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OutperformAuthor: Martin Soorjoo Mental Performance Coach
The Outperform Show focuses on the proven strategies, tactics and insights of the world's elite performers and experts that will enable you to perform at your best. Martin Soorjoo, mental performance coach, interviews some of the best minds and practitioners on the planet from the fields of human performance, stress management, productivity, leadership, motivation, resilience and neuroscience, providing listeners with valuable insights and practical tools. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Education Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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SHADOW BURNOUT - RUNNING HOT WITHOUT BURNING OUT
Episode 38
Thursday, 16 April, 2026
You can be performing on the outside and still be quietly burning through the system that makes that performance possible. That is the problem at the heart of shadow burnout. In this episode, Martin Soorjoo takes on one of the most overlooked performance issues facing founders and leaders today: what happens when you are still delivering, still carrying the load, still hitting targets — but your edge is slowly eroding underneath it all. This is not another conversation about stepping back, slowing down, or doing less. Martin argues that much of the standard burnout advice is irrelevant for people who are building, leading, and operating under real pressure. The better question is not simply how to work less. It is how to keep performing at a high level, under sustained pressure, without frying the hardware that makes that performance possible. Drawing on his own experience of operating under prolonged pressure, serious illness, and recovery from devastating personal events, Martin explains why burnout is often less about hours worked and more about poor restoration, accumulated stress, and misallocated intensity. He then lays out a practical three-part framework for running hot without burning out. In this episode, you'll learn: • What shadow burnout is and why it often hides behind competence • Why standard burnout advice often misses the mark for driven founders and leaders • Why burnout is often a restoration problem, not just an hours-worked problem • Why sleep quality matters as much as, and sometimes more than, total sleep time • How carrying stress and pressure from one scene to the next quietly degrades performance • Why the ability to downshift between rounds is central to sustained high performance • Why treating every problem as high stakes destroys your edge • The three levers for running hot without burning out: restoration, downshifting, and selective intensity If you are still functioning but everything is costing you more — focus, decisions, emotional control, patience — this episode is for you. The goal is not less ambition. It is better restoration, better regulation, and better allocation of force.
