Overcoming Burnout and Emotional Numbness: Lessons in Resilience and Purpose

Описание: Book a free coaching call with Jeff: https://shorturl.at/oe6Il
https://www.jeffluther.com/

There’s a quiet crisis happening—especially among high performers.
People who’ve “made it,” climbed the ladder, checked every box… and still feel empty, unseen, and disconnected from meaning.

This conversation cuts straight into that uncomfortable truth.

John Miles, former U.S. Navy officer, Fortune 50 executive, and creator of Passion Struck, opens up about the moment success stopped feeling like success—and why achievement without mattering slowly erodes your identity, your health, and your relationships.

This episode is for leaders, entrepreneurs, and driven professionals who feel pressure to perform but secretly wonder if the life they’re building is costing them something deeper.

You’ll hear how:
Chasing success can quietly numb fulfillment
High-level leadership often increases invisibility, not significance
Ego, fear, and performance culture disconnect us from meaning
Mattering—not motivation—is the foundation of resilience
True leadership empowers autonomy instead of control

John shares deeply personal moments—facing a home intruder at gunpoint, losing a close friend to suicide, and realizing the cost of passing performance-based worth down to his children. These moments forced a reckoning: what are you waiting for?

This isn’t about abandoning ambition.
It’s about redefining it.

Key Takeaways:
Success without meaning leads to emotional numbness and burnout
Feeling “never enough” is often rooted in not feeling seen or valued
Leaders unintentionally make people feel invisible by over-directing
Empowerment builds resilience; control destroys it
Purpose is found through work, love, suffering—and service to others
Progress requires long-term vision paired with daily intentional action
Ego is the most common blind spot of high performers

Jeff brings this conversation home by connecting mattering to leadership, responsibility, and resilience—the core of All Can, No Can’t. When people feel they matter, they don’t need motivation. They take ownership.

If you’ve ever wondered why success didn’t feel the way you thought it would—or sensed there’s more you’re meant to do—this episode will challenge how you define fulfillment.

00:00 – Feeling invisible at the peak of success
03:50 – Why achievement doesn’t equal fulfillment
08:00 – The mattering crisis explained
15:20 – When performance becomes identity
19:45 – Trauma, loss, and the moment everything changed
23:00 – How to find meaning again
26:30 – Leadership behaviors that make people feel unseen
31:25 – The Bee & Turtle Effect (vision + daily action)
36:30 – Ego: the biggest blind spot of high performers
40:45 – Why teaching mattering must start with children

#matteringandleadership #resilience #resiliencestories #trauma