Published August 13, 2025 | By Dayae Kim, LMFT, Collectors MD Referral Network

Are you a high-achieving professional experiencing burnout? You’re not alone.

Many of my clients are high-achieving, high-performing individuals—executives, business owners, and leaders—who are incredibly successful in their careers, yet feel exhausted, anxious, and mentally drained.

Often, these are the people everyone relies on for guidance, problem-solving, and leadership. They’re always "on", constantly managing work, relationships, and personal commitments. Over time, this can lead to burnout, poor stress management, and the feeling of being unable to quiet your mind.

Driven individuals often push themselves beyond their limits—sometimes without realizing it. This can lead to difficulty sleeping, racing thoughts that won’t turn off, emotional extremes and irritability, and even the urge to walk away from it all.

When burnout sets in, the same stress management tools that once worked may suddenly stop being effective.

One of my clients, a successful business owner, had a stable routine filled with mindfulness practices, healthy habits, and grounding techniques. These tools worked well—until they didn’t. Recently, he began waking up in the middle of the night, spiraling in anxious thoughts. His usual interventions—meditation, breathing exercises, and structured routines—weren’t helping.

When burnout is high, familiar strategies can become so automatic that they lose their impact. So we decided to experiment with mentally stimulating challenges that required deep focus. By engaging the brain in new ways, we could interrupt the thought spiral and create mental reprieve. He chose Sudoku—and it worked. The focus required to solve puzzles disrupted his anxious patterns and gave him a genuine mental break.

This concept applies to collecting as well. When you’ve been in the hobby for years—constantly chasing the next "hit", managing your collection, and tracking market trends—it’s easy for the joy to be replaced by pressure and mental fatigue. Sometimes the best reset isn’t to step away entirely, but to engage with the hobby in a different way.

That could mean sorting and organizing your collection, building a themed PC, or focusing on low-pressure, inexpensive projects like set building—activities that spark curiosity and creativity rather than stress. Just like with burnout recovery in work, shifting how you engage can help you reconnect with why you started in the first place.

If you’re a high achiever dealing with burnout, try incorporating brain-engaging activities that refresh rather than drain you—Sudoku or crosswords, jigsaw puzzles or LEGO builds, strategy-based board games, brain-teaser apps, or other problem-solving games. The goal isn’t to "work more", but to challenge your mind in a way that feels new and invigorating.

Burnout doesn’t have to mean burning it all down. It can be a sign that you need new tools, different mental stimulation, and a fresh approach to stress management. If you’re a high-achieving professional feeling stuck, there are ways to reset—without losing everything you’ve built. And if you or someone you know is experiencing burnout and needs support in finding new ways to manage it, you can schedule a consultation with me here.

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When familiar tools stop working, try engaging your mind differently.

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