Structure without soul produces compliance, not conviction. It kills the whisper of calling and replaces it with checklists. The great irony is that it began with good intent — to make work easier, fairer, clearer.
Sure, it probably cost me my job, my position, my vision for what could have been… but it gave me something better: peace, clarity, and a spark.
Burnout isn’t just “being tired.” It’s a full-scale operational failure of the mind, body, and soul — a quiet hemorrhaging of energy, clarity, purpose, and presence.
Real family doesn’t come with fine print. Real belonging doesn’t require self-erasure. And real identity doesn’t crumble when a system stops clapping.
Corporate America has its own gospel. It preaches early mornings, late nights, and just one more email. It's the sanctification of schedules, Slack messages, meetings, and working lunches. It baptizes burnout as ambition. It calls exhaustion excellence.
Structure, for me, is not the enemy. It is the scaffolding that allows me to build calm in the storm. I’ve spent the last several years of my career inside the corporate machine.