This week on The Life Shift, I sat down with Ellen Whitlock Baker to talk about workplace burnout, midlife career shifts, and the moment everything finally cracked open for her. Not in a meeting. Not during a crisis.
But sitting in a theater, watching the musical Beetlejuice, when her body could no longer hold it all in.
You can listen to the episode here:
Podcast: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/s4e232
Ellen’s story is not loud or dramatic, as we often expect burnout to be. It is quiet. It is cumulative. It is years of pushing through, people-pleasing, and trying to belong to systems that were never built with your humanity in mind. This conversation is about what happens when your body starts telling the truth before your mind is ready to hear it.
THREE things to think about
Burnout rarely arrives all at once
It often shows up as small signals we learn to ignore. Fatigue. Tears that surprise us. A growing sense of disconnection. Ellen’s story is a reminder that burnout is usually a slow accumulation, not a sudden collapse.
Belonging shapes more than we realize
When we do not feel like we belong, we spend a lot of energy trying to earn our place. That effort can slowly drain us. Sometimes the exhaustion is not about the work itself, but about constantly trying to fit.
Leaving is not always failure
Walking away from a stable job can look reckless from the outside. From the inside, it can feel like relief. Ellen’s shift reminds us that choosing alignment over approval is often an act of self respect.
TWO things to ask yourself
Notice where your body is speaking
Pay attention to where tension, exhaustion, or emotion shows up during your day. Ask yourself what those signals might be trying to protect you from.
Question what you are pushing through
Name one area of your life where you are enduring something simply because it looks good on paper. Ask what it would mean to be honest about how it actually feels.
ONE thing to try this week
Schedule ten uninterrupted minutes to check in with yourself. No phone. No fixing. You can write or sit quietly and ask, what am I carrying right now that I do not need to keep carrying. Do this once this week and notice what comes up.
If this episode resonates, I would love for you to listen, share it with someone who might need it, or reply to this email and tell me which part of Ellen’s story spoke to you where you are.
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I created a short-form podcast, “It’s Okay If…” Each episode is under three minutes long and provides a permission slip to be human. I’d be honored if you subscribed to the show. New episodes are released every Wednesday at noon ET.
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