I have never followed the conventional path. I’ve always questioned things. I turned down a career in banking to study psychology because I wanted to understand people, not just get a “good job”. Much to my own surprise, I graduated with first class honours but once again, the traditional career routes didn’t appeal.

Eventually I discovered coaching. It felt like this was what I was meant to do, long before it was seen as a proper career. But back then I lacked the confidence to build a business and when the financial crash hit, I found myself in that uncomfortable place of knowing what I wanted but not knowing how to make it work.

Teaching was offered to me and, despite consistently saying I would never go into it, having watched many teacher friends struggle with burnout, I stepped in with energy and commitment. I threw myself into it completely, studied more, completed yet more qualifications and followed the traditional career route. I was good at it, dedicated and successful, but I was trying to make a square peg fit a round hole.

For a while, I had enough freedom to bring coaching and my unconventional style into the classroom. I challenged systems, pushed boundaries and insisted every teacher needed a coach. But when management changed and that freedom disappeared, I no longer had the autonomy to make the burnout bearable. I left teaching disillusioned, utterly diminished but determined to build a business and life that worked for me.

Rebuilding my health required me to examine what had happened. How had I crashed and burned so spectacularly whilst prioritising my self-care? Leaving gave me the space to see that I had been trying to choose between freedom and success for most of my life.

For years, I chose freedom. I raised my children as my first career and built a life around them whilst having adventures and choosing to forgo a career. I wasn’t against success. I just didn’t see a version of it that felt appealing. The people at the top of the ladder looked exhausted and trapped. Their success did not look like something I wanted.

Then something shifted. I began pushing myself hard, physically and mentally, trying to prove something through effort and endurance. Finishing my psychology degree and committing fully to teaching marked the point where I chose traditional success over freedom. And when that path broke me rather than fulfilled me, I finally understood what I had been searching for all along.

Leaving teaching was not just about escaping burnout. It was about refusing the idea that exhaustion is the price of success. I still wanted more from life, but I wanted it to feel good on the inside as well as look good on the outside. So I began experimenting with a different way of living and working.

At first, the focus was simple. To recover my energy and my sense of self. I stopped pushing through and started listening inwards. Through some training with a Zen master I learned to meet overwhelm differently and to treat my emotions as guidance rather than problems to fix. Slowly, ease returned. Then clarity. Then confidence.

Once I had ease, I wanted more again, not more pressure, but more achievement - I wanted work that fulfilled me and supported me. Instead of pushing through challenges, I learned how to grow through them. Having suffered deeply through my burnout, I was no longer available for the traditional overwhelm into exhaustion cycle. But as I still wanted to achieve a lot I needed a new way. This way became The Gentle Rebellion - gently (without fierceness and draining my energy taking a stand against the grain) rebelliously (tapping into my own natural rebellious nature and a sense of playfulness). Because how we do things matters - and I want to enjoy the adventure, not just postpone my life until I reach some far off destination.

I want both: focus and satisfaction in my work so I can achieve what I set out to achieve and have the well-paid meaningful work that nourishes and supports me AND the ability to switch off, laugh easily and be present to my life outside of work. Exploring how to do this and sharing my stories and findings along the way is what I do.

Today, my work is about helping people stop choosing between freedom and success and start allowing both. It is about trusting yourself, welcoming all of life’s experiences and growing into the next version of who you are becoming.