Real Talk: How One Client Escaped the "Success Trap" and Found Her Career Sweet Spot
I want to tell you about a client of mine—let's call her Jane.
When Jane first came to me, she was the definition of "success" on paper. She was a VP at a major tech firm, she had a corner office (or the Zoom equivalent), a team that respected her, and a salary that put her in the top 1% of earners.
But when we got on our first call, she didn't talk about her wins. She talked about the physical weight she felt sitting on her chest every Sunday night. She talked about the "Golden Handcuffs" that made her feel like she couldn't leave because... well, who walks away from a career like that?
Jane wasn't failing. She was actually succeeding too well at the wrong thing.
She was stuck in what Gay Hendricks calls the Zone of Excellence (ZOE). This is a dangerous place for mid-career professionals because the world rewards you for being there. You are highly skilled, you are competent, and you are reliable. But your soul? Your soul is slowly withering because you aren't in your Zone of Genius (ZOG).
If you’ve ever felt guilty for hating a "good job," this story is for you. Here is exactly how we moved Jane from burnout to her Career Sweet Spot using the Clarity-to-Change Method™.
Phase 1: The Diagnosis (It’s Not Just "Burnout")
Jane thought she just needed a vacation. She thought if she just "managed her stress better," the feeling of emptiness would go away.
But here is the hard truth I told her: You cannot self-care your way out of misalignment.
We had to audit her career against the four pillars of my Career Sweet Spot framework: Passion, Purpose, Skills, and Feasibility.
When we looked at Jane's role, the diagnosis was stark:
Skills: 10/10. She was a master of logistics and process optimization.
Feasibility: 10/10. The market paid her handsomely for it.
Passion: 2/10. She didn't care about the product she was optimizing.
Purpose: 1/10. She felt like she was just making rich shareholders richer.
She was operating on only 50% of the necessary cylinders. No amount of vacation time fixes that math.
Phase 2: The Audit (Finding the Hidden Threads)
We had to find the intersection.
We knew she was good at logistics (Skills).
We knew she needed to make a certain income level (Feasibility).
But we had to dig deep for the Passion and Purpose.
I asked her:
"When was the last time you lost track of time at work? When did you feel 'in flow'?"
She thought for a long time. Then she said:
"It’s not the logistics. It’s when I’m mentoring my junior female staff. When I’m helping them navigate the corporate ladder, organizing the women's leadership lunch, or helping them negotiate their raises. That’s when I feel alive."
Bingo.
Hidden Passion: Mentorship and Community Building.
Hidden Purpose: Empowering women to achieve financial independence.
The "Aha!" moment wasn't that she needed to become a full-time life coach (which didn't meet her Feasibility/Income requirements yet).
It was that she needed to apply her Logistical Genius to her Purpose of Empowering Women.
Phase 3: The Pivot (Building the Bridge)
This is where most people get stuck.
They see the gap between "Tech VP" and "Women's Empowerment" and think they have to quit their job, go back to school, and start at zero.
Absolutely not.
We used the Intentional Change Framework to build a bridge, not a cliff jump.
We redefined her Identity:
She stopped seeing herself as a "Logistics Manager" and started viewing herself as an "Operational Architect for Mission-Driven Companies."We scoped the Market:
Who needs high-level operations and logistics, but in the female empowerment space?
(EdTech, Female-Founded VC firms, Educational Non-Profits.)We executed "Safe Experiments":
Jane didn't quit yet.
Instead, she joined the advisory board of a female-founded startup on the side.
She offered her logistical skills pro-bono to a non-profit helping women enter STEM.
The Result
Six months later, Jane didn't just "find a new job."
She pivoted into a role as the Chief Operating Officer for a rapidly scaling EdTech company focused on upskilling women in developing nations.
She is still using her logistics skills (ZOE/Skills).
She is getting paid a C-Suite salary (Feasibility).
But now, every spreadsheet she optimizes helps a woman get an education (Purpose & Passion).
She is no longer tired.
She is energized.
She is in her Zone of Genius.
Your Takeaway
If you are sitting in a "good job" feeling miserable, stop waiting for it to get better. It won't.
You don't need to burn your life down to fix it.
You need to audit where you are, identify your missing pillars, and build a strategic bridge to the work you were actually meant to do.
You are not too old, and it is not too late.
The world needs what only you can offer.
