Maria Keckler had the secure job, the big paycheck, and years of meaningful work with people she loved. She’d even gone back to school in her mid-50s to finish a PhD. But the work calling her and the work she was doing were no longer the same.
In this episode, Maria, a researcher and former university administrator whose PhD work focused on empathy in healthcare, shares what happens when a natural builder spends too long maintaining. A health crisis became her wake-up call, and a month of medical leave gave her space to take stock. One honest conversation with her husband turned that reflection into a plan: a six-month handoff, a clear-eyed look at the finances, and a leap without a visible safety net.
But the leap didn’t end with her resignation. Maria talks candidly about the internal resistance that showed up even after she decided, the chess lesson from her father that became her life mantra, and why, more than a year in, she’s still learning to give herself permission to rest.
If you’ve built a stable life you’re grateful for but keep wondering whether waiting is costing you more than changing, this conversation is for you.