Career change: The not-so-glamorous trap of meaning and authenticity
Find your values. Change your life. Do something meaningful. Career reinvention has become the modern fairytale . But what if this whole narrative was actually a career change trap in disguise ?
Marguerite had had it. Done of soul-sucking Teams meetings, enough of pretending to forget her badge. Done with those coffee breaks where people whisper sweet nothings about tax optimization like it’s foreplay. She craved something real. Something meaningful. Something alive. Joy, too, while we’re at it. Forget the paycheck and the health insurance — she wanted out. What she didn’t expect was that career change could become a trap in itself.
Marguerite became a collective intelligence facilitator. Yes, that’s a thing. She helps people “think better together.” Sounds vague? Slap on a sleek visual identity and a few Brené Brown* quotes on LinkedIn and voilà — instant credibility.
On paper, it’s radiant. In real life? Let’s just say it’s… more nuanced.
Alignment is exhausting: Sincerity as a full-time performance
At first, Marguerite was all in. Training, posture, storytelling — she mastered the holy trinity. She built her website, picked a palette that could be named “sun-warmed clay” and “emotional mint.” She posted selfies where her eyes whispered “meaning,” and she threw around keywords like alignment, impact, authenticity — the sleek language of the post-corporate, sofa-based revolution.
Then… silence. No more LinkedIn updates. No more clients.Her body finally gave out and forced her to stop. Anxiety ate away at her while she waited for late payments. She kept putting off sales calls, tired and scared. And every time she said her price, she felt a knot in her stomach, like she was giving away part of herself.
Why? Because the myth of the successful career pivot is a gentle scam. It sells the idea that connecting to your values is enough to attract clients. It forgets that even when you’re aligned, you still have to sell, show up, face uncertainty, and pretend you’re confident while you’re actually terrified. And alignment quickly becomes just another performance. A tightrope act locked in a double bind: “Be spontaneous but compelling.” “Be vulnerable but polished.” “Shine — but stay humble.”
It’s exhausting — like hula-hooping in stilettos on a highwire
The career change trap: When someone else’s story becomes your script
Marguerite thought she was breaking free. In reality, she was stepping into yet another pre-written script. Not hers — someone else’s. Saturated with inspiring content — LinkedIn posts, TEDx talks, training modules, success stories — she’d internalized these narratives as if they were her own. These borrowed stories shaped her idea of work, success, and purpose.
But the map is not the territory. These glossy templates, as seductive as they may be, are merely simplified, cropped, sometimes wildly inaccurate representations of what actually is. They rarely make room for missteps, second thoughts, or turning back.
Not only had Marguerite swapped a dull routine for a prefabricated dream, but she was now realizing that what she thought she had chosen was actually just a mirage in a different disguise.
Reality never liked your LinkedIn post anyway
Reality — that killjoy — didn’t get the memo. Her body finally gave out and slammed the emergency brake. Anxiety gnawed away as payments kept getting delayed. Calls to sell were postponed—again and again—drained by fear or sheer exhaustion. And every time she mentioned her price, a knot tightened in her stomach, as if selling a piece of herself.
Marguerite had believed in her mission — restoring connection, creating meaning, contributing. But now? She’s not even sure if it was a calling or just a beautiful illusion. That doubt lingers like static: What if this was just a pretty wrapper for emptiness?
She finally broke down and took a survival job. Why ? Because she was broke, exhausted from crying over Trello and done pretending she had it all together. Going back to employment wasn’t defeat — it was survival. Maybe even clarity. A decision that all the self-help jargon can only frame as “failure.”
And yet, maybe that was the first truly free act in her entire inner circus.
Can you succeed without acting? Can you be bold without betraying yourself?
Maybe one day Marguerite will pick that project back up — or start something new. But next time, she’ll do it with her eyes open. No more illusions about what reinvention means. She’ll account for the economic and emotional cost.
Success doesn’t have to mean becoming a LinkedIn-certified consultant with polished smiles and perfect vulnerability. She’ll move at her own pace, without apologizing for deviating from someone else’s blueprint.
Because alignment is not a straight line. It’s a fragile, ever-shifting balance between self, ghosts, and the real world. And wanting to change your life shouldn’t be a grandiose rebellion — it should be a sober decision to confront reality, in all its radiant and gritty texture.
The Career Change Trap: Freedom Begins Where the Script Ends
Here it is. This is Marguerite’s story: not a LinkedIn epic, not a success story.
It’s a real story — with stumbles, backtracks, and wake-ups.
Told by a narrator who’s a bit snarky, but deeply moved.
Because deep down, Marguerite might be me.
Might be you.
Someone who doubts. Hesitates. But keeps moving anyway.
*Who’s Brené Brown? She’s the American academic who turned shame into a business model and vulnerability into a marketing hook. She’s to career change what Paulo Coelho is to airport bookshops: omnipresent, vaguely irritating, but handy when you need something to quote.
