Have you ever been tired? So tired. Tired in a way that sleep doesn't fix? Maybe you notice this moment when you finally stop. At the end of the day, you sit down maybe on the couch, maybe at the kitchen table, or maybe you're just in the car before you even go inside. And you realize something that's hard to put into words at first. You are tired. You are empty in a way rest doesn't touch. You feel like every ounce of capacity you had went somewhere else and there's nothing left for you. You still showed up today. You handled what needed to be handled. You were responsible. You were capable. Welcome back to the Your Next Success podcast. I am Carolione Sangal, life first career coach and strategist. This is a short episode built to be practical, the kind of thing that gives you items and actions you can use today. And from the outside everything looks fine, and inside something essential has gone quiet. Most people try to make sense of that feeling by explaining it away. They tell themselves, this is adulthood, this is leadership. This is what responsibility feels like. This is what ambition costs. And they assume everyone feels this way and they're supposed to keep moving. And because they're strong, they do. What I've noticed over the years is that this experience shows up in a very specific kind of person. Someone who delivers on their promises. Someone who follows through. Someone who others rely on. Someone who knows how to handle pressure and has been handling it for a long time. When you are that person. You don't pause. When something is hard, you adapt, you compensate, you stretch, you solve the problem, and you move on to the next one. Over time, your life becomes a series of demands that you're just very good at meeting and slowly, almost imperceptively the cost shows up in your energy. You wake up already tired, your days feel reactive. There's always something urgent, something pressing, something that needs attention right now. You move from one thing to the next, doing what you do best, and by the time the day is over, your body makes the decision for you. It's done. So you sit. You scroll, you disengage, you go quiet. Your system is conserving what little it has left. Now, what makes this experience so confusing is that just stepping away from what you're supposed to do doesn't restore you the way it once did. Weekends bring a brief sense of relief and the heaviness returns sooner than expected. Sunday nights carry a familiar dread. Mornings take more effort. The spark you used to feel feels distant, like something you remember clearly, but can't quite reach. And somewhere along the way, your life vision of what is possible and what to look forward to starts getting smaller quietly. You stop doing extra things that require energy because energy feels precious. You stop imagining what could be next because imagining starts to feel like pressure. You choose comfort and quiet over expansion. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do, protect you. Now most people interpret. Most people interpret this experience as a loss of drive. What's really happening is depletion, your nervous system has shifted into conservation mode. There is an intelligence to it because living systems adapt when resources run low, when the same source has been drawn from for too long without replenishment. The system Reallocates energy moves away from anything that isn't essential for survival. Creativity softens, curiosity fades, and your vision narrows. What remains is just function and from the outside function might still look like success. I hear people describe this state in different ways. They say they feel flat, they say they don't recognize themselves. They say they used to care more. They say they just want quiet. Underneath all of those words is a similar lived experience. They feel disconnected from their own life force, and the real risk shows up when that state starts to feel permanent. That belief has a way of shrinking choices before anyone realizes it's happening. I've walked alongside people who've lived this way for years, assuming this was simply the cost of doing meaningful work or being responsible or providing for others. And I've also watched what happens when the conditions that created the depletion begin to change. When pressure stops pretending to be purpose. When intentional questioning starts to release true alignment. When energy stops leaking in every direction, what comes back first is access to themselves, access to clarity, access to feeling alive inside their own lives again. They don't become someone new. They start to recognize themselves. If you're listening to this and something in you feels gently exposed, there's a reason. This awareness doesn't arrive randomly. It shows up when something important is ready to be acknowledged. Your energy carries information. And when someone understands that language well enough to respond to it, things start to shift. Often, sooner, often, more gently, often more deeply than expected. Here's what I know to be true. There is a version of your life that supports your energy instead of consuming it. A version where your work, your responsibilities and your purpose are held inside a structure that gives back as much as it asks. People who find that version usually sense it before they can explain it. Something in them recognizes that the way they've been living has been costing too much, and that recognition becomes the beginning of change. When people reach that place, they're often seeking relief. They're seeking clarity. They're seeking movement that feels steady and sustainable. They're seeking a way back to themselves. So if this felt like I was describing your inner world, please trust that recognition. It matters, and it often appears right before meaningful change becomes possible. And if you feel drawn to exploring what support could look like, I offer that space. A conversation can become a starting point, a place to name what's been draining you to release, what's been weighing you down, and to begin moving toward your next success with more ease than you've been carrying. Thank you for listening to the Your Next Success podcast. If this episode helped you, share it with someone who's building their next success too, and subscribe so you get the next episode, the moment it drops. I'll see you next time. Keep reaching for your next success.