From Teacher Burnout to Breakthrough: A Knight and Day Guide to Breaking Free

Stop Saying “Someday” + Teacher Career Transition Tips from Knight and Day

Ever notice how “someday” sounds like a plan… until it becomes your excuse?

This week, I’m diving into the utterly bananas spy movie Knight and Day—and pulling out some surprisingly relevant lessons for teachers on the edge of burnout. Between Tom Cruise’s calm chaos and Cameron Diaz’s underestimated genius, there’s a message every teacher-in-transition needs to hear:

If you keep waiting for the right time, you’ll wait forever.

🧭 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why “someday” is a career-killing word
• What June Havens teaches us about being underestimated and overqualified
• How Roy Miller’s “go on three” moment is a metaphor for clarity in chaos
• 8 red flags to watch for in new jobs (before you jump from one fire into another)
• How to use your teacher instincts to make better moves

🔗 Ready to Stop Waiting?

→ Join my next DECIDE Workshop (Sept 1 or Sept 27, 2025)
→ Book a free Discovery Call: Click here
→ Or just rewatch Knight and Day and let the metaphor work its magic 

🤝 Connect With Me:

📧 Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
📞 512-640-9099
📅 Schedule a free Discovery Call
📸 Instagram,Threads and now TikTok!-  @teachers.in.transition
🐦 X: @EduExitStrategy
🔵 Facebook: Teachers in Transition Page
🌐 Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social

👋Connect with and Follow Vanessa
📧 Email: Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
📞 Text or Leave a Voicemail: 512-640-9099
📅 Book a Free Discovery Session: teachersintransition.com/calendar
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vanessajackson78132
📷 Instagram & Threads: @teachers.in.transition
📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565671792885
🌤️ Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social
    X (Twitter): @EduExitStrategy

I need your help!

Please share this podcast with someone that you think might like what it has to say – many teachers are aching to find a way to a new career.  You can help them. People find new podcasts mostly because they’ve been recommended by someone they know.   

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzspout

Transcript

Hi!  I’m Vanessa Jackson, and welcome back to Teachers in Transition.  I taught middle school for 25 years, left to go off into corporate America, and now?  I work for teachers like you. I help teachers figure out how to get out. This is the podcast for every educator who's ever whispered, "I love teaching, but..." and then trailed off into burnout, bureaucracy, and the heartbreak of a profession that keeps asking for more than it gives..

First up - I am going to ask two huge, but simple favors.  #1 PLEASE leave a review for the podcast. If you like this podcast, you can make a BIG difference and be a BIG help by simply rating it and leaving a quick review.  #2 please share it with a teacher friend that you think might enjoy it.  The way a podcast grows is because people share it with friends. The way a podcast thrives is when they put reviews up on Apple, Spotify, or wherever they listen. The reviews help potential viewers decide if the pod is worth their time. So I want to appreciate your time too!  So, I am offering a gift to the FIRST five people who leave a 5-star rating and a review of the pod. I will review your linked in page and provide easy, actionable steps that you can take to improve your page and help stand out from the crowd. Don’t have a LinkedIn page yet?  No stress!  Check out the show notes for a link to a FREE checklist of things your LinkedIn page needs to have.  (That’s a lot of links in one sentence) A LinkedIn page is VITAL in the professional world, and yours needs to look sharp!

Today’s episode wraps up our Summer Movie Series, and we’re going out with a bang—and a chase scene—and running from some bulls.

We’re talking about 2010’s Knight and Day, (that’s K N I G H T) starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. If you’ve seen it, you already know this movie is WILD. If you haven’t? Buckle up. 

Knight and Day is a fast-paced action-comedy film starring Tom Cruise as Roy Miller—a charming, eccentric spy with a hidden agenda—and Cameron Diaz as June Havens, a classic-car restorer who accidentally gets swept up in a chaotic international chase. One reviewer on IMDB called it a “nonsensical spy-thriller.”  That’s a good description.  The movie kicks off when Roy bumps into June at the airport. Twice. The plane crashes, and June gets a crash course in the life of a spy. What follows is a wild ride through Boston, Austria, and Spain involving assassins, double-crossing agents, and an inventor in danger. Everyone seems to want this perpetual battery called Zephyr. Along the way, June discovers that Roy may not be the villain she was told he was—and that she might be more capable than she ever imagined.

Viola Davis plays the head of the FBI (or maybe it’s just the Disinformation Protocol division – hard to tell). And Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot has one of her first roles in this movie – as a beautiful counter-spy.

Despite its implausible plot twists—think tranquilizer knockouts, rooftop chases, and bull stampedes—Knight and Day leans into its absurdity with charm. Roy’s real last name is hinted to be “Knight,” setting up the film’s title pun contrasting to June’s sunny, impulsive energy. While critics were divided (the movie holds a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), many people praised the chemistry between Cruise and Diaz, calling the film an enjoyable if formulaic summer flick. That was the point. It’s just a fun movie. I think some of the film’s wilder moments caused some people to write off the movie as a whole. There’s a moment where they’ve been captured.  We see Roy (shirtless, of course!) hanging upside and swinging.  From the doorway POV, he only talks when he’s seen through the doorway, saying “I know this looks bad.  But I got this.”  And miraculously in the movie, he does always seem to ‘got this.’
 
The idea behind the play on words ‘knight and day’ plays into the idea that Roy is a Knight in shining armor but that they are both so different.  By the end of the movie, we see that they’re not really all that different at all.  

Beneath the explosions and espionage, Knight and Day offers rich metaphors about identity, adaptability, and the dangers of putting off your own story for “someday.”

There’s this moment early on in the movie. June, is talking to Roy. They’re on a plane. She’s telling him about her dad’s GTO—how she wants to restore it someday. You can tell she’s nostalgic. Idealistic. She means it.

And Roy, deadpan, looks at her and says, “Someday. That’s a dangerous word It’s code for ‘never’ “

Ouch. ? 

Because here’s the thing: Someday feels like a plan. It feels like hope. But most of the time? It’s just fear dressed in a hoodie. It’s our way of postponing the life we say we want because we don’t know how to make the leap.

Teachers say it all the time:

• “I’ll leave after testing season.”
• “Next year will be better.”
• “I just need to finish my admin certification.”

Someday. Someday. Someday. I could go off on a 5-10 minute side rant about how teachers are forced into delaying important care for themselves as they have to get past this test or that whatever-thing-the-school-has-deemed-super-important-today before even trying to get an appointment.  I will sidestep that whole digression and just say it leads directly to burnout. 

But burnout doesn’t resolve itself. Systemic dysfunction doesn’t magically improve. And your body and your spirit already know what you’re avoiding.  Sometimes it has to break down to get your attention, doesn’t it? 

Like in the movie, that GTO won’t fix itself.

So when Roy says that “someday” is dangerous? He’s not being harsh. He’s being honest. Because the longer we wait, the more we normalize survival over living.

And here’s the kicker: by the end of the movie, when Roy asks June what day it is, she answers, “Someday. It’s Someday, Roy.”

She claims it. She turned the dream into action. And that’s the pivot we all need.

What would your life look like if today was someday?

Let’s talk about June. She restores old cars. Her dad wanted boys, so she grew up in a garage, carrying scrap and fixing engines.

She’s introduced lugging car parts through TSA like it’s the most normal thing in the world. And then? She hoists the scrap metal into the overhead bin herself. No fuss.

Now—does she scream and flip out later? Yes. Does she learn and adapt quickly? Also yes.

Here’s what’s interesting: June constantly acts to protect others. On the train, she jumps in to help Simon. At the hospital, she tries to get Roy out. When she meets Roy’s parents, she realizes they’ve been lied to and immediately shifts to protect them too.

Sound familiar?

Teachers do this every day. You adapt on the fly. You throw yourself between chaos and your students. You show up—even when you’re exhausted—because someone needs to be the grown-up.

June isn’t fragile. She’s underestimated.  Just like so many of you.  And just like so many of you, June has a wealth of abilities and compassion.  As Roy tells her admiringly, “June Havens, you’ve got skills!”

Let’s talk a little more about Roy. Roy is not your typical male action lead. Yes, he’s skilled. Yes, he’s intense. Yes, she should have died many times before the end of the first act. He leaves sticky notes all over June’s apartment (and later in the train car) to remind her to take care of herself and be safe. But Roy is also the king of flexibility.  He accepts things as they are – even when he didn’t think that’s the way they were going to be. At a scene where June is reaching out to former boyfriend Rodney for help (it’s fair, she has been told many different competing things at this point), Roy quickly assesses the situation and hauls her out like a hostage to clear her name. Anyone listening would know he didn’t mean it, I mean, he actually says “If anyone comes after us I’ll kill myself first and then her”  

He adapts on the fly. He doesn’t yell. He doesn’t shame. When things go sideways—like when they’re ambushed on his supposedly secret island—he’s momentarily confused, but then immediately pivots.

He’s calm. He’s respectful. He apologizes when he has to drug her again—because yes, that happens more than once—and while I do not condone this as a dating tactic or a career strategy, the metaphor here is clear:

Roy doesn’t cling to the plan. He moves with the moment.

And then there’s my favorite scene in the movie. They’re pinned down in a warehouse. There are a seemingly endless array of bad guys coming at them with weapons.  He tells June he’s going to lay down cover fire, and they’re going to go on three.

“One…”

She bolts. Arms flailing. Absolute chaos.

When she ducks back, he looks at her and says, “What number did you want to go on?”

And that line is based on a real stunt rehearsal Tom Cruise did for Mission: Impossible. And it’s such a perfect metaphor:

Clarity in chaos matters.

So many teachers try to pivot careers without a plan—or with a plan that doesn’t match their actual needs.

If you're going to move, make sure you’re clear on what number you’re going on.

OKAY BUT THIS MOVIE IS BANANAS and let’s address the tranquilized elephant in the room.

It writes itself into impossible corners and then uses convenient tropes—like drugging June or knocking her out cold—to leap to the next scene. And somehow? It works. It keeps the pace moving. But let’s call it what it is: bananas.

Here’s the thing though—sometimes doesn’t your life feels like that too.

One second you're grading papers. Next second you're in a parent conference that feels like a spy interrogation. Then you're coaching volleyball, unclogging the staff toilet, and maybe covering someone's class on your 30-minute lunch.

We normalize this absurdity.

So maybe the movie isn’t that unrealistic after all.

Also, side note: the title Knight and Day is a play on Roy’s real last name. It’s implied his real name is Roy Knight. Juxtaposition city.

Roy is dark-haired and stoic. June is blonde and emotional. He looks like a villain but turns out to be the hero. She starts as the damsel in distress and ends as the rescuer.

So many beautiful flips in this story.

One of the most touching things is how deeply June starts to see Roy.

She watches him. She learns from him. She pays attention.

By the end, she uses his tactics to rescue him. Even down to his signature hand gestures—the classic "with me, without me" odds of survival. She brings it back to remind him that she’s in. That she’s with him.  And she invites him to make the choice to be with her. And really, that might be one of the things that Roy likes so much about her.  She SEES him when he has spent a career being purposely invisible. 

She remembers. She adapts. And she chooses action.

This matters. Because when you’ve spent years being gaslit (gaslighted? Gaslit?) by a broken system, one of the first things you lose is your ability to trust what you notice.

Teachers are trained observers. You see things others miss. You read a room. You pick up on tone, posture, pacing. You infer what’s really going on based on visual clues alone. That’s not just intuition—it’s a teacher superpower.

Don’t forget to use it for you too.

ACT 6: SAFETY VS. SECURITY

Right after the plane crash, Roy is giving June some important tips:  
 
 “They'll tell you a story about me, about how I am mentally unstable, paranoid... I'm violent and dangerous and it'll all sound very convincing. Here's a few common DIP cue words to listen for: Reassuring words. Words like stabilized, secure, safe. If they say these words particularly with repetition, -... it means they're going to kill you.”

In the movie, that is the first crazy thing that turns out to be true. 

I suspect that’s true out in the world today too. People say it constantly:

• “You’re safe now.”
• “This is a secure location.”

But every time someone says that? Danger follows. And that’s a whole metaphor in itself. How often do teachers jump from one toxic job to another because it just looks more secure?

Here are some common red flags to watch for in toxic work environments to improve your Red Flag Radar:

1. Disrespect or unethical behavior — workplaces that tolerate exclusion, gaslighting, or double standards are dangerous to your mental health.
2. Poor communication — unclear messaging, shifting expectations, or secrets that will destroy trust.
3. Micromanagement and favoritism — inconsistent treatment erodes confidence and morale.
4. Dismissed concerns — when your feedback is ignored or spun back on you, that's not leadership, it's manipulation.
5. High turnover or staff silence — when good people keep leaving or nobody speaks up in meetings, pay attention.
6. Rules over people — rigid policy with no heart is a big red flag.
7. Gossip and exclusion — toxic workplaces breed whispers. People don’t want to  collaborate
8. Physical symptoms — anxiety, headaches, insomnia? Your body’s waving a red flag even if your brain is still rationalizing.

Ask better questions in interviews. Research leadership teams. Trust your gut. Because security isn’t a promise—it’s a pattern.

And I have fallen into that trap too.  I looked at monstrous big flag once upon a time and thought to myself “I can make that better.” Soiler Alert:  I was not able to make that better.  I lasted twice as long as anyone else had in that position, and it still wasn’t very long. 

Security is earned. Built. Proven.

Trust your gut. Ask better questions. And don’t be afraid to walk away from a shiny offer if your gut says, “We’ve seen this movie before.”

Let’s bring it home.

At the end of the film, after all the explosions and betrayals and tranquilizer darts, Roy wakes up in a hospital.

He’s groggy. Confused. He Looks at June. And she tells him not to worry about it. 

 later he wakes up in a car, on a beach. 

“What day is it?”

And she smiles. “Someday, Roy. It’s Someday.”

She turned her dream into action. She rescued him. She reclaimed her story.

So I’ll ask you:

What if today is your Someday?

What if you stopped waiting for your GTO moment and started building your getaway plan?

You’ve given enough. It’s time to build a life that gives back.

If you liked this episode, if this episode hit home, I invite you to:

• Book a free Discovery Call (link in the show notes) or you can just go to Teachersintransition.com/calendar
• Journal: “If today is someday, what would I do?”
• I encourage you to watch or Rewatch Knight and Day just to unwind and relax  

This is the end of our Summer Movie Series.  I am really sad that it’s over.  Fortunately, one of the great things about being one’s own boss is that I can change the plan.  So, I will do one of these movie-framed pods once a month or so. So got a movie you want to me to turn into motivation and career transition advice?  Reach out and let me know! I’m on all the socials now!  I’m game. 
 
 This may be the end of the summer series, but it’s absolutely not the end of your story.

You’ve got options. You’ve got power. And you’ve got me in your corner.

Thanks for listening. Until next time—remember:

The best time to start a career transition was six months ago. The next best time is now. 

Did I mention I’m on all the socials?  Here’s where you can find me:
 Email me at Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
Leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099
Schedule a free Discovery Session with me: https://teachersintransition.com/calendar
Follow me on Bluesky @beyondteaching.bsky.social
Find me on Threads and Instagram  AND TikTok @teachers.in.transition
And even on X at @EduExitStrategy
Follow on Facebook: search for Teachers in Transition and look for our blue phoenix.
The Teachers in Transition Podcast Club on Facebook

I can’t wait to connect with YOU!

That’s the podcast for today! If you liked this podcast, tell a friend, and don’t forget to rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Tune in weekly to Teachers in Transition where we discuss Job Search strategies as well as stress management techniques.  And I want to hear from you!  Please reach out and leave me a message at Vanessa@Teachersintransition.com  You can also leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099. 

I’ll see you here again next week and remember – YOU are amazing!