71: How work rewards overfunctioning and exhausts women
Tue Feb 03 2026
Burnout doesn’t usually come from one explosive moment.
It builds slowly through over-giving, over-functioning, and being “on” for everyone else.
In this episode of The Life Management System, Courtney Cecil unpacks why so many working moms and high performers feel chronically depleted even when nothing on their calendar looks overwhelming.
Through a deeply personal story from her corporate career – including extreme overwork, sleep deprivation, gaslighting leadership, and a moment that should have stopped everything but didn’t – Courtney explains why burnout often goes unnoticed until the cost is undeniable.
This conversation reframes burnout as not failure, but capacity exceeded, and invites you to look at the quiet, invisible ways you may be leaking time, energy, and yourself, often in the name of being capable, reliable, and “easy to work with.”
💡 Inside this episode, we explore:
Why burnout rarely arrives with a dramatic breakdownHow high performers are often rewarded with more work, not more protectionWhy exhaustion is frequently misdiagnosed as incompetenceHow being “the go-to” quietly becomes identityThe role of invisible labor and constant accessibility in chronic depletionWhy boundaries don’t usually feel like crossed lines, they feel like disappearingHow internal standards and external expectations blur together over timeWhy awareness is the first step to sustainable changeHow misalignment between life and work shows up in the body
🧠 Core reframes to sit with:
Burnout is information, not a personal flawCapability without protection leads to overextractionWhen everything feels hard, responsible women blame themselves firstBoundaries are about awareness before behaviorValues misalignment drains energy faster than workload alone
🔗 Resources & links mentioned:
Boundary Self-Check Quiz: Where Are You Leaking Time, Energy, or Yourself? Follow Courtney on InstagramEpisode 67 (recommended next listen): Why Burnout Sneaks Up on High Performers (and What It’s Really Telling You)Waterproof shower notepad
💥 Episode takeaway:
Burnout isn’t a sign that you’re broken.
It’s a signal that something in your system – work, expectations, roles, or identity – needs to change.
When you stop treating burnout like a personal failure and start treating it like information, you can begin redesigning your life and work to be sustainable, aligned, and human again.
You don’t need more discipline.
You need clarity.
📈 Keywords:
burnout in high performers, working mom burnout, capacity exceeded, invisible labor, mental load for women, values misalignment, overfunctioning women, organizational burnout, women and work, leadership and burnout, chronic exhaustion, burnout prevention, identity and work, emotional labor, Life Management System podcast, Courtney Cecil, Working Moms Movement
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Burnout doesn’t usually come from one explosive moment. It builds slowly through over-giving, over-functioning, and being “on” for everyone else. In this episode of The Life Management System, Courtney Cecil unpacks why so many working moms and high performers feel chronically depleted even when nothing on their calendar looks overwhelming. Through a deeply personal story from her corporate career – including extreme overwork, sleep deprivation, gaslighting leadership, and a moment that should have stopped everything but didn’t – Courtney explains why burnout often goes unnoticed until the cost is undeniable. This conversation reframes burnout as not failure, but capacity exceeded, and invites you to look at the quiet, invisible ways you may be leaking time, energy, and yourself, often in the name of being capable, reliable, and “easy to work with.” 💡 Inside this episode, we explore: Why burnout rarely arrives with a dramatic breakdownHow high performers are often rewarded with more work, not more protectionWhy exhaustion is frequently misdiagnosed as incompetenceHow being “the go-to” quietly becomes identityThe role of invisible labor and constant accessibility in chronic depletionWhy boundaries don’t usually feel like crossed lines, they feel like disappearingHow internal standards and external expectations blur together over timeWhy awareness is the first step to sustainable changeHow misalignment between life and work shows up in the body 🧠 Core reframes to sit with: Burnout is information, not a personal flawCapability without protection leads to overextractionWhen everything feels hard, responsible women blame themselves firstBoundaries are about awareness before behaviorValues misalignment drains energy faster than workload alone 🔗 Resources & links mentioned: Boundary Self-Check Quiz: Where Are You Leaking Time, Energy, or Yourself? Follow Courtney on InstagramEpisode 67 (recommended next listen): Why Burnout Sneaks Up on High Performers (and What It’s Really Telling You)Waterproof shower notepad 💥 Episode takeaway: Burnout isn’t a sign that you’re broken. It’s a signal that something in your system – work, expectations, roles, or identity – needs to change. When you stop treating burnout like a personal failure and start treating it like information, you can begin redesigning your life and work to be sustainable, aligned, and human again. You don’t need more discipline. You need clarity. 📈 Keywords: burnout in high performers, working mom burnout, capacity exceeded, invisible labor, mental load for women, values misalignment, overfunctioning women, organizational burnout, women and work, leadership and burnout, chronic exhaustion, burnout prevention, identity and work, emotional labor, Life Management System podcast, Courtney Cecil, Working Moms Movement