I used to think 'burnout' was a badge of honor, proof I was working hard enough. Now I realize it was just me being deeply avoidant about something else entirely. The hustle was definitely a smokescreen. I thought I was building something, but really I was just running from the quiet, from the feeling that I wasn't enough if I wasn't DOING enough. It's a cliché, but it's also the truth I lived for way too long. I used to chase that exhaustion like it was a finish line. Now I see it was just really effective at drowning out the questions I didn't want to answer about what I actually wanted my life to look like. The quiet is terrifying when you've spent years building a fortress of busy.