Redesign the Work, Not Just the Rest
Fall Leaves on a lake
Why a vacation isn’t resolving your burnout
Most people try to fix burnout by pushing harder.
They should be redesigning how they work.
I work with women in IT and finance who did everything right. They climbed the ladder. They said yes to every stretch assignment. They made manager, made director, made VP. And now they're stuck, staring at a career they built, wondering what it was all for.
If that's you, I want to tell you something I don't say publicly very often: a year ago, I was living the exact pattern I coach women out of.
I'd built the M.A.P. Process™ to help my clients move from confusion to clarity. I wasn't using it on myself. My calendar was full, but not intentional. I wasn't protecting any space for deep thinking, and it showed up in how I served my clients: because you cannot pour clarity into someone else's life when you are stuck in confusion and stress yourself.
So I did the work. I mapped where I actually was, not where I wished I was. I surfaced my values again and found exactly where I'd drifted from them. And I tried one thing I hadn't tried before: setting a hard boundary at my job. Not a boundary that made sense on paper or one that a book recommended, but a boundary that I could actually apply. I was terrified at first of what my boss would say (he actually never said anything). But that boundary created space to slow down and think. That space is where I finally found the clarity to build work that energizes me instead of draining me.
Following my own process is also why I've been quiet on social media and dark on my newsletter this last month. I was working toward my scuba instructor certification, and I needed the room to do it without burning myself out again. Because I can’t coach burnout recovery with integrity if I'm not willing to follow my own advice. So this summer, I did.
Kristy's story
My client Kristy has a similar story to mine. She was so deep in burnout that she couldn't name what was actually causing it at first. In fact, it wasn’t until the end of our second session that she started to get clarity on what the problem was so we could start to solve it.
Kristy is the project manager on a large enterprise-wide initiative that was critical to company revenue. She was carrying the outcome of every project herself, trying to develop a team so that they could take real ownership of their action items, and managing a boss who came to her for advice more often than the other way around. In our early sessions, her shoulders sat up around her ears. Her brow stayed furrowed. She talked fast, the way you do when your nervous system hasn't slowed down in months (or sometimes years).
By session five, she came in smiling. Her whole body had loosened. I asked her the same simple question I ask every client, "How are you?" and she said:
"I used to live in a state of total mental exhaustion and that caused physical exhaustion; it hit everything. But now, that's just not my reality anymore. There's so much more freedom in my life now. I can actually let go, and honestly, it's the most refreshing feeling."
Five sessions. Not a new job. Not a different boss. A different structure to her days in a way that felt real and genuine. All the work was still getting done, she just didn’t have to carry it all anymore.
Why structure, not rest, is the fix
When your structure is aligned, your energy follows. And so do your results.
Rest helps. Vacation helps. But burnout recovery isn't a rest problem — it's a structure problem. You can take the trip, take the long weekend, sleep in on Saturday, and still come back to the exact same overloaded, misaligned week that burned you out in the first place. Structure is what protects the recovery. It's what makes the rest actually stick.
That's the whole idea behind my Fall Reset Mini-Retreats.
Fall Reset Mini-Retreats
Two evenings at Gifford Pinchot State Park in central Pennsylvania, with a small group of women who get it, led by someone who's been exactly where you are.
Session 1 (Aug 26): We'll identify your biggest stressor and find one small, sustainable way to actually release it. Not another item for your to-do list but real relief.
Session 2 (Sept 3): We'll go further, learning to intentionally create joy, using the park itself to build a practice you can carry into every day.
📍 Sunnyside Pavilion, Conewago Day Use Area, Gifford Pinchot State Park ⏰ 5:30–8:00pm 💵 $27/session or $45 for both 👥 Limited to 15 women
You don't have to carry this alone anymore. Come reset with me this fall.
