The Mistake That Burnt Me Out: Staying Too Long Where I Didn’t Belong
6/4/20264 min
Cory Koryczan opens up about the career mistake that nearly broke her.
Staying too long in a role that no longer fit. She’d built her identity around someone else’s business and clung to safety until it led to burnout. In this episode, Cory talks about the cost of over-loyalty, the fear that kept her stuck, and how she rebuilt her courage to finally walk away. She also shares a second big lesson from returning to work after maternity leave.
Why confidence doesn’t just snap back and how discomfort became her best teacher. It’s honest, raw, and packed with lessons for anyone who’s ever ignored their gut to “play it safe.”
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Norton· Host0:00
Is there anything in your career that you've done or learnt from that you think would be worth sharing with, with people on here? It's a cathartic experience.
Claire· Guest0:07
Yeah.
Chris Norton· Host0:07
It's a friendly environment, Claire.
Claire· Guest0:08
[laughs] Thank you, Chris. Well, I've made lots of mistakes over the years. But as somebody who loves to learn, I guess that's, you know, I see mistakes as once I've got over the, the discomfort, the, the extreme discomfort, um, I look for what's the learning here, and I think that's really key. That, that one that I shared a few minutes ago around attaching my identity to others' businesses was, was probably one of the most profound experiences in terms of mistakes, because I stayed somewhere longer than I should have done, and it, it cost me a lot in terms of, you know, burnout, overcompensating, you know, lots of different things I was trying to do in order to sort of stay where I was and stay, hold on, like, to that safety, um, because I wasn't brave enough actually to go and do what I really wanted to do at that time. And yeah, and so, so much of what I do now is leaning into the courage, because I've learnt the lesson the hard way, uh, in terms of, um, playing it safe and, and keeping in the status quo bias