Being True to Yourself

Have you ever had this kind of conversation with yourself?

Outer voice: I’m not feeling fulfilled. Something’s missing.

Inner voice: I’m burned out — or maybe just misaligned. The best parts of me aren’t coming alive at work anymore.

Others: But you can’t leave until you have another job lined up.

Inner voice:  No. I’m not listening to that this time. I know what’s right for me.

That’s the conversation I imagine playing out in Meg McKeen’s mind as she shared her story with me — the leap from a secure corporate insurance role to founding her own consulting company and, eventually, becoming a digital nomad.

As Meg told it, the signs were there long before she acted:

I was experiencing burnout, though I didn’t recognize it at the time — it was really more about misalignment. Over time, I realized the best parts of me weren’t the parts I was using at work every day.

Leaving without another job lined up was, she said, “one of the most uncharacteristic things” she’d ever done — but also the most freeing.

I think I got tired of other people making decisions for me when I already had all the information I needed to know what was right.

Since then, she’s been on a journey of rediscovery — as an independent woman, an independent thinker, and a leader building her own path:

The last fifteen years have been full of discovery, trial and error — two steps forward, one step back.

Pull up a chair and get inspired by our conversation.

Your Moment of Zen: What uncharacteristic/unexpected move did you make in your career or your life, when you shrugged off the conventional wisdom?