The Hidden Warning Sign High-Achievers Ignore

How Gratitude Can Reveal Career Burnout in High-Performing Women

There was a time in my life when I was convinced I should have been grateful.

I had worked my way into a world I never imagined I would enter. I grew up a free lunch kid in a low-income, single parent home. My mom hadn’t gone to college. We struggled, we improvised, and we survived. Every step I took after that felt like climbing a cliff with my bare hands.

College. Grad school. The post-MBA strategy consulting role. Big-name clients. Frequent flyer status and four-star hotels. Early flights on Monday mornings, presenting to C-suite leaders Tuesday afternoons. Status, perks, prestige.

I had worked so hard to get there that it felt almost wrong not to love it.

And yet, I was miserable.

Yes, the hours were brutal. I remember 3 a.m. alarms so I could catch 5 a.m. flights and the need to be “on” by the time I landed. I remember taking 7 a.m. calls straight through until dinner, only to open my laptop again until midnight in a hotel room that overlooked a city I never had time to enjoy.

But the hardest part was actually not the schedule.

The hardest part was realizing that the life I had built with such precision and determination did not actually feel good. I had created the version of success I thought would save me. And instead, it was slowly hollowing me out.

I remember one moment in particular. I was flying to a client in the middle of a long stretch of back-to-back travel. I opened the Notes app on my phone and wrote a gratitude list because I felt so disconnected that I needed something to anchor me. I wrote that I was grateful for my job, my clients, the hotels, the opportunities…And for a moment, it helped.

For a moment, I believed I could force myself to feel lucky. Successful.

Looking back, that list should have been a neon warning sign. When you have to write down why you should be grateful for a life that feels suffocating, something inside you already knows the truth.

But I didn’t listen. Not yet.

Like many high-achieving women I know, I stayed. I stayed because I had invested so much. I stayed because I had wanted it so badly. Had worked so hard for it. I stayed because the identity, the paycheck, the sense of external praise…it all felt like proof that I mattered.

Even though inside I was unraveling.

I spent three more years in that role. Three years trying to make myself grateful for a life that did not fit me. Three years ignoring my body, my intuition, and my truth because I was afraid of what would happen if I let go.

This week, as I sit here reflecting on Thanksgiving, I feel grateful in a way I could not have imagined back then. I feel grateful for my clients. For my career. For the life I am building with intentionality and alignment. But more than anything, I feel grateful that I finally learned to listen to myself.

The difference between then and now is not the circumstances. It is not the résumé. It is not the achievements. It is the alignment.

Back then, my gratitude was intellectual. A list I wrote because I thought it would make me feel better.
Now, my gratitude is embodied. I feel it. I live it. I trust it.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to the woman on that plane. The one trying to convince herself she was okay. The one who did not yet know she was allowed to be more than strong and resilient. The one who could not imagine that joy and alignment were options available to her.

I wish I could sit beside her and say:
You do not have to stay in a life that hurts.
You do not have to keep proving yourself.
You are allowed to want a different life.
You are allowed to build a career that feels like home.

And because I cannot go back to her, I now work with the women who are living what she lived.
The ones who are successful on paper but quietly struggling inside.
The ones who feel guilty that they are not more grateful.
The ones who sense something is off but do not know what to do next.
The ones who are afraid to walk away from the life they built, even when that life is breaking them, because the future is unclear.

To you, I want to say:
Do not wait three more years.
Do not wait ten.
There is a version of your life where you feel grounded, aligned, and deeply grateful.
It is closer than you think.

And if you feel like this is your moment to begin, I would love to support you.

If you book a Complimentary Consultation with me by December 1 and we decide to work together, I would like to offer you 25 percent off your coaching package.

It is my gift to you, and also my gift to the woman I was back then. The one who needed someone to sit beside her on that plane and say,
You are allowed to choose yourself.