Reclaiming Balance: My Story of Overcoming Burnout and Finding Career Happiness

Hello! I’m Judy Gielniak, coach and founder of Accomplished Life Coaching & Consulting. My journey to a an exciting career coaching leaders and professionals began over twenty-five years ago . . .

My Background

A native mid-westerner, I began a career in law before moving to California in 1996. I chose law because it represented an interesting livelihood in a career helping others. For over twenty-five years, I worked in various law firms, rising from a position as a paralegal to eventually directing operations of a large legal education and pro-bono services program within an elite law school and leading a large team in an academic-services environment.

I found deep satisfaction—and achieved substantial success—helping people find ways to better realize their goals and potentials. But something else was happening at the same time. Even though I loved my job and was doing well, I wasn’t feeling well. I knew that I was working to excess and eventually pulled back some, but it didn’t really help—I still felt extremely driven to push myself harder. So, I continued on and succeeded professionally, but at the cost of becoming increasingly unhappy, stressed, sick, and suffering severe burnout. Sound familiar?

My Aha! Moment

I eventually found coaching myself through my desire for more purpose in life and exploration of a new career making the most of my interests, skills and talents. Working with a coach increased my self-awareness, among many other things. I explored my values (really explored them, for the first time ever!) and realized that work/life balance was and had always been a central value in my life. Yet, for so long I had been living anything but a balanced life. What I discovered next was a game-changer.

Coaching helped me realize that I was carrying a long-held somewhat buried belief that I was under-qualified and, despite my success, I felt like an imposter—for years. I believed that the only way I could prove my worth in my profession was to take on more and more work and to do it all perfectly. It’s an impossible bar, but that’s what I expected of myself in order to feel worthy. And, my efforts yielded some results—I was successful. The problem was that none of this actually made me feel any more worthy. On top of that, these self-levied expectations carried health and relationship consequences, yet I continued to subscribe to them. Once I unpacked these issues it became truly clear to me that my success was based on my talents and character and not on striving for perfection or on how many hours I spent working. With this new understanding, I gained clarity and courage to work on my beliefs and take my next career steps.

Today

Fast forward to the present. I’m living a better (dare I say wonderful) life filled with meaning and direction. Life, of course, still has its usual complications, but the difference is I now have the tools to deal with them. I sleep well, make time for my family and myself, and still work hard, in balance with the rest of life, in a career close to my heart. With so much gratitude for what coaching has taught me, I’m thrilled to now be helping clients on their journey toward finding real career happiness and success. We all deserve to enjoy what we do for a living and be successful—two big components of living a fulfilled and accomplished life!