A title can disappear overnight, but the skills beneath it don’t. Three questions to identify the strengths that carry over to whatever comes next.

I nearly passed out at work before I admitted something was wrong. It wasn’t that I didn’t recognize my symptoms were serious. It was that leaving my career felt more dangerous than the health problems I was struggling with.

That’s the part of the story I used to leave out, because it was the hardest to admit: My body was telling me to stop, and I kept ignoring it because I had built my whole identity around being unstoppable and around my role as an occupational therapist (OT). I had studied and trained extensively to become a licensed OT. I had formed close friendships with colleagues. I relied on the income. And I quietly believed that being an OT was what made me valuable. Eventually, my health declined further, and the decision I couldn’t make was made for me: I was forced to retire due to illness.

At first, I grieved what was. I felt anxious about the sudden change in our family’s finances, the disruption to our routines, and the loss of my identity without the title of “occupational therapist.” I expected those feelings. What I didn’t expect was relief.

That relief unsettled me more than my diagnoses had. If working as an OT was truly my purpose, why did losing it feel like setting something down? Why did I feel a new sense of freedom?

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