Massage Therapy Journal Fall 2025

Fall 2025 • 77

Q

A Most high achievers live by the motto: “If I work hard, I win. If I don’t win, it’s because I didn’t work hard enough.” While this motto is great for making progress and getting ahead in your career, it can be debilitating in your personal life and lead to burnout. It’s important for high achievers to realize that their worth is not determined by their achievements or productivity. It’s not about how many clients you can cram into one day or week. Yes, keeping your books full is important, but it can’t come at the cost of your physical and mental health. In my experience, most high achievers have had to redefine what success looks like to them. Most of the time, it’s not just money and job title, like we’re led to believe. When people are truly happy, they see success as encompassing health, wealth, philanthropy, faith, freedom/flexibility, deep and meaningful relationships, and more. Q The idea of resilience is popular across many industries. How can people tap into resilience when they’re feeling overwhelmed or challenged? A Start smaller. You don’t have to boil the ocean all at once. So often we feel overwhelmed because we’re looking too far ahead. It feels so far away and like there are a million steps needed to get there. Just start smaller. What’s the next right step? What’s the next right step after that? Resilience is built through action, and taking small steps is the key to getting started.

“With 52% of all workers feeling burned out and 69% saying they aren’t engaged …” Those are some eye-opening statistics. Massage therapists are at risk of burnout because of the physical demands of the profession. Is there one simple self-care tip you can offer that can help protect against burnout? A Anyone who spends the majority of their professional life servicing others physically—such as massage therapists, nurses, surgeons, to name a few—run huge risks for burnout. The possibility to just work from home is not an option. Intentionally scheduling in proactive rest is key for these people. Proactive rest is rest that is scheduled into your day and week to prevent burnout from occurring in the first place as opposed to rest that is just used to recover from it. For example, if you have a day stacked with clients, can you start a little later the next day to sleep in and have a leisurely morning? Can you schedule 10 extra minutes in-between clients so you have time to eat, get outside for fresh air or just recharge for a few extra minutes? Can you set up a schedule so your kids can ride to soccer practice with someone else this week so you don’t have to rush out of work and straight into something else. These small adjustments all stack up to help to combat burnout. Q Can you share one quality that in your experience and interviews most high achievers share?

In my experience, most high achievers have had to redefine what success looks like to them. Most of the time, it’s not just money and job title, like we’re led to believe.

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