I burned out, got laid off, and learned to stop waiting for someday

Описание: In April 2025, I was laid off from my corporate job and became a caregiver when my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. Burnout, job loss, and caregiving collided—and everything I built for "stability" collapsed in one year. But losing my job and caring for my mom taught me the most important lesson about living intentionally: I was waiting for someday to start my dream life, when life was happening right now. This is my story about recovering from burnout, choosing today over someday, and learning that you don't need to earn permission to live fully.

📢 What I cover in this video:
The moment my world split in two: caregiving for my mom while losing my job
How "someday" thinking kept me from living my actual life
The quiet shift from "when I'm ready" to "why not today?"
What I did with my unplanned creative sabbatical (pottery, writing, rest, travel)
How losing stability created space for what actually matters
Why you don't need a crisis to start living the life you want
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If you're tired of waiting for "someday" to live your real life, this video is for you.

I spent a decade in marketing building other people's dreams while completely neglecting my own. I was successful on paper—but empty inside. I kept telling myself I'd start living the life I wanted after the next promotion, the next milestone, the next achievement.

Then 2025 happened. My mom was diagnosed with cancer. I was laid off. The tower fell.

But in that collapse, I found clarity: time is fragile, not infinite. And I was done wasting it on waiting.

This video is about what happened next—the pottery classes, the road trips, the writing, the rest. The gentle rebellion of choosing joy and presence over fear and perfection. The realization that my dream life wasn't somewhere in the future—it was hiding in tiny decisions I'd been too exhausted or too afraid to make.

A note on this video: This isn't about toxic positivity or "everything happens for a reason." This is about what happened when the life I built for security crumbled—and what I'm choosing to build in its place. Slowly. Imperfectly. Intentionally.

Thanks for being here.
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⏰ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - The moment life split in two
1:00 - My mom's cancer diagnosis
2:30 - The layoff call (April 2025)
3:25 - The collapse of a life I built
4:10 - The someday trap: how I postponed my dream life
5:55 - The shift: choosing today over someday
7:09 - When Everything Fell Apart, Everything Opened Up
8:10 - What I hope you take from this story
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📌 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL

You don't need to earn your dream life. You can start living pieces of it right now.

I'm Renée, and I'm rebuilding my life after burnout and layoff—choosing joy over hustle, presence over perfection, and living my dream life TODAY, not someday.

This channel is for recovering perfectionists, former hustlers, and anyone in a life transition who's ready to design an intentional life they don't need to escape from. We're talking slow living, creative recovery, goal-setting without burnout, and finding contentment in the in-between.

New videos every Sunday! If you're tired of waiting for "ready" and want to start living now, subscribe and let's rebuild together.

What you'll find here:
→ Permission to slow down and rebuild
→ Real stories about intentional living during hard seasons
→ Practical systems for designing a life you don't need to escape from
→ Anti-hustle wisdom from someone still in the struggle with you

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🔗 CONNECT
■ website - [https://www.reneemichaela.com]
■ substack - [https://www.reneemichaela.substack.com]
■ instagram -   / reneemichaela  
■ pinterest -   / thereneemichaela  

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📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED:

→ The Library Card Theory: Why I’m Done Treating My Life Like I’m Borrowing It (https://reneemichaela.com/blog/stop-t...)
→ The Perfectionism Trap: Why 'Good Enough' Changed My Life (https://reneemichaela.com/blog/the-pe...)

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🗓️ NEXT WEEK: 5 Signs You're Successful on Paper But Empty Inside (And What You Can Do About It)

If this video resonated with you, you'll want to catch next week's. I'm breaking down the five signs you're trapped in hustle culture—and how to gently, slowly, start shifting out of it.
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