Another long day. Every email answered, back-to-back meetings, a late flight home, and one invasive thought on the drive from the airport: “Why am I working so hard but not feeling like I’m making progress?” If you’re an executive or business leader, that question may feel uncomfortably familiar.
You’re capable. You have the work ethic and the full calendar to prove it.. And still, each night, you’re tired in a way that doesn’t feel like you accomplished enough.
Under that feeling, there’s often a heavier worry. What if all this effort is quietly costing too much time with your family and the things you enjoy, and harming your health? What if the sacrifices are not building toward the life they were supposed to support?
Here’s the encouraging part. For many driven people, the dedication is already in place. Clear direction and the right structure are often harder to come by. When those pieces are aligned, the same hard work can start to add up to something you can see.
Why do I feel exhausted but like I got nothing done?
During a recent episode of Wit, Wisdom, and What Matters Most, Danton Troyer raised a concern familiar to many executives: moving from city to city and meeting to meeting, staying busy but without knowing whether all that activity is leading toward a meaningful goal.
Performance coach Jim Harshaw Jr. expanded on that idea by describing what it feels like to go “100 miles an hour, getting 100 things done,” only to finish the day exhausted and wondering, “Did I even move the needle?”
A day full of reacting can feel productive – you return emails; you handle requests. But without a clear picture of where you’re headed, there’s nothing to measure the day against, so it ends in fatigue instead of a sense of progress.
Co-host Kyle Luetters offered an image for this situation that most people recognize: a car spinning its wheels on ice. The wheels turn fast, but the car barely moves.
How do I stop spinning my wheels at work?
Harshaw lived this problem. He grew up a blue-collar kid in Western Pennsylvania, fell short of his goal of a state wrestling title, and arrived at the University of Virginia as a recruited walk-on. He called himself “the asterisk at the bottom” of a top 10 recruiting class.
He went on to win three ACC championships and become an All-American. Later he coached Division I wrestling for about a decade, then started and sold a business. His next company didn’t last. That’s where he felt stuck: real ability, a young family, and a sense that he was getting in his own way.
When he asked himself what had been different in his college success, his answer was infrastructure. Coaches. The right teammates. A clear target.
“We are all on the inside of the jar trying to read the label,” he said. “We need somebody outside of us who can see our blind spots.”
He also explained what structure does day to day. “When there’s an infrastructure, you do the thing,” Jim said. Without it, “you’re gonna drift to your own default.” For most capable people, that default is fine. Jim’s point was that fine usually isn’t what they’re working so hard to reach.
If I can’t stick to my goals, do I lack discipline?
This is where many high performers are hardest on themselves. They miss a few workouts or let a goal slide, and they decide they must need more willpower.
Jim says inconsistency often starts with a lack of clarity. Self-discipline is what most people blame first. Instead, he recommends that a long-term vision broken down into goals and monthly micro goals can make the difference.
Using sports as an example for clarity, he explained that an NFL team knows exactly what it’s chasing: the Super Bowl. That target is specific and easy to picture. Jim said that kind of clarity is what helps athletes do very hard things.
Most of us don’t have that for our own lives. Here’s how Jim helps bring clarity:
- Long-term vision: your ideal future
- Goals: the steps that move you toward that vision.
- Monthly micro goals: small targets you check each month, so you can see progress or notice where you’ve stalled.
“What gets measured gets managed,” Jim reminded.
Why does a goal with a deadline work better than “forever”?
Goals with a specific timeframe tend to work better than open-ended goals, because “forever” makes it easy to keep putting things off.
Jim referenced a study on smokers trying to quit. Aiming to quit forever left room for “one more day,” but when people set a clearer timeframe, like quitting for a month, they tended to have more success.
He hears the same pattern from clients. “I wanna go to the gym four times a week.” By when? “Forever, starting next week.” That doesn’t provide a point when you measure your progress.
A deadline creates that point. It works like the end of a football season, when a team stops to review and reset. Jim has found that people often change the goal once they have achieved the micro goal. Four gym days might become two gym days plus two runs. The deadline gives you a natural moment to recalibrate based on what really happened and works for you.
What causes burnout for high-performing executives?
Burnout surfaces from being out of balance, going all in on one area like career while sacrificing family, health, sleep, and enjoyment.
Are you experiencing burnout?
- You feel friction when you walk in the door at home.
- Your mind is still at work while you’re sitting at the dinner table or having a conversation with your family.
- Workouts and sleep keep getting squeezed out.
- Date nights and family time keep slipping.
Jim’s view is that clear goals in each area of life may help restore an appropriate balance. When you acknowledge what matters at home too, it can be easier to close the book on work and walk in the door ready to give your attention to your loved ones.
Kyle added that the word burnout often comes up when people are weighing a job change. Knowing what balance means for you may help you decide whether you should make a big career move.
How do I keep my workout routine when I travel for work?
Danton raised the question many frequent travelers carry. If your goal is four workouts a week and travel cuts it to three, is that a failed week? And if three feels fine this week, does three quietly become the new normal?
Jim’s first answer was that everybody misses. “When you fail, it’s just data,” he said. Jim encourages treating missed micro goals as data to help identify the friction, rather than seeing a miss as a personal failure.
He shared one client example. A business owner kept missing his goal of 10 outreach calls per day. He was willing to make the calls; the hard part was logging in, sorting contacts, and building the list first. So they moved list-building to one Monday habit each week. Jim said that small change helped the client’s business. Each person’s situation is different, but the method holds up: find the friction, then adjust the system.
Jim also passed along insight from a longtime client named John. If you skip a goal because you’re doing something better, like spending time with your kids, you can give yourself grace. If you’re skipping it to scroll or binge shows, “then it’s time to get hard with yourself, and only you know that.”
For the example of working out during travel weeks, that may mean a few honest questions. Was the schedule the real obstacle? Would laying out workout clothes the night before make meeting your micro goal easier in the morning? Only you can answer, and that’s what makes the answers useful.
How can I build an environment that supports my goals?
Jim organizes the “environment of excellence” with the acronym MAPS. Just as you need a map to get from one place to another, he says these four pieces help you move toward the life you want without sacrificing your family, your health, or what matters most.
| Letter | What it covers | A question to ask yourself | An example Jim shared |
| M: Media | What you take in and what you block out | What drifts into my day, and what do I want to choose on purpose? | Watching relationship content from Dr. John Gottman’s institute each week is one of his micro goals |
| A: Area | Your physical space | Does my space make the right choice easier? | A standing desk, monthly goals printed within arm’s reach, workout clothes set out the night before |
| P: People | Who’s around you? | Who can see my blind spots and call me out? | A coach or teammates outside your own head have an objective perspective |
| S: Speech | Your self-talk and the words you say out loud | What is the voice in my head telling me today? | Jim shared that UFC fighter Michael Chandler speaks out loud to override his voice of doubt |
As a reminder of the importance of self-talk, Jim quoted chess and martial arts champion Josh Waitzkin: “If our mind is a supercomputer, our self-talk is the program that’s running it.”
Jim believes being intentional about these four areas can help ease burnout and support more clarity and balance. Although MAPS won’t fix everything, looking at these four areas can help when effort isn’t turning into progress.
Where does money fit into the life I actually want?
This is where the conversation connects to Danton’s and Kyle’s work…planning starts with what matters most to the person and builds from there. Jim made the link himself, noting that reaching the finances and the lifestyle someone wants often depends on having clarity first.
That clarity can shape wider choices, too, informing whether a job change makes sense, what your next career chapter could look like, or how you envision retirement as a new chapter of life. When you know what you’re working toward, the numbers mean more.
If you’ve been telling yourself to push harder, it may help to ask a different question first, “What am I working toward, and what support would help me get there?”
If you are ready for a different kind of week, the full conversation with Danton, Kyle, and Jim could be a good companion for your next flight or long drive.
Frequently asked questions
Why am I always busy at work but never feel like I’m making progress?
Many driven professionals already work hard, so effort may not be the gap. In the conversation, Jim Harshaw Jr. suggested the feeling often comes from unclear direction and missing structure. A helpful start may be writing a simple picture of the life you want, then breaking it into goals and monthly micro goals you can review. People outside your own head, like a coach or trusted peers, can also help you spot blind spots.
Why do goals with deadlines work better than open-ended goals?
An open-ended goal makes it easy to say “maybe next week.” Jim mentioned a study where people who set a clearer, shorter timeframe for quitting smoking tended to do better than those aiming to quit forever. A deadline also creates a stopping point to look back and adjust. Many people find they need to modify the goal once they reach that point, based on what actually worked.
What are the signs of burnout in high-performing executives?
Jim describes burnout as being out of balance: going all in on one area, like career, while family, health, sleep, and enjoyment get squeezed out. This may show up as friction when you get home, thinking about work during family time, or skipping workouts and not sleeping enough. This is general information. If you’re concerned about your health, a qualified professional can help.
How can I learn from missed goals instead of feeling like a failure?
Jim’s view is that a miss tells you something about the system, not about your worth. Ask where the friction is. Was the schedule the obstacle, or was there another step that could make the habit easier to start? One useful filter he shared: if you skipped a micro goal to do something more important, like time with your kids, grace may be fair. If you skipped it to scroll or zone out, that is not being true to yourself.
What is Jim Harshaw Jr.’s MAPS framework for achieving goals?
MAPS is an acronym for a framework Jim suggests. Media is what you choose to take in and block out during a day. Area is your physical space, like keeping your goals visible. People are the coaches and peers who can see your blind spots. Speech is your self-talk and how that impacts your micro goals. Being intentional about these four areas may help find more clarity and balance.
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