From AI Burnout to Intentional Growth: Why We Need a Better System to Thrive

Layoffs and RTO are draining us. I’m sharing the framework I built to stay grounded.

What You’ll Learn:

💡 How to identify if you are currently surviving and how to move back to thriving.
💡 How to create goals aligned with your vision.
💡 The power of accountability and community.

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I’m scared too. We need each other.

Layoffs every 3 months at Amazon are draining me. Return To Office killed my choices. AI is deprecating my beloved job as Frontend Engineer. What else is coming?

We’re bouncing between FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out, such as on the latest tools and opportunities) and the hustle of our day to day lives. Many times there is too much. Many of us are in survival mode.

But now, more than ever, we need to thrive.
We need to be grounded and stop chasing shiny objects.
We need to just pause.

Breathe.

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From AI Excitement to Surviving

At the end of last quarter, I got very sick. And without realizing, I went into survival mode again. Even though over two years ago, I created a framework for staying in thriving at my team in AWS, I ended up surviving.

3. Self Management: Set Yourself for Success & Own Your Career from Today

I was too excited about my new AWS AI goal and role. I needed to meet the deadline. I needed to deliver asap so that hundreds of internal non-tech users would become more productive. Then, I didn’t care about my body signals, my health. I was sick and had stress at home and at work, but I needed to execute. So I stopped pausing.

When the only thing I needed was:
Stop overthinking and keep following the framework.

In survival mode, you don’t see when you’re in it. Tunnel vision takes over. You skip the reviews and don’t self-correct.

After self-reflecting, I believe I didn’t have the right tools to help me stay on track:

1. WonderLead Obsidian Vault? The UX was too complex. Too many plugins, too much friction to reflect when I was sick.

2. WonderLead Digital/Printable Planner? Got lost. No tracking. No accountability.

3. AI Assistants? Hard to see patterns or prioritize by myself and at a glance. Not designed for deep, emotional reflection.

I needed something that would force me to pause, reflect, prioritize, and stay aligned with what matters.

So I started building it with AI. Not as any other product. As the WonderLead Thriving tool.

But this post isn’t about what I’m building. It’s about the year reflection and plan I executed that drove me into this decision and that through the years helped me thrive.

You can use it right now, with whatever tools you have following the guidance in this post. Or you can reply this post with the word THRIVE and I will give you access to the beta version. Feel free to ask me also any questions about it.

🌟 The WonderLead Thriving Framework

Before setting any goal, we need to understand what happened with reviews and where we are through self assesssments. Then, we are able to realistically plan our top priority goals (Big Rocks) aligned with our values and current situation. Finally, we need to execute within an accountability system that helps us stay thriving.

Review → Assess → Plan → Thrive

Here it is in summary:

• Step 1: Review to Discover: Look back to understand what happened.

• Step 2: Assess: Understand where you are right now

• Step 3: Plan: Set goals aligned with your values and current reality and self-manage yourself to achieve them.

• Step 4: Execute: Take action with curiosity, emotional intelligence, and agency using productivity and AI tools that allow you to thrive.

This framework helped me to go out of survival mode. But even if your team, health, and family are in amazing shape, stI recommend you to still follow this framework. Because when we identify that we’re surviving, it’s usually too late. And right now, it is not the time to survive.

In the last month and a half, I run 3 workshops testing this framework.
Everyone liked the framework! We are meeting every last Saturday of the month.

Last month, I published the Step 1 which includes how I reviewed last year:

The next step is to assess and plan. But it’s not enough with just setting goals. Instead, I am improving my system for succeeding during the execution. The system and an accountability community that will enable your goals success!

I stopped creating templates.
I’m creating the system for us. A tool which will allow us to thrive and grow.
You will get all the tips in this newsletter from a single app.
We sail our career journey together.
Reply THRIVE for beta access.

What to do After your Year Review

Step 2: Assess Your Current State to Adapt Your Plan

Your values and situation change over time. Your unmet goals from 2025 might no longer be aligned, nor might be achievable today.

Use your year review to identify patterns. Then dive deep to understand where you are right now, based on your circunstances, energy, alignment, and emotional state.

4. Self-Assessment: Knowing Your Why Leads to Your Dream Job

Ask yourself:

1. Your Energy: What energizes you? What drains you? When are you at your peak? Identify your Chronotype (Lark, Owl, or Third Bird) to answer better.

2. Your Values: What matters most to you? What must be present for you to thrive?

3. Your Thriving Score (1-10): You can rate it considering your 1) physical energy, 2) emotional energy, 3) mental clarity, and 4) alignment with your values. You can also consider the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If basic and psychological needs are unmet or you are misaligned with your values, you likely are surviving.

Remember to dive deep or use the 5 Whys to identify the root causes and understand yourself better. At this point, you will identify which areas of emotional intelligence you should prioritize developing in order to thrive.

My Assessment:

I’m energized and at my pick when helping others and get drained when I identify lack of inclussion. My values are kindness, family, achievement, and integrity. My thriving score now is sometimes 5 because of low physical energy and values alignment. But I’m working on it. The most important is to be resilient.

I was not impacted by Amazon layoffs yet. However, I was impacted by RTO two years ago and I have been re-assessing my situation since then. My deadline to go back to Spain is this Summer. I wanted to work remotely at Amazon, but now, due to the layoffs, it is impossible.
This framework has helped me through my journey.

If you have a friend who was layed off recently, click Share button.

Step 3. Plan Your Path - From Vision to Intentional Goals

Vision changes overtime too. Unfortunately, today it might be influenced by fear (FOMO) more than our values. So we might end up doing projects not aligned with ourselves if we let FOMO take control. When these fears appear, we must name and carry them forward with curiosity and courage. Accepting them. Then you will be able to identify your real purpose.

Ask yourself:

1. Who do you want to BE by December 2026? What will you accomplish? What is different?

2. What are your 3-5 Big Rocks goals aligned with your core values? Pick 3-5 that matter most. Make them (1) specific but independent of how you will achieve them, (2) measurable considering what you can control, (3) achievable but ambitious so that if you achieve 80% it will be a success, (4) relevant for your purpose, and (5) time bounded to make progress with balance.

3. What milestones, tasks, and habits do you need to achieve your Big Rocks?
   Use AI to scale but make sure to use critical thinking. Prioritize based on the impact, cost, and how aligned each task is with your values and your energy level.

My Vision

I want to inspire and develop others, create large products, and foster emotional intelligence through my own products.

My Goals for WonderLead.tech

1. Grow WonderLead in Tech newsletter to 10,000 Subscribers with Balance.

2. Launch WonderLead Thrive tool and community to support others careers.

3. Strengthen Executive Presence Skills While Supporting Others.

Step 4: Thrive with an Accountability System

In WonderLead, we don’t sail our careers alone. We achieve our goals together.

Create a Personalized System

1. Build Your Habits

2. Schedule Reviews

3. Use Tools that Fit Your Needs

4. Make it Enjoyable

When I check in weekly, I stay on track. When I celebrate wins with others, it’s more fun and easier to keep progressing. And I want to do it with wonderleaders in tech.
That’s why I launched mentorship, coaching, and monthly free workshops.

Connect It to Community

When we connect with others who share similar goals, we build trust, exchange insights, and hold each other accountable. Seeing others’ progress inspires our own journey.

Community amplifies individual practice and turns isolated efforts into collective momentum.

Every last Saturday of the month we meet in a workshop and continue supporting each other in a private community.

🌟Own Your Growth

This post is about taking ownership of your growth and be ing intentional with your goals. It’s about moving from reacting to life to proactively shaping your future.

When we:

1. Set goals aligned with our values.

2. Break them into actionable steps.

3. Build systems that support us.

4. Share them with our community.

We move from surviving to thriving.

How am I going to achieve my Big Rocks? The same way you’ll achieve yours if you subscribe and join: One intentional step at a time, with community support, and with a system that makes it visible and sustainable.

If You are Not Ready to Review and Start Planning

A year ago, we did the Thriving Challenge with 5-20 minutes activities for 7 days. If you follow it, it will help you to get started. You can sign up here.

Remember, you don’t need to be ready or ask for permission to start.

You don’t need to wait for the perfect moment.

Start today. With a small step. Be intentional. Own your growth.

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Tasks for the Week:

☑️ Review and Plan 2026: Wins, challenges, lessons learned.
☑️ Do the first task of one Big Rock: Ask yourself how you feel afterwards.
☑️ Schedule your first monthly check-in: Mark it recurrently in your calendar.

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Share in the comments: 💬

• Who do you want to BE by December 2026?

• What is your #1 Big Rock?

• What change are you going to make this week?

Let’s move in this AI era from surviving to thriving. Together. 💛

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🎁Bonus: Free Monthly Workshop and Beta App

I created a solution to the friction that caused my own survival. A Monthly Review & Plan with Accountability Workshop and a tool designed to make this “Thriving Framework” automatic. I’ll be sharing a full walkthrough of the WonderLead Thriving Tool once I validate it with users. Build to Launch supported the first testing round. Now, I’m looking for volunteers to test it live with an interview!

1. Want to be at the front of the line for the beta? Just reply THRIVE to this email.

2. Want to join the monthly workshop? Register here.

3. Want to start thriving right now? Sign up for the 7 days Thriving Challenge email course and start meeting your goals!

Recommended Resources:

1. The Power of Moments — Chip Heath & Dan Heath
   (For understanding what makes experiences meaningful)

2. Think Again — Adam Grant
   (To question your own beliefs, embrace being wrong, and become a "scientist")

3. Atomic Habits — James Clear
   (For building sustainable practices)

(*) By purchasing affiliated books, you will be contributing to WonderLead in Tech.

Remember: This isn’t about perfection.
It’s about progress, being intentional, and owning our carrer/life journey.
Together. 💛

P.S. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the AI era chaos, that’s normal. Start small: just answer one question from this post today. Tomorrow, answer another. Progress over perfection, always!

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This post opinions are my own, and may not reflect the opinions of the company I work for.