We do not lose changemakers because they are lazy.
We lose them because they care.
A lot.
The ones pushing hardest on climate, equity, health, and public systems are not struggling due to lack of skill. They are struggling because the emotional and cognitive weight of change work is real. And nobody is holding it with them.
From the outside it looks fine. Projects get done. Deadlines are met. The founder shows up. The strategist delivers. But inside, something is breaking. The nervous system is in survival mode. The sense of joy or possibility is gone. Only pressure remains.
This is what burnout looks like at the top.
Not collapse. Just quiet erosion. Focus becomes fog. Momentum turns to friction. Until one day the work still matters but you can no longer hold it.
This is not a personal flaw. It is a system failure.
The numbers are real. But they miss the deeper point. Burnout in public service or sustainability is not just about long hours. It is about the silent cost of holding emotional labor inside institutions that do not have space for it.
You are not just managing deliverables. You are managing resistance. Legacy systems. Fragile politics. High stakes. And most of the time you are doing it without a map and without a peer group that truly understands what you carry.
We have seen this inside ministries, funds, and movements. What breaks is not intelligence. It is connection. It is the ability to stay in the work without going numb or going under.
That is why we are changing how we talk about productivity.
Not as output. But as capacity. Not as speed. But as sustainability.
You can be brilliant and burned out at the same time. That is not a contradiction. That is the default in systems that reward performance but ignore well being.
So what actually helps?
- Make safety a core part of ambition.
- Fund connection not just deliverables.
- Respect emotional labor as labor.
- Treat recovery as a strategic function.
You do not have to choose between excellence and regulation. Real performance needs calm.
Projects fail when teams unravel. Build strong peer systems that keep people anchored.
The person guiding institutional change is carrying emotional weight. That weight needs space and support.
Build rhythms for pause and reset into the operating system. Do not wait for collapse.
The future belongs to teams that can move through complexity and stay intact. To cultures that care about outcomes but also about each other. To systems that understand that emotional sustainability is not a luxury. It is leverage.
“Change is the hallmark of nature. Nothing remains the same.” - Alan Weisman