You're Not Broken, the Blueprint Is: Burnout, ADHD & Doing It Your Way

You've followed the plan. The job, the degree, the "proven" playbook somebody sold you. You've checked every box, worked your ass off — and you're still exhausted, still wondering when it's supposed to start feeling worth it.

Here's the part nobody tells you: burnout isn't a discipline problem. It's what happens when you force yourself into a system that was never built for how you're actually wired.

In this episode, Renae unpacks the moment she blew up her own business playbook after months of following it perfectly and getting nothing but crickets — plus a ridiculous shower debate on shift that accidentally explains the whole thing. She gets into why the 9-to-5, the calendar, and yes, daylight savings time are all brand new inventions our bodies never agreed to, why we pathologize ourselves for not keeping up with them, and how your nervous system tells you the truth long before your brain catches on.

Also inside, a free 2-minute body scan to help you spot misalignment before burnout hits.

If you've ever thought "what the hell have I been doing all this time" — this one's for you.

• Want more info on Hustle Rebels? → https://hustle-rebels.com
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MENTIONED RESOURCES:

• 2-min Body Scan to feel in-tune with your body: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSTec53IacQ&t=2s]
• Book a Call with Renae: [https://calendly.com/waywardwellnesscoaching/connectwithrenae]
• 📩 Join the Weekly Recharge newsletter, out every Wednesday: [https://wayward-wellness-coaching.kit.com]
• Book a Brainspotting Session: [https://calendly.com/waywardwellnesscoaching/packages/eb0c0772-56b6-47a0-9510-cb0187ed0dec]
• 🔥 Get Week 1 of Burn the Blueprint: 4-Week Identity Reset FREE → [https://wayward-wellness-coaching.kit.com/burn-the-blueprint-week-one]

Transcript

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I have a very important question that I need to pose before we get into anything. Do you wash your legs in the shower? Think about it real hard and honestly. There's no judgment, but I would love to hear your answer by the end of the episode. And then you will know why. This is Hustle Rebels, the podcast for people who still want to win but are starting to question the cost. I'm Renee, your host and burnout recovery expert. I help overachievers get out from under-the-grind culture, stop sacrificing themselves to a system that literally never gives back, and actually live a life that they've worked so hard for, like they deserve. Before retirement takes their decrepit body. So by the time that you hear this, I will be on my way to Puerto Rico. And sometimes while I'm traveling, that means that there's no episode this week. But this one keeps popping up in my mind, and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging, so I didn't want to skip out. And it's actually an OG weekly recharge issue, which is my newsletter. And these days I record that too. And it comes out on Wednesdays. But this one is from back before Hustle Rebels even existed. Back when it was just a written email, and I only had like 30 of you guys in my email list, so it never got recorded. It was called, Do you wash your legs in the shower? People actually still bring it up to me randomly these days, and most of you have never read it, so I'm reviving it. Pretty much exactly how I wrote it, with a few extra flares, because it's just as relevant now as it was then. Funny how things seem to come full circle like that, eh? And real quick, if you're new here, hit subscribe or follow wherever you're listening so you don't miss next week's episode. And if you've been with me for a while now, which is since the beginning of the year, thank you. I mean that genuinely. Keep sending me messages. I seriously read every single one of them. And I genuinely appreciate and love them. Alright, let's roll into it. Like the tuna roll that I would love to be eating right now. So when you work 24 plus hours straight with people, you end up with some weird ass fucking conversations. And by weird, I mean, are we really talking about this right now? And it really doesn't faze you. So one day on shift, someone asks, Do you wash your legs in the shower? The whole crew just looks at him, and then one guy piped up and answered, No, I wash everything down to my legs. And then the runoff just handles the rest. Runoff. Runoff. My guy, that is not hygiene. That is spiritual surrender. We stared at him like he was an alien, and he stared back like we were the ones wasting precious minutes scrubbing our calves in the bottoms of our feet like our lives depended on it. We never got to finish the debate because we ended up getting a call, and it continued down the hallway and into the trucks. But that moment has stuck with me because it reminded me that everyone has their own way of doing things. And to them, it makes perfect sense. So I'm gonna cue my mini crisis that I had a couple of weeks ago. I had a full-blown, what the hell am I doing, meltdown about my business and my marketing. I've been following a marketing coach playbook, checking every box, doing every task, and they swear that it works every time. So I've been investing more money and time than I would really care to admit. And the result? Crickets, a shit ton of stress, and a fucking hate social media replay over and over. A slow existential collapse. Especially when I crave immediate results, like putting pads on someone in a third-degree heart block that's barely coherent, pacing them at 60 BPMs and immediately seeing a sinus rhythm, and then them talking to us like a normal human, asking if they get to have a free lunch with the ER. That's the kind of instant feedback that I am wired for, and a lot of you guys, I'm assuming too. But marketing doesn't work like that. So last week when I finally said, what if their blueprint isn't my blueprint? Because historically, every time I have thrown out the rule book, which, let's be honest, is kind of on brand for me, that's when things start clicking. Not when I follow instructions like a good little soldier. I mean, I have been told I have a problem with authority, but I address that in other episodes. And that reminded me of something from a podcast that I had listened to during a drive to visit my family. It's a podcast called A Bit of Optimism, and I'll drop the link for it down below in the description notes. But he talks about how happiness isn't about deadlines or hitting goals and following the structure that society has laid out instead of trusting how you naturally work. It hit me like a brick because honestly, that's exactly what I teach. But apparently, I needed to relearn it myself. Because here's the thing the way that we live right now in this society, these nine to fives, this ridiculous calendar that we all just agreed to follow. Fucking daylight savings time. This is all brand new. Like blink of an eye new in the grand scheme of human existence. Our bodies were never meant to run on a schedule that some suits, or popes or romans. You can check out the history on it, trust me, it's there. So the powers that be, let's just call them that, decided on a few hundred years ago. And then when we can't keep up with it, when our brain and our body push back against that system that was literally never designed for us as humans in the first place, in this current society, we basically call it ADHD, or overachieving, or underachieving. So we self-medicate, or we actually medicate, and then we self-depreciate, and then we turn around and we get pissed off at ourselves for not being able to force our way through it anyway. But we're not broken. The blueprint is. So I just want you to lean in with me for a second. Your body rebels the moment that you follow a blueprint that isn't yours. When you're forcing a strategy that doesn't match your wiring, your nervous system goes straight into tension, doubt, overthinking, burnout vibes, that maybe I'll move into the woods and disappear energy. Your body doesn't lie. It whispers, and then it nudges, and then it flips the whole damn table over. But when you shift back into alignment, your way, your rhythm, your blueprint, your whole body and your whole system exhales. Which is funny because Burn the Blueprint was literally the program that I built for moments exactly like this. And initially, it never saw the light of day back then. In fact, the business program that I was in had told me just to forget about it. So it just sat on the shelf like a forgotten relic with way too much potential. But I need you to hear something today. Stop stuffing yourself into someone else's system, stop sacrificing yourself to a matrix that never gives back, into a mold that literally was never made for the human body to begin with. It was designed for control. And that lesson is universal. And so here's the thing: in that original newsletter, I had flat out asked all of you that were there in the time, would you want burn the blueprint? And a bunch of you had said yes. And then, if I'm honest, I sat on it probably a lot longer than I should have. But eventually I did bring it back. And some of you have heard me mention it here on the show in passing, and it turned into Burn the Blueprint identity reset program with a few brain spouting sessions included in with it as well. And I don't actually talk about it much though. Barely bring it up outside of the offering of the first week being free. But I want to ask you something before I actually tell you it's changing. How long have you been doing everything right? Following the plan that someone else has handed you, the job, the degree, the mortgage, the retirement account, all of it. And still feeling like you're just getting through the day, or dreading the day, working your fucking ass off, sacrificing pieces of yourself along the way, telling yourself that it will all be worth it eventually. But when is eventually? I've seen eventually. And it it turns into things like, and I'm too exhausted, and my body is too broken to even enjoy everything I've ever worked for. If some part of you just went, damn, that's me. I don't want to fucking wait anymore. But I don't know where to start. I just know I'm too tired to continue feeling this way. That's exactly what this new container is made for. So starting now, I'm opening up a handful of one-to-one spots. Not a course, not a free week, and then you're on your own. Just you and me every single week building something customized that's actually yours. Instead of one more blueprint that you inherited and never chose. Because I don't want you getting to retirement and asking yourself, what the fuck have I been doing my whole entire life? This whole entire time. I can only hold space for a few people at a time, so spots are genuinely limited. If this is landing with you, I would love to hear a message from you, or you can schedule a free chat with me using the link below in the description show notes. So that's it for this one. I'm also going to link a body scan video below for you too. But fair warning, I did record it a little while ago on the fly while I was visiting my parents. So it's not very polished, but it does get the job done. It'll help you slow down and actually get in tune with what your body's trying to nudge you toward before it starts screaming at you. So go do that today. Ask yourself, what part of my body needs permission right now? Permission to pause, permission to shift gears, permission to just stop forcing something that doesn't feel like it's yours. Your body knows the truth long before your brain stops arguing with it. I'll be back recording properly for the next episode, but until then, if this one hit you the same way that it hit me while I was writing it, send it to someone else who might need to hear it. And I will see you guys next week.