My gut knew before I did. Long before I could admit anything was wrong, my body was already telling me through bloating, exhaustion and tension I explained away as stress. This is what I learned when I finally stopped treating the symptoms and started asking what they were symptoms of.

The career is solid, the bills get paid, and people think you have it together. Yet underneath it all there's a quiet flatness you can't explain. Being successful but unhappy isn't ingratitude, and it isn't a success problem. It's a disconnection problem.

Your life probably looks fine from the outside. You're functioning, paying the bills, showing up for everyone. But functioning is not the same as living. This is your mid-year gut check: if you keep going exactly as you are, where will you be one year from now?