Live Your Life. Not Someone Else's.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard of the “Great Resignation”. Satya Nadella and Ryan Roslansky say that a more appropriate phrase might be the “Great Reshuffle” because they see that people are not just leaving their jobs, they are fundamentally re-evaluating their lives and careers. They are rethinking their values and priorities and redefining what success means to them.

My life is a cautionary tale – when I graduated from high school I wanted to major in psychology but my family had no funds to pay for college. Fortunately I was able to earn a full academic scholarship, but the catch was that I had to major in a technical or engineering discipline. I chose computer science, graduated from college and joined a large tech company as a software engineer. I was an unenthusiastic engineer, but I plowed on. I didn’t want to “waste” my computer science education. Over the next 20 years, I got an MBA and did lots of different things, but nothing really lit me up.

About 8 years ago, I started working with global mid-career professionals at MIT. Gee, I really loved it. I got certified in leadership coaching so I could work with them more deeply and guess what I am studying now that really informs my coaching? Psychology and neuroscience! That was my passion when I was 18 and it is my passion still. I knew that but never honored it. It seemed too hard and scary to leave my "investment" in time and education behind. But that investment was holding me back from what I wanted - it was not moving me closer to a profession I loved. Ignoring my talent and passion for something I loved cost me many years.

I think that most of us already know what we truly want, deep down. Sometimes we are afraid to admit it, embrace it or act on it. Maybe we follow someone else’s idea of success or never really stop to think about what a successful life looks like for ourselves. I invite you to take a step back and think about what truly matters to you. What values do you want to honor? What do you need to live a meaningful life? What are nice-to-haves and which are non-negotiable? Live YOUR life, not someone else's.

Chart your course to create a life that deeply fulfills you. Take a deep breath, gather your courage and go for it. But don’t take as long as I did to make that leap!