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I used to wake up every morning with a weight in my chest.
It wasn’t the alarm. It wasn’t even the emails waiting for me.
It was the sinking realization that I’d have to go through another day pretending I liked what I did.
I wasn’t ungrateful — I had a decent job, steady income, and a career I had worked hard for.
But deep down, I felt…empty.
My work drained me instead of energizing me. I was constantly anxious, sprinting to keep up, afraid that I’d fall behind, or worse - be exposed as someone who didn’t really belong.
I’d come home exhausted. My husband would try to talk, and I’d snap.
Not because I was angry at him, but because I was tired of everything.
And then the guilt would eat me alive.
I used to be passionate, full of ideas. I had dreams.
Now, I was a shell of that woman — stuck in a job that looked good on paper but felt completely wrong inside.
It all came to a head one Sunday evening.
We were having dinner, and my husband casually asked
“What do you see yourself doing in five years?”
I laughed. But not the funny kind. The kind that turns into tears.
“I don’t know," I told him. “I honestly don’t know what I want anymore.”
I think that’s when it hit me
And I had no idea how to change that.
A few days after that dinner, my husband came up to me with his phone.
“I found something that might help," he said gently. “It’s a career test — maybe it could give you some clarity.”
What could a test tell me that I don’t already know?
But something in me clicked — maybe curiosity, maybe desperation.
So I took the quiz.
And when I saw the results, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time - clarity.
It was one of those tests that didn’t just throw random job titles at you, but actually looked at how your personality traits, interests, and strengths fit into different career paths.
The results didn’t just give me some vague “you should be a creative type” answer.
It broke down my core personality traits — how I process information, what drains me, what energizes me, and where my natural motivation comes from.
It explained why I felt so disconnected at work.
Apparently, I had spent years operating in a high-stress, competitive environment designed for a completely different type of thinker.
My job required constant fire-fighting and micromanagement — when what I actually thrive in is deep focus, empathy, and creative autonomy.
The test suggested a few potential paths I had never seriously considered.
Counseling? Educational design? Coaching?
To be honest, I laughed at first. I thought - This is cute, but unrealistic.
But then I read the deeper explanation behind the suggestions — and something clicked.
I wasn’t broken. I was just misaligned.
I didn’t quit my job overnight.
I started slow.
I found a couple blogs that wrote about my suggested careers.
I also remember watching Laura Sheehan’s inspiring TedX talk about career changes, which encouraged me even more.
And I also joined a couple forums, one of them was on Reddit r/findapath where people go through different career challenges and I felt like I wasn’t going through this alone.
The more I explored, the more I saw a version of myself I hadn’t met in years:
excited, curious, alive.
Six months later, I found myself joining a small nonprofit as a program coordinator — helping organize community projects that genuinely make a difference.
I didn’t choose it for the money and It’s not always easy, but it’s deeply fulfilling, and it lets me work in a way that feels true to who I am.
I never thought a career test would be the catalyst, but it was.
It didn’t just give me direction — it gave me permission.
I wasn’t snapping at my husband anymore.
We started having real conversations again — not just venting about our jobs or arguing about laundry.
We took a weekend trip together.
We cooked dinners again.
We laughed.
He told me, “You’re glowing lately.” And I didn’t even realize how much I had dulled myself down.
Even my health improved. I slept better. I stopped stress-eating. I started showing up differently in every part of my life.
If you’re exhausted, questioning your career, or just feel like you’ve lost yourself somewhere along the way…
I get it. I’ve been there.
You don’t have to burn everything down overnight.
Sometimes all it takes is one small, honest step in the right direction.
For me, that step was the career test.
It opened a door for me that I didn’t even know existed.
It might just be the beginning of everything you’ve been waiting for.
