So I had to stop and think...

Resilience has a blind spot

Maybe I was wrong about Purpose? Resilience has a blind spot.

Lately I wrote about how "Burnout isn't the problem, Disconnection from Purpose is". Yesterday I got an email from a friend and colleague that stopped me in my tracks.

He wrote:

“Rick… my experience was a bit different. Passion was exactly the problem because it masked the signs of burnout. It made me not take my own medicine. It made me feel I can get over anything because it’s my passion. And I gave far too much as a result.”

Oof. Yes.

Because here’s what’s tricky about passion…

It doesn’t just fuel us.

It can also blind us.

When the work matters deeply, it’s easy to confuse intensity with resilience.

To call exhaustion “commitment.”

To treat recovery like something I’ll do later — after launch, after the deadline, after the next push.

And if you’re a high performer like me, this gets even more dangerous… because we’re good at pushing through.

We can keep showing up.

We can keep delivering.

We can even keep inspiring other people.

Right up until we can’t.

So here’s the question I want to explore in our next webinar:

What if burnout shows up in two very different ways…

1. When people lose connection to meaning and purpose — and their energy quietly leaks out.

2. And when people have so much meaning and purpose that passion becomes a kind of superpower… one that hides the warning signs.

Either way, the cost is the same:

Our energy drains.

Our presence shrinks.

And trust starts to erode — often quietly.

Because when we’re running on fumes, we don’t just lose ourselves…

We become harder to work with.

Less patient. Less generous.

More reactive. Less clear.

And our teams feel that.

This is why I’m so interested in the relationship between resilience and purpose.

More about this later...

Warmly, - RICK §;-)