Turning 45: What I Learned Climbing Out of My 2020 Burnout

Co-Founder Rebecca tells us the most important lessons she has learned since her burnout.

I turned 45 this week 🎉 and I think I’m finally ready to say it: I am not the same person who burned out at 40.

Setting up Madame Papillon and rebuilding my routines with new priorities—but the same core values—has taught me more than I expected.

Here are the 4(5) lessons that have reshaped my life since my 2020 burnout:

1️⃣ Nothing is forever — and that’s a good thing.

Decisions can be made, unmade, and made again.

When I burned out, I swore I’d never be an employee again. I pictured a life of freedom, adventure, and inspired, value-driven work. The reality? Exhausting funding discussions and a gnawing anxiety that I wasn’t contributing to my family the way I wanted to.

Today, I’m proud to be a part-time employee, working with a wonderful team, contributing to my family, keeping Madame Papillon running, and launching new projects.

This is my situation today—not my identity forever. When life shifts, I’ll shift again. And that's the freedom I was looking for all along.

2️⃣ Partnerships are always win–win, even when they don’t go to plan.

In the three years of Madame Papillon, partnerships have shaped everything: our home with Amazone, the inspiring venues like la Maison des Femmes and Craffiti, collaborations like Slow & Grow with La Tribu Slow, and the work with PsyBru that deepens our impact while making us more accessible.

Some partnerships gave us exactly what we hoped. Others didn’t. And yet every single one is rich: new people, new ideas, new momentum.

3️⃣ Positive as I am, the hardest experiences taught me the most.

I used to imagine adulthood as the moment when everything finally makes sense. 🤦‍♀️ How wrong I was.

There have been amazing highs, but the lows—the stomach-churning, cold-sweat moments—were the ones that sparked real change. Positive experiences build confidence. Hard ones build clarity. When someone unexpectedly opens a terrifying horizon, it's the moment to dig deep and redefine the direction I'm headed.

4️⃣ Boundaries and habits matter… but societal change is what we need.

I start my day with movement now and I make space for my needs in ways I never used to. But the world around us still glorifies burnout, productivity, and exhaustion.

We need more than personal resilience—we need a collective shift.

We need voices like Nathalie Wouters speaking about entrepreneurs’ mental health (check out the upcoming conference). We need a public discourse that puts humanity before output. We need to remember we’re human beings first, workers second.

(5️⃣) Women can “have it all” (but only within community).

We’re social creatures. We thrive together. Communities come in many forms, and I’m deeply grateful for each one of mine. They remind me that support isn’t optional or a sign of weakness but the soil in which we grow.

So here I am at 45: not fixed, not perfect—just evolving. And that feels like enough.