From Burnout to Blueprint: Why I Built My Own Operating System for Life & Work

Have you ever felt caught in a cycle of survival, where every major life change seems to trigger a season of profound exhaustion and loss of control? You know you're resilient because you’ve gotten through it before, but there's a part of you that wonders: “Will I be like this every time?”

For me, that question hit hard this year. As a project manager with an engineering background, my mind is wired to find structure and systems. But in a world of constant change, I’ve learned that relying on external structures is a vulnerability. My journey has been marked by three major depressive seasons, each triggered by a life-altering transition. And each time, a similar pattern of disintegration emerged.

This wasn't just a tough season; it was a repeated feedback loop that left me feeling lost and drained.

The Core Problem: A Loss of Grounding

Looking back, these repeated experiences shared a few critical themes. They all started with a loss of my foundations—the very things that gave me stability and confidence.

• I lost my grounding in identity. In a new environment, I felt a deep sense of disorientation. I went from being a confident, trusted person to someone with no clear footing, a feeling of being untethered from myself.

• I lost my support structures. At the start of each transition, the people and environment around me were new. I felt profoundly alone, which made every challenge feel isolating and overwhelming.

• My body became a battlefield. As the mental and emotional toll mounted, my body felt like it was breaking. I was physically drained, with no motivation, and struggled to get out of bed. The insidious motivator was fear: the fear of failure and the fear of letting people down.

• I lost all sense of control. Whether it was struggling academically for the first time, navigating the blurry boundaries of remote work, or moving into a completely new professional domain, I felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

• My inner world was shot. In the darkest moments, I lost all sense of meaning and purpose. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, completely drained of my reserves.

Fortunately, each time, I eventually found a way to recover. A strong community supported my first recovery. The second, consistent and intense professional therapy. But this third season felt different. My old coping mechanisms weren't enough. I realized that surviving wasn't the goal anymore—I wanted to thrive.

Designing a New Blueprint

As I began to recover, deeper questions emerged: Why did this keep happening? How could I live a sustainable life if every major change sent me spiraling? I realized that the answer to my burnout wasn't about working harder or resting more; it was about building an internal structure that could withstand chaos. My reflections led me to develop two frameworks that, together, have become my personal operating system for life and work.

The Purpose–Well-being Cycle (PWC): The “What”

The PWC is a conceptual framework that explores the dynamic relationship between personal purpose and holistic well-being. My core insight was this: without purpose, we drift; without well-being, we burn out. The PWC proposes that true flourishing requires both.

This framework provides the "what"—the structural ingredients for a sustainable life. It's the map that shows how purpose and well-being are meant to interact, supported by key pillars like Behavioral Science, Reflective Practice, and Systems Thinking to enable the cycle.

The Sustainable Feedback Loop (SFL): The “How”

The SFL is a complementary process model that articulates the rhythm through which individuals maintain a resilient, purpose-aligned life. It's an adaptive, regenerative cycle with four phases: Grounding, Momentum, Integration, and Regeneration.

This framework provides the "how"—the practical rhythm for living out the PWC. It's a set of instructions for navigating life's inevitable seasons of struggle and growth with clarity, capacity, and hope. It is a direct counter to the destructive feedback loop I had been living in for so long.

Together, these frameworks form a unified lens and a personal operating system. The PWC gives me the destination, and the SFL gives me the instructions for the journey, allowing me to adapt and regenerate along the way.To see how these two frameworks interact, check out my interactive infographic.

A Journey of Discovery

These frameworks are still a work in progress, just as my recovery is. I'm not 100% better, but having this structure helps to guide me toward what I'm striving for: a healthy, sustainable, purpose-driven, and productive life. I'm also actively researching existing studies to back up my frameworks. This blog series is a way for me to document this journey of research and discovery, sharing the insights and tools I find along the way. It's a difficult process to go through, but hopefully we can come out the other end of it stronger and more hopeful for what's ahead. I invite you to follow along as we explore the insights and tools for building a more resilient and purposeful life.