Three Signs You’re Headed Toward Burnout in 2026 (and what to do about it)

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In this week's episode of the podcast, I’m diving deep into the truth of your 2025 and why so many working moms are closer to burnout than they realize — not because of dramatic moments, but because of the small, daily “fender benders” we’ve learned to brush off.

I share the three subtle signs that burnout is on the horizon, why your brain resists change (even the change you want), and how to set yourself up for a completely different 2026. If you’ve been stretched thin, craving presence, or quietly wondering if you can keep going like this…this episode is the reset you didn’t know you needed. 

Topics in this episode:

  • The three overlooked signs that burnout is approaching 

  • Why your current pace of success may not be one you actually chose 

  • The presence problem — when your brain and body are never in the same place 

  • How skipping or overriding your own “me time” leads straight to exhaustion 

  • Why urgency sparks change — and how to use it to reset before 2026 

Show Notes & References:

Transcript

Intro

As 2025 winds down, there's this moment where you can finally see and reflect on the truth of your year. What worked, what didn't, and where you maybe pushed past your limits.

And today, I'm talking about the three signs that burnout is closer than you think. Like the signs that you've probably brushed off. The ones that you tell yourself are just a season, right? The ones that show up right before everything else feels too heavy.

If you've been feeling stretched thin, if your anxiety has been higher, if you've been giving everyone your best and saving the leftovers for yourself or your family, then this episode is going to hit home.

And most importantly, I'm going to show you what to do before 2026 arrives so you don't keep living at a pace you never chose.

If you're ready to reset and reclaim your energy and walk into your next year on your terms, then this episode is your starting point.

Are you ready? Let's get to it.

Welcome to the Ambitious and Balanced Working Moms podcast, your go to resource for integrating your career ambitions with life as a mom, I'm distilling down thousands of coaching conversations I've had with working moms just like you, along with my own personal experience as a mom of two and sharing the most effective tools and strategies to help you quickly feel calm, confident, and in control of your ambitious working mom life. You ready? Let's get to it.

Working moms. Happy December. Can you believe it? Oh my gosh. I hope you had a really amazing Thanksgiving. Some fun memories were made. You were able to find some times of rest, you took care of your body, your heart.

December Is the Best Time to Prepare for 2026

All right, so we are taking a really big turn into talking about 2026 in this episode and all throughout December because December really is the perfect opportunity to start the reflection and planning process for the new year. If you wait till January 1st, you're already going to be behind, right?

And so we're going to take the next three episodes to help you really set yourself up for success in the upcoming year, to do a little bit of reflection.

And if you want to dive a little bit deeper, I am hosting a free workshop next week on Thursday, December 11th at 1pm Eastern. If you can't make it, there will be a replay. But you're going to want to sign up for this workshop.

I'm going to be guiding you through essentially a reset, a sort of release of what you want to let go of from this year, some intention setting for the upcoming year. It's going to be super practical, very hands-on. You are not going to want to miss it.

So there is a link in the show notes if you would like to sign up for that workshop, and definitely invite a friend along as well. Love to see you all there.

All right, so I'm just really excited about what's happening right now in the Ambitious and Balanced community. I mean, obviously I am a coach. I love goal setting, I love intention setting. I love helping working moms reach their goals and talk about what's getting in the way of you reaching your goals and help you kind of create a plan for how to do that.

And a lot of that conversation happens right now between December and February 1st. Right. And this is like the crux of goal setting for a lot of people. And so it's kind of my jam right now.

The Real Signs You're Headed Toward Burnout in 2026

So there's going to be a lot of resources, a lot of support, including this episode right here on the podcast where we are diving into three signs that you are headed into burnout in 2026. These are not your common signs, right? You probably haven't heard it framed exactly like this before, unless you are a client of mine or maybe you've been listening to the podcast for a long time.

But for most working moms, burnout is not like a crash and burn, right? It's not like you totaled your car. It's more like a fender bender where, day after day, you're experiencing exhaustion and stress and a lack of prioritizing yourself, and it sort of slowly chips away at you.

A Clarity Call That Hit Hard

I spoke with a woman just yesterday, actually. She had booked an Ambitious and Balanced clarity call. That's a 30-minute strategy call where we talk about your work-life balance goals, and essentially we make sure that you are the perfect fit for the Ambitious and Balanced program if you decide to join.

Which, by the way, she did. Congratulations, Elizabeth. You are the latest member of the January 2026 cohort. Excited for you and to support you in your 2026 work-life balance goals.

But she said something that really struck me, or really it was like we were just kind of having this conversation and here's how it went down. I want to describe it for you.

“If Nothing Changes… I Will Burn Out.”

So we started talking about 2026 and her goals and what it would look like if she was experiencing more balance. And she talked, of course, about boundaries and prioritization and focus and presence — all the amazing things that come with an ambitious and balanced life.

And after about 10 minutes of talking about that and sort of getting clear on what she really wanted in 2026, I asked her what would happen if she didn't make any of the changes that we were talking about right now. Right? Essentially, what would happen if things remained exactly the way they are right now?

And without hesitation — and this is what really caught me — without hesitation she said, “I would burn out.”

And now, I don't usually ask this next question that I asked her, but it just kind of was my instinct to ask it. So I did. I said, “How long do you think you have until that happens?”

And this is what she said. Without hesitation. She said, “Seven months.”

I was like, wow, really? That's super specific. And she said, in seven months, I am hoping to get promoted. That's what I've been working towards. And she just knew if nothing changed — if she could not prioritize work the way that she needed to, if she didn't take control over her calendar and her stress, if she did not learn how to put herself first — she was going to burn out.

If Nothing Changes, How Long Until You Burnout?

Now, thankfully, the Ambitious and Balanced program is just three months, so we definitely have lots of time for her to accomplish the boundary setting and the prioritization and the prioritization of self and all the things that she really wants.

But I'm curious, if you were to answer that same question for yourself, what would you say? If things were to remain exactly as they are today and you made no changes in 2026 to your work-life balance, to the way you prioritize things, to the role that work plays in your life and the stress that it might be causing you — if you made no changes whatsoever — how long do you think you have until you burn out?

How many fender bender moments do you think you could handle until your car is totaled, right, if we want to stick with that analogy?

For the Moms Who Aren’t on the Edge of Burnout (Yet)

Now, I want to be clear: for sure, there is a group of listeners here that might be doing fairly well. I hope you are doing well. So you're not listening to this podcast because you're on the edge of burnout. You're listening more to optimize work-life balance in your life, right?

Optimization of life and your habits and your stressors really can't happen until you're in a fairly good place in your life. Right? That's when optimization happens. You go from good to great.

So for my optimizers out there who think things are going fairly well and you're just trying to maintain and optimize some of the smaller things that maybe aren't working for you, I want you to answer this question:

If things were to remain exactly as they are today, and some of those things you wish were different or want to optimize never happened — and you make no attempt to fix them — how long until resentment or regret set in?

Resentment and Regret Are Early Warning Signs of Burnout

Resentment and regret are sort of precursors to burnout, right? They're precursors to making, like, a big change — like pulling back in your career or shifting jobs. Like, we always want to be aware of when resentment and regret are starting to form in our heart. Because if you leave them be and you let them fester and they kind of get deeper and deeper settled into you, then either burnout or big change is ultimately required to move past it.

Quiet “Not Enough” Thinking

And just to be completely vulnerable and open up to you, my listeners out there — you know, for me, obviously I don't need an entire overhaul in my life's priorities and boundaries. That's a big part of what I teach, and of course I practice what I preach. But of course there's room to optimize life. That is always true.

And so for me, what I can identify right now as the thing that I need to optimize for 2026 is my not enough thinking. Like, I have slowly seen that “I'm not doing enough” mindset sort of creeping in over the last, you know, maybe four to six months. Again, very subtly — right? Like a little fender bender just kind of kissed the edge of that car. And then I did it again the next day, and I did it again the next day.

And what happens if you get in fender benders too often? It sort of brings down the value of your car, right?

So just for me, like, that not enough thinking — if I continue to let that settle in my life in 2026, it's like the value of life is sort of going to go down for me, right? Like the optimal life, the happiness, the joy of life is going to go down for me, right?

Change Requires Urgency

So my hope is, as you reflect on this, it's a bit of a reality check for you ultimately, right? If your brain doesn't see any urgency to make change, then it's probably not going to make it, right? Because that's ultimately what's going to be required in 2026. You're going to have to make some changes. You're going to have to make some habit changes, some rhythm changes. You're going to have to change the way you calendar. You're going to have to change the things that you prioritize. You're going to have to change the things that you say yes to and the things that you say no to.

Your Brain Is Hardwired for Comfort, Not Growth

You're going to have to change how long you give yourself to work on a project so you don't let work bleed over into your home life. You're going to have to change the way you think about yourself in order to achieve a new level of success and a new level of work-life balance in 2026. Change is going to be required.

But change feels terrible to us. All of us. None of us — like our brains literally are not designed to change. Our brain is designed and hardwired for comfort, right? Meaning that you are hardwired to do exactly what you did yesterday and the day before that and this entire year. Your brain simply wants to repeat the 2025 year. It's the easiest, most comfortable thing for your brain to do. It knows how to do that, right?

Do You Really Want a Repeat of 2025?

Do you want to repeat 2025? I'm sure there are aspects that you wouldn't mind keeping, but all of it? You want an actual repeat year?

So if you don't want to take your overworking habits and your lack of prioritization of self or the things that really matter to you into 2026, you're going to have to make some change. And it's going to get a whole lot easier if your brain feels the urgency to do it, right?

When you think to yourself, oh my gosh, I can really only handle this for another six months or seven months, your brain goes, oh, really? I gotta kick into gear. Then we gotta make some changes, right?

 

The Cost of Carrying “Not Enough” Into a New Year

When I think about the consequence of maintaining my not enough thinking that I've had over the last several months in 2025 and bringing that into the new year, and the impact that that would have on my business and all my clients and all my family, right? It feels urgent to get out of that. I don't like the way that has felt, and I haven't liked the impact of it.

Okay, enough said. My hope is that you feel some urgency within you to make some of those changes in 2026, because that urgency is going to help you build some commitment toward change.

The First Sign of Burnout: Living by a Definition of Success You Never Chose

And now I want to dig into the three most common signs. Maybe they're not the most common signs, but there are definitely three very strong signs that I see having literally hundreds and hundreds of conversations with working moms throughout the year that tells me that burnout is inevitable if you don't make any change.

Okay, you ready? Let's dig in.

Number one, first sign that burnout is inevitable if you make no change is that you are trying to keep up at a pace of success that you never chose. Ultimately, what I mean by this is that you are living by a definition of success that has been defined for you, not because it's been forced on you, but simply because you've adopted it without even realizing it, right?

A version of success that our culture tells you that you should have, which is likely: more is better, working more is better, more success is better, more money is better, right? Getting promoted is better.

Or maybe you have a definition of success that came from your parents, right? Maybe you had a stay-at-home mom, or maybe you had a workaholic kind of mom, right? How our parents operated and worked says a lot about how we operate and work, sort of unknowingly. And maybe you've adopted that definition of success.

Or maybe it's the one that your company has where it says you need to work more hours and achieve a certain set of goals in this amount of time, and that if you are not working late into the evening, you are not viewed as valuable to the company or as successful or as dedicated as other people.

A Real Story of Redefining Success: Meet Vicki

I think a perfect example of this is my client, Vicki. She started working for a startup. She was like one of the first, like 10 employees, something like that. She stayed at the company for a long time, helped them grow into hundreds and hundreds of employees, where she eventually took on a C-suite role. Right?

But by the time we started working together, she had a one-year-old at home, and she was reflecting on a very deep question, which was, “Is this even what I want?”


Is this how I define success for me? Is this what I want my legacy to be? The amount of energy and time and stress this job creates — is this what I want my life to be about?

When You Start Asking “Is This What I Want?” It’s a Warning Sign

Right? If you have asked yourself this question or some flavor of this question at some point in 2025 — maybe it’s even just like a whisper of a question that sounds something like, “Is this what I want? Is this really it? Do I still want to keep doing what I'm doing right now?”

Or maybe it comes out as a statement, right? Like, “I don’t even know if I enjoy this anymore,” or “I’m not even sure what I would do if I didn’t do this.”

Any flavor of that type of question is a precursor to burnout. Because if you don’t answer that question for yourself — and you don’t actually dig into defining for yourself what you want and what success means and what being a successful working mom means (and what even success as a mom means, for that matter) — if you don’t have direction or a goal defined, or in this case a definition of success defined, you will, in fact, keep doing what you're doing now until you can't do it anymore.

And that “until you can't do it anymore” moment is the burnout line. Right?

So number one sign that you're headed to burnout in 2026 is if you are living or trying to keep up with a pace of success that you yourself have not decided or defined consciously.

Sign #2: When Your Body and Mind Live in Different Places

Sign number two that you are headed to burnout in 2026 is if your body and your mind are in separate places almost all of the time, and you don't have any idea of how to, like, get them back into the same room, if you will.

In a recent call I had with a mom, we were talking about the holidays in this case, but she said, “I'm just always thinking about something else.” Like, I'm literally sitting around a table with my family, the people I love the most. I've spent a bunch of time making a delicious meal and I'm not present for it. I'm thinking about the dishes that have to get done after. I'm thinking about the presents I haven't purchased yet. I'm thinking about the kids and their bedtimes and meltdowns.

“When I'm at Work, I Think About Home… and When I'm at Home, I Think About Work.”

And so I asked her if this habit was sort of indicative for the rest of her life. Like, did she find that she had a hard time getting her brain and her body in the same place at the same time in normal life?

“Absolutely,” she said. When I'm at work, I'm thinking about all the things I need to do for the family and the household management things and the signups for kids and the kids emotions, and I worry about that.

And then when I'm at home, because I was thinking about the kids all day, I start thinking about work and all the things I didn't get done and feeling like I'm behind and I didn't get through enough. Which of course leads her to regularly logging back on, working late into the evenings — a habit that she really wants to change. Working on her off days, the weekends, the vacations.

She told me — and this is why she ultimately joined the next Ambitious and Balanced cohort — she said, “I just want to enjoy my family when I'm with them.” Presence is everything in a balanced life.

Presence Is the #1 Indicator of Real Work-Life Balance

In fact, it's the number one defining factor that I hear from working moms. Like when I ask them, what would it look like if you were experiencing more balance in your life? And the number one thing I hear is, I would be more present, meaning my body and my brain would be in the same place at the same time.

If you have struggled in 2025 with getting your brain and your body in the same place at the same time, and you know you want to be more present in 2026, you know that you want more fun and you want more everyday memories and you want less stress and you want to laugh more, if you want to be more efficient with your time, right? These things don't just happen to you.

Your Brain Won’t Naturally “Turn Off” After Work

The most natural thing for your brain to do at the end of the workday is to keep working, right? You don't just shut it off after eight hours. You've kind of a ball in motion stays in motion, right?

So you actually have to learn the skill set of doing that. You have to learn how to redirect your brain and to process your emotions from your day so they don't linger with you, so that you don't take that into your family life and you can be more present, right?

If you're not able to figure out how to get your brain and your body in the same place at the same time, you will eventually experience burnout.

Sign #3: You Don’t Schedule Time for Yourself — or You Constantly Cancel It

The third sign that you are headed into burnout in 2026 is that you either do not schedule time for yourself — that sort of classic “me time” — it's not found in your calendar anywhere. Or you schedule it, but you regularly schedule over it.

That's like you plan to go to yoga on Saturday morning, but your kids were sort of in a mood and you just didn't want to deal with it, so you didn't go. Or it's like you had hoped you would get out with a friend this week, but work just got really busy and there was so much to do. You really just needed to log back on and get some more things done.

Or it's like you scheduled in a couple of hours to work on a project and kind of deep dive and really make some progress on it, but then that meeting request came in the same block of time, and it was the only time they could do it, and so you accepted it and didn't get to your own priorities.

If you haven't learned how to commit time in your schedule for yourself — like literally it should act as an appointment in your calendar — because that tells me it's a commitment.

If You Don’t Prioritize Yourself, 2026 Will Repeat 2025

If you haven't been able to do that in 2025, or you're doing that but you're absolutely ignoring it every single day or every single time it pops up, or it's just like rare that you keep to it — so like you have the intention, but you don't have the follow through — if that's you, 2026 is going to be a repeat year of that if you don't make any changes, right?

Learning to prioritize yourself and your priorities and your commitments and the things that fill your bucket and help you rest and feel good about yourself — those things cannot be scheduled over, right? They are essential in an ambitious and balanced life. That's a skill set you need to learn. It's not just going to happen to you. You're not just going to magically get better at it tomorrow or this week or next year, right? You're going to actually have to do some things different in order to make that happen.

What C-Suite Women Know About Non-Negotiable Me Time

I remember speaking to a C-suite executive here, Google, right here on the podcast. Her name was Sarah Armstrong. I think we talked maybe back in March or April if you want to go back and look up that episode. But there were a couple of things that she said that really stood out to me when we talked.

In terms of her rhythms and habits, she talked about this two-hour chunk of time where she literally locks her phone and her computer in the closet so that she can have focus time with her kid. And she talked about how on, I think it was Sunday afternoons, it was like her Sunday afternoon ritual of planning for the week. It was something she always did for herself. It made her feel on top of her schedule, on top of her tasks and the things that she needed to get done.

And she talked about how she had a commitment to be with a friend once a week — whether that was going out with a friend for lunch or drinks or a long conversation with them on the phone. There was at least one time during the week that she was consistently making time for friendship, right?

She is somebody that was in a demanding C-suite job, right? These were her non-negotiables in her life. These were her me times. These were the things that filled her up and made her successful in her work and in her life outside of work. Right? Because if you're going to experience sustainable work-life balance, you have to feel successful in all areas of life.

So if you don't have committed time on your calendar for yourself that you keep to on a regular basis, you will likely burn out in 2026 unless you make some changes.

Burnout Isn’t Failure — It’s a Predictable Result of Unchanged Habits

Here’s what I want to offer to you. Burnout is not a sign of failure. It is a predictable result that happens when habits that don't serve you don't change.

So if you need a reset before 2026 to examine the habits, the behaviors, the mindsets that are no longer serving you, and you want to reset them so that you can experience the ambitious and balanced life that you deserve in the coming year, please, please do join me for the upcoming workshop, the 2026 Reset.

Again, that is on Thursday, December 11th at 1pm Eastern, right? And there is a replay if you sign up. If you can't make that time, the workshop is totally free. So please invite a working mom friend that you think could use a conversation around work-life balance and resetting your goals in 2026.

What You’ll Walk Away With From the 2026 Reset Workshop

I promise you are going to walk away from this workshop understanding what it takes to have a calendar that reflects your real priorities — where you are not triple-checking emails all of the time in order to prove yourself… where you are engaged with your kids with more presence instead of always rushing them along… where you speak up sooner, where you advocate for your needs, and where you walk into your home life at the end of a workday feeling less frazzled, lighter, and more steady.

Working moms, please join me next week. Sign up right now while it is top of mind. Again, you can go to the show notes to visit that URL. I cannot wait to spend the rest of this holiday season with you.

Until next week — let's get to it.

Feeling the Holiday Pressure? Take a Deep Breath

Hey there. If you’re already feeling the holiday pressure starting to build — the full calendar, the expectations, the guilt — take a deep breath, because it doesn’t have to be that way.

Every year I used to tell myself, I just need to make it magical for everyone. But by the time Christmas morning came, I was so tired of doing it all, I barely felt any joy.

Join the $9 Boundaries & Balance Holiday Survival Session

That’s why I created Boundaries and Balance: Your Holiday Survival Session. This is a 30-minute private call where we’ll get to the root of your holiday stress, get clear on what you actually want this season to look like, and create your personalized holiday boundary plan.

It’s just $9, and you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to prioritize, what to release, and how to stay grounded when things get tough — so that you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of just get through them.

I’m only offering these sessions through Thanksgiving, and there are a limited number of spots available, so don’t wait. You can grab your session using the link in the show notes.

Let’s make this the year where you feel calm, confident, and in control of your holiday season.

Rebecca Olson