I kept telling myself it was just stress. Or age. Or the cost of ambition. I was still putting in the hours. I was still showing up prepared. But around 3PM, something shifted. Meetings felt heavier. Decisions took more effort. Conversations I used to lead confidently started requiring conscious focus. I wasn’t exhausted — I was slowed.

And what unsettled me most was this: I hadn’t changed my work ethic. So why did it feel like my edge was slipping?

At some point, I stopped blaming discipline and started asking better questions. That’s when I learned that iron isn’t only about anemia. It plays a central role in oxygen delivery to the brain and in sustaining mental energy. And low iron doesn’t always show up as dramatic symptoms. Sometimes it shows up subtly — as brain fog, harder focus, a sharper crash in the afternoon, or the feeling that you’re working harder for the same output.

That reframed everything for me. What I was experiencing didn’t feel like burnout. It felt like running slightly under-fueled. As if the drive was still there — but the support system underneath it wasn’t.

And that was hopeful.

Because if my edge wasn’t gone — just depleted — then it wasn’t about pushing harder. It was about supporting what might be missing. Not another coffee. Not another productivity system. A targeted way to replenish what fuels cognitive sharpness in the first place.

If you’ve been telling yourself it’s just a phase, but you know you’re not operating at the level you once did, it may be worth looking deeper. For me, understanding iron changed the direction of the conversation — from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What might my body need?”

And that was the beginning of getting my edge back.