A Slow Breakup With Corporate Life

I came across something interesting the other day. It was a quote on Instagram.

Now, those of you who follow me on there know that I am the queen of reposting memes, so this should not come as a shock. I was deep in memeland when I found something that actually stopped me in my tracks.

This was not one of the funny ones my algorithm usually launches directly into my face. This one hit a little closer to home than I would care to admit.

“When people mistake confidence for competence, they end up valuing style over substance. The most charismatic person in the group is the most likely to get away with a flawed argument. The most polished speaker in the room is the most likely to get away with being unprepared.”

Jeez.

Confident, smooth talking people are often promoted or viewed as leaders simply because they know how to command attention. Meanwhile, the quieter people in the room are usually the ones actually observing, thinking critically, and keeping things running behind the scenes.

I see this every single day in the corporate world and quite frankly, I think women experience this a lot.

So, what is an introvert supposed to do?

Yes, you read that correctly. I am very much an introvert professionally. That probably surprises some people because I can be a bit much at times (yeah, I admit it), but at work I have always been more of a quiet observer. I have never felt the need to suck the air out of the room just to prove I belong there.

I have watched incredibly qualified women get passed over simply because they were not the loudest person in the meeting. Sometimes even by other women. That part stings a little.

But I also think things are starting to shift, and I think it is always inevitable.

People are getting tired of performance. Tired of buzzwords. Tired of polished LinkedIn posts that somehow say absolutely nothing while using fourteen paragraphs to say it. Maybe because of AI- everyone is saying the same damn things.

My god, I hate LinkedIn.

There is power in the pause. There is strength in the silence. There is a draw to people who do not need to dominate every conversation to validate themselves. Quiet competence may not always get immediate attention, but over time, substance becomes harder to ignore.

The older I get, the more I realize I do not want to climb the ladder the same way everyone else does, and honestly, sometimes I do not even know what ladder I am even climbing anymore.

I am going to be 40 this year, which feels both dramatic and deeply offensive because I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up.

Talking to people about washing their hands? Explaining why sanitizer works for some things and not others? Vetting massive vendors and navigating legal compliance conversations? Crushing someone’s dream of wearing seventeen bracelets while making sandwiches? I can promise you this was not part of the vision when I was younger.

I did not go to college thinking, “Someday I hope I become emotionally invested in temperature logs.”

Yet here we are.

And the thing is, it is not like I have hated my career.

On paper, it has actually been pretty fulfilling. I have won awards, I am certified out the ass, and I was internationally recognized for food safety work. I know what I am doing. I worked incredibly hard to build credibility in my field.

From the outside looking in, it probably seems like I should feel pretty darn settled.

But success and alignment are not always the same thing.

And that really isn’t sitting right with me lately. So many of us end up building lives around obligations instead of alignment. We get conditioned to believe we should just be grateful to have stable jobs, benefits, meetings, spreadsheets, and a paycheck every two weeks while slowly feeling ourselves disconnect from who we actually are.

I told my therapist the other day that meetings are slowly sucking the life out of me.

Microsoft Teams feels like a séance circle from hell.

“Can you hear me? Is Lindsey with us today? Lindsey, give us a sign if you’re with us!”

slowly raises middle finger at blacked out and muted camera

The scary thing is how normal this all becomes.

That’s the realization that has been hitting me VERY hard lately.
We are replaceable in the corporate world.
We are not replaceable to our loved ones.

That perspective is a huge part of why I started my health coaching business in the first place. Not because I had some perfect business plan or entrepreneurial roadmap, but because I wanted to create another option for myself. Something that felt meaningful. Something that felt like mine.

Have I fully taken the leap? Absolutely not. I still have every excuse in the world-
I work full time, I am in graduate school, I have no clue how to scale a business, I am still mildly convinced I could accidentally commit tax fraud at any moment because New York makes everything unnecessarily confusing.

But now I’m thinking that maybe it does not have to happen all at once. Maybe fulfillment is built in smaller moments, kind of like getting in shape is built on consistent, daily workouts.

Maybe it starts with giving fifteen intentional minutes a day to something that matters to you instead of waiting for the perfect time to completely reinvent your life.

So that’s where I am going with this.

Fifteen minutes a day toward my business. Writing. Creating meal plans. Building something slowly and imperfectly instead of endlessly overthinking it. No, I am not going to cold call you guys asking if you want to be clients, relax.

I am just thinking of meaningful movement toward a life that feels more aligned, more peaceful, and a whole lot more mine that can lead to someday, hopefully, significantly fewer Teams meetings.

Baby steps, I think they call it. Not because I have it all figured out, but because I know I owe it to myself to at least try.

We spend so much of our lives pouring ourselves into jobs that would replace us in a week if we disappeared tomorrow. Meanwhile, the people we love get whatever exhausted version of us is left at the end of the day.

I do not want that anymore.

I want more alignment, more freedom, more peace, more purpose. This is part of getting on the path to living fully and being well.

Because good coaches need to coach themselves, too.