When You’re ‘Always On’ and Think It’s Performance — But It’s Costing You More Than You Realize
You show up early. You’re always ‘ready.’ You catch the risk, you anticipate the problem, you stay present through the storm. On the surface, this looks like high performance. In the boardroom, you’re alert, detailed, engaged. Your team may say: “She’s got it under control.” You may pride yourself on being the one who sees things others don’t.
But here’s the catch: What you call vigilance, high-engagement, readiness may actually be chronic hyper-vigilance disguised as productivity. The state of always scanning, always primed for threat—whether explicit or implied—may help you survive but not help you thrive. For high-achieving women in high-stakes careers, hyper-vigilance can appear as conscientiousness, reliability, or readiness—but silently erodes energy, connection, creativity, and well-being.
In this article I’ll show how this pattern develops, how it plays out in high-stakes professional women, why it often goes unnoticed, and what to do about it.
What is Chronic Hyper-Vigilance?
Hyper-vigilance is defined as a state of heightened alertness and readiness to detect threat, even when none is present. It was originally studied in trauma context—people who have experienced a threat become stuck in the “on” mode of brain and body. (Cleveland Clinic)
One neuroscience study found that trauma-exposed women showed persistent activation in the threat-detection circuitry (amygdala connectivity) and elevated sympathetic tone even at rest — evidence of sustained hyper-vigilance. (PMC)
In workplaces, this looks like constantly scanning for “what could go wrong,” staying in high gear, resisting rest, believing you must catch the next risk, deliver the next result, stay ahead of the curve.
When habitual, hyper-vigilance becomes chronic—not just a reaction to a crisis, but a baseline mode. In that mode, you may feel productive, but you’re actually in a sustained alert state which is physiologically and psychologically costly.
Why It Feels Like Productivity—and Why That’s Deceptive
Here are how hyper-vigilance masquerades as productivity:
1. “Always On” = Appearances of High Output
You’re the one who’s seen, the one responding, the one connected, the one visible. You answer the slack, pre-empt the mis-step, fix the gap. Others may say you’re efficient, unstoppable. But what they don’t see is the underlying fatigue of scanning, of self-monitoring, of holding alert.
2. Reduced Mistakes, Increased Monitoring
Because you’re monitoring constantly—your team, the project, the signals—you may reduce visible mistakes. That reinforces the identity of “reliable.” But this comes at the cost of creativity, reflection, rest, and may reduce innovation or willingness to delegate (since you believe you must catch everything).
3. Hyper-vigilance = Re-Activity Disguised as Pro-activity
You may believe you’re proactive—anticipating issues before they emerge. But sometimes you’re simply in a heightened mode of threat-alert. It’s reactive in another key sense: you’re always responding to internal alerts (“Is this secure? Is this safe? Is everything okay?”) rather than functioning from choice, restoration, and strategy.
4. Wear-and-Tear Hidden Under Performance
Classic research links chronic stress, high demands, and mis-matched resources with reduced productivity and well-being. (PMC) But because you appear to be delivering, you may mask the cost: fatigue, emotional depletion, disconnection, reduced capacity for growth, impaired creativity. In other words: the machine still runs, but the infrastructure is eroding.
5. The Trap for High-Achieving Women
High-achieving women often are rewarded for being vigilant, ready, perfect-ready: you grab high stakes, solve high stakes. The very traits that get you noticed—responsibility, awareness, responsiveness—can become over-called, over-used. The praise for “I can always count on her” may be the same engine that drives your exhaustion.
The Hidden Costs of Hyper-Vigilance in High-Stakes Careers
When vigilance is chronic, here’s what happens—and why it matters:
- Cognitive fatigue and attentional cost: One lab study found hyper-vigilance increased visual scanning and pupil size even in neutral stimuli—suggesting attentional systems are over-used and arousal remains elevated. (PMC)
- Emotional and relational costs: You may feel you cannot switch off. You may struggle to relax at home. Your nervous system doesn’t get the “safe signal.” Over time this reduces your capacity for repair, connection, and creative rest.
- Burnout disguised as performance: Because performance remains visible, you may say “I’m fine,” but inside you’re depleted. Chronic alert + high demand = burnout mindset waiting.
- Less innovation, more risk-aversion: When you’re in alert mode, you focus on “what could go wrong” rather than “what could be new.” That mindset can limit strategic vision or growth.
- Reduced wellbeing despite output: Studies show that higher emotional health and social connectedness predict better work outcomes (less distraction, more satisfaction) than simply output. (Frontiers)
- Health implications: Chronic stress and hyper-arousal affect cardiovascular, immune, sleep systems. The Cleveland Clinic notes hyper-vigilance causes “constant state of anxiety” with wide physical and mental implications. (WebMD)
In essence: you’re acting like you’re sustainable, but your nervous system, your relational brain, your creative brain, your rest-state brain may be silently over-invested in vigilance. The result? Less sustainable performance, higher cost, more hidden exhaustion.
What To Do: Shifting From Vigilant Mode to Intentional Performance
Here are therapeutic-informed steps to begin shifting from chronic hyper-vigilance to sustainable, intentional leadership:
1. Map your internal alert signals
Ask yourself: When am I in vigilance mode? What does it feel like in my body (tightness, scanning, lack of rest, constant checking)? What thoughts accompany it (“Maybe we’re missing something,” “I need to stay ahead,” “If I don’t catch it, who will?”)? Recognising the pattern is the first step.
2. Differentiate vigilance from true proactivity
Pro-activity says: “I have a plan, I choose my moment of action, I allow rest between activations.” Vigilance says: “I must stay ready, watchful, on edge.” Consider: Is my default reset time or my default readiness time? Intention + choice > habitual alert.
3. Build micro-pauses of de-escalation
In high-stakes roles you may believe you can’t rest—but micro-pauses matter. Even brief decompression signals to your nervous system: “You’re safe now.” Acknowledge the difference between “ready mode” and “rest mode.” Introduce small rituals: 2-minute breath, quick visualization, short walk, purpose check.
4. Practice delegation and trust signals
If you’re always scanning, you may struggle to trust others to scan. But sustainable leadership involves creating systems and teams that can monitor so you don’t have to hold it all. Ask: What part of scanning/control can I release? Who can share it? What processes reduce the burden?
5. Reconnect with your creativity & meaning, not just your alert output
Ask: Am I in alert mode because of fear (“If I don’t…”) or because of purpose (“Because I want …”)? Reconnect with what motivates you beyond crisis-containment. Choose tasks of growth, innovation, meaning—not just risk-aversion. Professional identity for high-achieving women should include rest, reflection and renewal as well as action.
6. Use relational calibration
Your nervous system can regulate with others. Work with peers, mentors, therapists who understand high-stakes vigilance. Share the internal state. Ask: “How do we regulate together? When do we pause together?” You don’t have to hold constant vigilance in isolation.
7. Monitor your system—not just your output
Track more than your deliverables. Check in with your energy, your rest quality, your creativity, your relational presence at home. A high functioning output but low relational or rest functioning signals a mismatch. Treat it as data, not optional.
Closing Thoughts
Your capacity to be alert, responsive, ready is an asset—but when it becomes your default, you’re running the engine in high gear without checking the oil. For high-achieving women in high-stakes careers, the value lies not only in doing but also in being. Not only in readiness, but in presence. Not only in performance—but in sustainable presence, connection, and creativity.
If you recognise that your “productive vigilance” may actually be draining you, it’s time to slow down into intention rather than push on through vigilance.
Ready to shift from always-on readiness into sustainable, embodied leadership? Book your first session today, and together we’ll explore how to regulate your nervous system, refine your leadership presence, and contract with performance that honours your whole self — not just your output.
Book your appointment here
Works Cited
Kimble, M. O., et al. (2017). Resting Amygdala Connectivity and Basal Sympathetic Tone as Markers of Chronic Hypervigilance. Biological Psychology, 129, 147-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.01.017. (PMC)
Bernstein, J. A., & Kleiner, R. M. (2011). The Impact of Hypervigilance: Evidence for a Forward Feedback Loop. Psychological Trauma Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(4), 398-402. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022618. (PMC)
World Health Organization. (2017). Workplace Stress: A Neglected Aspect of Mental Health Well-being. WHO. (PMC)
Smith, N. A. (2019). Keeping Your Guard Up: Hypervigilance Among Urban Adults Exposed to Violence. International Journal of Public Health, 64, 313-320. (PMC)
Frontiers in Psychology. (2024). Prospective Associations of Multidimensional Well-Being with Work Outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1326655. (Frontiers)
Cleveland Clinic. (2024). Always on Alert: Causes and Examples of Hypervigilance. Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials. Retrieved from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/hypervigilance. (Cleveland Clinic)
