Nobody cares how stressed you are.

Harsh, but true.

This week we answer a listener asking how to detach from a stressful job.

We talk about the difference between being a serious professional and carrying responsibility for everything that happens around you. How to push back on impossible targets without sounding like you’re making excuses. How to make trade-offs visible. And why accepting an unrealistic expectation without challenging it can leave you carrying stress that was never yours to begin with.

But we also turn the question back on ourselves.

Sometimes the company isn’t creating all the stress. We are.

We wear exhaustion like proof that we matter. We replay conversations at home, worry about problems we can’t currently solve and sacrifice time with people we love for an imaginary audience that isn’t watching.

If the job is broken, or the career is wrong, you can change it.

If you’re the one creating the problem, get your act together.

Then we lighten things up with books, discover just how high our screen time actually is, argue about whether every book needs to make you smarter or more successful, and talk Seven Powers, Joan Didion, Frank Body, branding, entrepreneurship and reading simply because something is worth reading.

Professional at work.

Present at home.

And occasionally, put the damn phone down.

In Short:

Work stress.

Unrealistic expectations.

Taking responsibility without carrying the whole world.

Knowing when to put the problem down.

Seven-hour screen times.

Books for work.

Books for pleasure.

And remembering who actually deserves the best parts of you.

Find us here:

Digital Resources: Therackycunninghamcollective.com

Instagram: @letsjuststartpodcast

Tiktok: @letsjuststartpodcast

Youtube: @LetsJustStartPodcast

Laura Insta: @laura.racky

Laura Tiktok: @lauraracky

Christian Insta: @leaderbiltacademy

Christian Tiktok: @leaderbilt

Leadership training and coaching: Leaderbilt.co