FRIED. The Burnout Podcast

Your energy and well-being are worth investing in. Explore what recovery could look like for you: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingMany people mistake burnout for personal failure, but the real issue is the quiet mismatch between the energy you actually have and the expectations you keep pushing yourself to meet.Sarah Vosen gets to the core of why so many burned-out high achievers feel defeated: the math of your life stopped working long before you noticed it. When your energy drops but your expectations stay at their old setting, even simple days feel impossible. The conversation challenges listeners to ask what they believe they “should” be able to do and where those beliefs came from in the first place. How often are you measuring yourself against a past version of you? And what changes once you base your plans on your real capacity instead of the fantasy of unlimited output?This episode is an invitation to rebuild self-trust by telling the truth about what you can actually give right now. Recovery begins when you stop assuming your worth hinges on productivity and start giving yourself permission to operate from reality. Sarah offers encouragement, clarity, and accessible next steps for anyone ready to release the shame of falling short and move toward days that feel doable again.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Understanding Burnout and Its Real Impact on High Achievers02:55 How to Adjust Expectations for Better Burnout Recovery05:45 Realistic Ways to Assess Your Energy, Time, and Capacity09:13 Why Consistent Self-Care Supports Burnout Healing11:54 How to Find the Right Support for Burnout RecoveryLinksIf you’re ready to take the next step toward healing, you can explore 1:1 coaching with Sarah Vosen at https://www.bit.ly/unfriedcoach Download the Web of Causation Exercise to uncover the layers behind your burnout and begin creating your recovery plan: https://www.caitdonovan.com/freebie-webConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahYour energy and well-being are worth investing in. Explore what recovery could look like for you: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The conversation dives into how fall amplifies feelings of grief and guilt, linking it to the body's need for emotional release. It explores practical self-care techniques, such as breathing exercises and allowing tears to process stored emotions. Listeners learn about the importance of hydration, warmth, and regular bowel movements for both physical and emotional well-being. The discussion encourages embracing the season's natural rhythm, inviting introspection and self-compassion as a pathway to healing.

Burnout isn’t the end of your story. With Sarah Vosen’s guidance, recovery becomes not just possible—but sustainable. Learn more: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingBurnout doesn’t end with a mindset shift—it begins when you finally allow grief, emptiness, and small sparks of joy to coexist without needing to fix any of them.Author and speaker Cyndie Spiegel joins Cait to talk about what it means to live inside the gray area, the space where both pain and beauty can exist at once. She shares how walking away from a high-profile fashion career led her to teaching, writing, and discovering the idea of microjoys: brief, accessible moments of light that don’t erase hardship but remind us life still holds goodness. Together, they unpack how black-and-white thinking fuels burnout, why forced gratitude doesn’t work, and how simple awareness can shift everything.What if healing starts with noticing what else is true? What might open up when you stop chasing “better” and start paying attention to what’s already here?Episode Breakdown:00:00 Introduction02:00 Cyndie Spiegel’s Burnout Story in the Fashion Industry08:35 Finding Purpose Through Yoga and Teaching10:37 Writing A Year of Positive Thinking16:08 The Birth of Microjoys18:40 Finding Hope When Life Isn’t Okay24:30 Living in the Gray: Holding Multiple Truths32:54 Practicing Microjoys in Daily Life39:21 Where to Find Cyndie Spiegel and Final ReflectionsConnect with Cyndie Spiegel:Cyndie’s Website Follow Cyndie on Instagram Connect with Cyndie on LinkedIn Sign up to Cyndie’s Email ListConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahBurnout isn’t the end of your story. With Sarah Vosen’s guidance, recovery becomes not just possible—but sustainable. Learn more: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Healing happens faster with guidance. Give yourself permission to ask for and receive help: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingMost people think they’ve failed at change when they’ve actually just hit the part where being human takes over.Cait Donovan is taking a closer look at why behavior change is so hard to maintain and why relapse isn’t a sign of weakness but proof that your brain is doing exactly what it’s designed to do. She explains how old habits never fully disappear, they just sit quietly, waiting for a moment of stress or fatigue to reappear. Change takes effort, repetition, and compassion for the part of you that’s still learning.Cait shares how progress depends on context and patience. A new habit might feel strong at home but crumble at work, and that’s normal. The real work isn’t about erasing the old pattern but building trust in your ability to return to the new one again and again. This episode is a reminder that being human is not the problem, it’s the process.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Understanding Why Behavior Change Feels Impossible01:39 How the Brain Builds and Keeps Old Habits04:10 Why New Behaviors Don’t Stick in Every Environment06:20 Relapse as a Normal Part of Behavior Change09:01 Final Takeaways: Being Human Is the ProcessConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahHealing happens faster with guidance. Give yourself permission to ask for and receive help: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

You don’t have to carry burnout alone. The right support can help you breathe again—start here: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingBurnout doesn’t always look like collapse; sometimes it hides in the moments when you’re still performing, but your spark keeps flickering out, and that’s where this honest coaching session begins.In this episode, Sarah Vosen sits down with Jennie, an attorney and mom unsure whether what she’s feeling qualifies as burnout. Together they unpack the World Health Organization’s markers of burnout—exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy—and what those look like in real life. Is it possible to feel functional yet fried? How do you know when your capacity is shrinking faster than you realize?As Sarah guides Jennie through a clearer understanding of her patterns, practical steps begin to emerge: protecting space on the calendar, creating buffers between meetings, and rebuilding small habits that restore energy. The conversation also touches on the role of perimenopause in stress and recovery, giving Jennie a compassionate framework for why her old pace no longer fits.The episode leaves listeners with a grounded reminder: burnout recovery isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing differently, one small boundary at a time.Episode Breakdown:00:00 What Burnout Really Looks Like04:10 Understanding the WHO Definition of Burnout10:06 Small Doable Steps for Burnout Recovery14:51 Setting Boundaries and Time Blocks That Stick22:32 Learning to Control What You Can Control25:14 Dropping Self-Judgment and Reclaiming Energy34:54 The Connection Between Burnout and Perimenopause39:36 Building a New Operating System for Sustainable Work45:07 Grace, Compassion, and Real RecoveryLinksIf you’re ready to take the next step toward healing, you can explore 1:1 coaching with Sarah Vosen at bit.ly/unfriedcoach Download the Web of Causation Exercise to uncover the layers behind your burnout and begin creating your recovery plan: https://www.caitdonovan.com/freebie-webConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahYou don’t have to carry burnout alone. The right support can help you breathe again—start here: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout can feel like failure, but admitting it may be the first step toward healing. During a live coaching session, Heather grapples with the fear that slowing down will undermine her achievements. Sarah helps her understand that shame is not a reflection of worth and that burnout stems from exceeded capacity, not personal failure. They discuss the importance of recognizing the need for a longer break and reframing rest as an opportunity for recovery and redefinition of success. It's a powerful reminder that stepping back can be a brave choice for rebuilding one's life.

Burnout recovery isn’t about doing more—it’s about finding the right help. Begin here: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingBurnout convinces you that rest should be enough, and when it isn’t, you assume you’re broken.In this #straightfromcait episode, Cait shares how a shoulder injury revealed a missing step in her own recovery process. Two months of full rest left her pain-free but not ready. When her physical therapist handed her one-pound weights and she could barely lift them, she realized the injury had healed, but her strength hadn’t returned.That moment reframed everything. Most of us focus on the pause — the sleeping, the pulling back, the stopping. But recovery isn’t just the absence of strain. At some point, rest has to turn into rebuild. Gently. Slowly. Without ego. This isn’t about going back to who you were before burnout,  it’s about training for who you’re becoming.If you’ve been wondering why life still feels heavier than it should, maybe nothing’s wrong with you at all. Maybe you’re not fragile,  just not rebuilt yet.Episode Breakdown:00:00 What Burnout Recovery Gets Wrong About Rest01:19 The Shoulder Injury That Sparked a Realization02:22 Physical Therapy and the Wake-Up Call of Weakness03:06 Rest vs. Rebuild in Burnout Recovery07:12 Nutrition, Movement, and Mental Habits That Restore Capacity09:09 Recovery as a Foundation, Not the Finish LineConnect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahBurnout recovery isn’t about doing more—it’s about finding the right help. Begin here.Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Sometimes the next step is simply asking for help. Sarah Vosen is here to guide you through it: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingBurnout hides best inside people who love their work so much they don’t notice it draining the life out of them.PGA coach and RGX founder Will Robins joins Cait to unpack how devotion to service can turn into slow-motion burnout, especially when you’re praised for being endlessly available. He shares how surviving the 2004 tsunami gave him purpose, but years later COVID thrust him into a different kind of survival mode, fielding nonstop crisis calls from golf pros worldwide. Passion became obligation, generosity became emotional labor, and saying yes became his default until resentment started to seep in. Together, he and Cait expose how burnout isn’t about workload—it’s about tension, expectations, and the belief that being needed equals being valuable.They map a way back through honest boundaries, aligned priorities, and Will’s Scoring Method as a metaphor for life: stop swinging for perfection and focus on consistent, pressure-free plays. You'll hear practical language for saying no without guilt, a reframing of stress as a physical reaction rather than a personal failing, and a challenge to stop optimizing your recovery like another achievement project. If you're the “reliable one” who keeps muscling through, this episode invites you to build a life where people need you less, and love you more because of it.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Burnout and Purpose After Surviving the Tsunami02:45 COVID Burnout and the Cost of Constant Service08:04 Why High Performers Miss Burnout Signs11:47 Burnout Culture in the Golf Industry and Beyond17:31 Rebuilding Life with Faith, Health, and Family21:02 Setting Boundaries Without Guilt32:02 The Scoring Method for Life and Burnout36:00 Mastering Emotional RegulationConnect with Will Robins:Will’s WebsiteFollow Will on Instagram Connect with Will on LinkedIn Connect with Cait:Initial Call with CaitInitial Call with SarahSometimes the next step is simply asking for help. Sarah Vosen is here to guide you through it: https://caitdonovan.com/coachingPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

In this enlightening session, Sarah coaches Christy, a dedicated parent grappling with long-term burnout and people-pleasing tendencies. They delve into Christy’s realization of her exhaustion stemming from a need to control outcomes. Together, they explore the emotional toll of parenting crises and practice the Tree of Life exercise to assess energy levels. Christy learns to establish boundaries, including renegotiating an overwhelming carpool commitment, reclaiming her time and emotional space, and embracing the discomfort of prioritizing her needs.

Explore the complex journey of burnout recovery as Sarah helps Janine navigate her struggles during medical leave. They discuss the guilt of leaving teammates behind, the uncertainties of returning to a toxic work culture, and the crucial importance of trusting one’s own intuition. Janine learns that even small actions, like uninterrupted reading, are profound steps toward self-leadership. This heartfelt conversation highlights the messy reality of recovery, reminding listeners that rest is not something to earn but something to embrace.