, he admits that even he is trapped in the burnout cycle the NLM warns about. He even admits that if he weren’t at the height of his success, without his genuine passion for football, “the world of football would have disguised [him] a long time ago.”

Burnout isn’t abstract, and it doesn’t discriminate between straight-A students, star athletes, or the most committed teachers. It’s in the eyes that struggle to stay open during the first period, in the hands that cramp from endless typing and writing, and in the hunched-over back from sitting through classes. Whether anyone’s noticed or not, it’s there.

So yes, motivate yourself. Push yourself to your most significant potential–who’s stopping you? But know when to stop, because then that’s when your effort becomes destructive.