The Should That Isn't Yours — A Story of Walking Away and Building on Your Own Terms

Everybody has a version of the path they were supposed to take. The degree, the company, the title, the ladder. Most people follow it long enough to realize it was never actually theirs — and then stay anyway.This episode is Cat's account of what happens when you stop. Not the inspirational version of that story — the actual one. Three months of swinging between hyper-focus and couch rot. A network that needed rebuilding from scratch. The specific moment of realizing that saying yes to everything that came her way was just a more self-directed version of the same problem she'd left. Going slow when every instinct said move. Building a North Star big enough to navigate from when the day-to-day got loud.The difference between a should and a what if isn't always obvious in the moment. Knowing which one is driving a decision is the skill nobody teaches you — and the one that determines whether what you're building is actually yours.If this is the conversation you've been needing to have, start here. thinkvoen.comBonus materials for this and other episodes on Substack. substack.com/@thestartlisteningpodcastTOPIC AND GUEST SUGGESTIONS:startlisteningpodcast.com/#suggest-a-guestThis episode was produced by Cat Fincun and VOEN Consulting. It was edited by Angelina Gurrola.