This TED Talk features social psychologist Guy Wynch recorded live at TED Salon Brightline Initiative 2019.

I wanted to be a psychologist since I was a teenager and I spent years pursuing that one goal.

I opened my private practice as soon as I was licensed.

It was a risky move, not getting a day job at a hospital or a clinic,

but within one year my practice was doing quite well,

and I was making more money than I ever made before.

Of course, I was a full-time student my entire life. I could have worked at McDonald's and made more money than I ever made before.

That one year mark came on a Friday night in July.

I walked home to my apartment and got into the elevator with a neighbor who was a doctor in the ER.

The elevator rose,

then it shuddered and stalled between floors,

and the man who dealt with emergencies for a living began poking at the buttons and banging on the door saying,

this is my nightmare, this is my nightmare.

And I was like, and this is my nightmare.

I felt terrible afterwards, though,

because I wasn't panicked,

and I knew what to say to calm him down.

I was just too depleted to do it.

I had nothing left to give.

And that confused me.

After all, I was finally living my dream, so why wasn't I happy?

Why did I feel so burnt out? For a few terrible weeks, I questioned whether I'd made a mistake.

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