Is Burnout Inevitable? Taking a Systems Approach to Burnout Prevention

Can we Redesign How We Work and Live for Sustainable Wellbeing?*

After a particularly rough night with yet another panic attack, searing chest pain and only 4.5 hours of sleep, I knew I couldn’t deny it any longer: I was having a burnout. Despite my best efforts, neither my body nor my brain cooperated with me anymore. Through the constant brain fog and fatigue, chronic pain and digestive issues, I had to agree with my doctor. I had to accept that it wasn’t just a bit of stress or a random virus I had caught.

What I couldn’t accept was that it wasn’t a personal failure. I felt that I had failed in every area of my life.

But was that really true? What makes burnout inevitable?  Why do we speak so much about mental health and stress but do so little in practice? When will we take rising burnout numbers seriously? How can we focus more on burnout prevention instead of putting out fires or spending time, money, and energy on hard recovery?

Interestingly, I noticed that only when I openly shared my experience with burnout did others start talking about their difficulties. Their stories almost sounded like relieved admissions that they were not alone and that it was okay to have these struggles.

My story isn’t unique, and that’s exactly why it matters.

I’m glad you’re here. You’re invited—the door is always open: Join a growing community committed to thriving, not just surviving. Subscribe for genuine value and support tailored for professional women facing modern workplace challenges.

After these encounters and my own experience with burnout, I made it my mission to understand why burnout happens and how I can help others to prevent it. In a series of blog posts, I will share what I have learned to raise awareness and to help you avoid burning out.

If you have been feeling exhausted, cynical and disengaged with a sense of losing control over your life, are plagued with mysterious illnesses and feel oddly ineffective even though you are “doing everything right”— you’re not broken. But you might run your life on a system that makes your recovery impossible.

So, let’s see why that happens.

Why should we even talk about burnout?

It often starts subtly: the fatigue that no weekend can fix, irritability and guilt when you’re resting. Some signs are harder to spot: overspending on unnecessary shopping, indulging in food or alcohol, ditching responsibilities and procrastinating. Many professionals know these repeating patterns but are unaware of the underlying roots, and are even less efficient in stopping the vicious circles.

Latest studies in the US and UK report job burnout between 60-82% with younger generations and women being more at risk. We now have an official definition by the World Health Organisation (WHO) added to the global classification of diseases, albeit called an "occupational phenomenon" and not a medical condition.

Yet, when designing work, only half of employers consider wellbeing despite burnout costing businesses about $322 billion in productivity every year. Deloitte’s Women @ Work 2025 report found that 90% of respondents feel their manager would think negatively about them if they shared about experiencing mental health challenges.

These numbers do not just reveal business losses but show a fundamental breakdown of employer-employee relationships.

It seems that focusing our efforts on prevention is not just about a fancy wellness trend, but a much-needed segment of business strategy to avoid the loss of both money and productivity.

Understanding What Burnout Really Is

The WHO defines burnout as “a syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed”. It shows up as feeling depleted, mentally and emotionally detached from work, with a growing sense that you are no longer performing well, no matter how hard you try.

For many high-achievers and ambitious professionals who have built a career through sheer grit and willpower, pushing through stress, this all sounds soft. For them, burnout is often the latest buzzword: “It’s not burnout, just a bit of stress. After this project, all will be back to normal.” Yet, months go by, and life is still slipping away with health issues popping up like mushrooms after rain. I know, because I was one of them.

Neuroscience further proves that burnout is also physiological. Brain scans show how chronic stress literally rewires the brain and changes not just decision-making but how we process emotions and information. The impact is: decreased rationalism and more reactivity, weaker immune system, inflammation, decreased sleeping quality and digestive problems.

The truth is that burnout isn’t a personal failure or a sign that you lack resilience; rather, it is a predictable outcome of chronic, unmanaged pressures piling up faster than you can recover from them. It’s about running your life on an unsustainable system while living in an always-on hustle culture.

Beyond Willpower: A Systems Approach to Beating Burnout

Following my burnout in 2023, I learned that for ambitious, high-performing professionals, the key is not always about slowing us down, taking more bubble baths or embracing yoga.

The best leaders are the ones who learn to work with their nervous system instead of pushing through stress at all costs.

After two years of experimenting, studying and training, I believe that the key to preventing burnout is building a tailored wellbeing system that suits your lifestyle.

It is about having a solid system: living in alignment with our truest, most deepest values and desires while being able to move between cycles of stress and proper recovery.

I call this system SPARK, and no, it does not include 5 a.m. wake-ups, empty slogans or matcha mornings.

SPARK is built on practical strategies for personal development, based on the idea that small actions can create a big impact. It is a simple system to prevent burnout by balancing load and recovery using practical and easy-to-tailor methodologies to keep your edge.

The foundation of prevention is spotting early signs. Although I described some of the general signs of burnout, early signs can be very personal to each individual. If any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, take it as a signal—not a sentence. It is your system signalling that the way you work and recover no longer match the reality of your load.

In my next post, I will go into details about recognising early signs before they escalate further. Burnout is not inevitable, and you are not alone on this journey toward prevention and healing.

This weekly series aims to highlight what makes burnout so prevalent and, most importantly, what actionable steps you can start taking right before you start running on fumes.

love,

Krisztina

P.S.: If these insights resonate, and if you are ready to build a more sustainable, healthy life, subscribe below to receive practical strategies and real stories straight to your inbox.

---

*Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice; if you’re experiencing serious symptoms or distress, please seek evaluation and care from a qualified healthcare professional.