I spent 20 years as a corporate executive. Then they eliminated my position in a 15-minute phone call. This is what happens when the title disappears — and you have to figure out who's actually underneath it

I liked the job. I liked the stability. I liked being important. I wasn't miserable.
Something in me just knew I wasn't being the full me. 
The gut signal everyone talks about — that inner knowing — it wasn't telling me something was wrong. It was telling me something was missing. Not missing from the job. Missing from me.
So can you be yourself and make a living? "Quit your job and follow your passion" is bumper-sticker horsesh!t. The real answer is messier. Some people can reshape the container. Some people need a different one. Some people need to build their own. And some people — like me — get forced into the question by a fifteen-minute phone call and have to figure it out in real time, on camera, without a business plan.

I don't have the answer yet. But I think just asking it — out loud, honestly — is the first act of listening to your own signal again.

Topics covered: career identity crisis, losing yourself in your job, what happens after a layoff, professional identity vs personal identity, rebuilding after corporate career, the myth of "bring your whole self to work"