The Day I Almost Quit: What Burnout Taught Me About Self-Worth

By Jim Plasky APNP, FNP-BC

The Breaking Point

It was 1 a.m. in a rural emergency room.

The hall lights buzzed. I hadn’t eaten in 12 hours. I’d been working the last 5 days straight. I had just finished stitching up a laceration when a code came over the loudspeaker, another trauma rolling in.

My body moved automatically.

But my heart? It wasn’t in it anymore.

I walked into the supply room to grab gloves and instead leaned against the wall, staring at a cracked tile on the floor. For the first time in my career, a voice whispered:

“You don’t have to do this anymore.”

When “Strong” Becomes Self-Destructive

You see, I didn’t grow up with softness. I grew up surviving.

Being “strong” meant showing up no matter how I felt. It meant taking care of others, being the fixer, staying busy, never breaking.

So I brought that into medicine. Into leadership. Into every space I walked into.

But here’s the truth I didn’t want to face:

Strength without boundaries is a slow form of self-abandonment.

And I was disappearing.

The Lies Burnout Tells Us

Burnout doesn’t just make you tired. It makes you forget who you are.

It tells you that rest is weakness.

That if you just push a little harder, you’ll be worthy.

That if you stop, everything will fall apart and maybe that means you’re not enough.

I believed all of that. Until that night.

Because in the silence of that ER supply room, I realized I wasn’t just exhausted, I was empty.

I had poured so much into others, I had nothing left for myself.

What I Know Now

Burnout was my teacher.

It stripped away every performance and left me with the question:

“Who are you when you’re not saving everyone else?”

That moment didn’t make me quit healthcare.

But it did make me reclaim something:

My boundaries. My worth. My story.

Worthy is the book I wrote from that place of remembering.

The Worthy Initiative is what came next, a movement to remind people that their value isn’t earned through exhaustion.

For You, If You’re Tired Too

If you’re feeling the edge of burnout, I see you.

If you’ve been performing strength for so long, you forgot what softness feels like, this is your reminder:

You’re allowed to rest.

You’re allowed to say no.

You’re allowed to heal.

Because your worth was never meant to be measured by how much you endure.

✍️ Read more reflections and upcoming excerpts from Worthy at jimplasky.com

Let’s rewrite the story of what strength really means—together.