In 2015, I was ranked 23rd in the world surfing the Prime Tour. The best year of my career. And I lost my major sponsor.
For 18 months I was off the rails. Not financially — emotionally. I worked full-time on a building site to fund my surfing, and every internal voice was the same: "I'm not good enough. If no one will support me, why should I keep going?" I soothed it with partying, late nights and a victim mindset that wouldn't shake.
That period of my life is exactly what I now see in your most-driven employees.
The high achievers in your team — the ones who hit every KPI, the ones you joke "never seem to need a break" — most of them are running on the same fuel I was. External validation. They light up at praise from leadership and crash when feedback is cool. They identify with the wins so completely that one bad quarter feels like a referendum on their worth. And like me, they keep showing up — until something gives.
The shift, when it came for me, started with one question. Surfing Australia's lead psychologist Jason Patchel asked me, casually: "What are your values?"
I gave him my parents' answer — kindness, respect, honesty. Then he followed up: "How well do you live those values on a day-to-day basis?" I had no answer. I was operating on autopilot, chasing wins, never stopping to ask what I actually stood for. That was the start of an 8-year journey that became the framework I now teach to corporate teams.
What burnout in high performers actually looks like
- It rarely looks like burnout. It looks like overcommitment, perfectionism and an inability to switch off.
- Self-worth attached to performance is brittle. One missed promotion, one bad year, and the whole identity collapses.
- Annual events and EAP posters don't move the needle. Your top people need a daily practice — small enough to actually do — not another wellness webinar.
In our corporate workshops, we run a live exercise based on Jason's question. Teams write down what they actually value — not what their job title rewards, not what their LinkedIn says. Then they map those values to one daily action. 14 minutes. That's it.
The data backs it. Participants who rate their wellbeing lowest before a workshop see the biggest jump after — often 4 or 5 out of 10, climbing to 8 or 9 by the end of the session. The people you're most worried about, benefit the most.
If your high performers are the engine of your business, the cost of doing nothing isn't conservative. It's the highest-risk decision you can make.